That question again - rear tyres on a '67

[autohausdolby]

It's a long time since I've had to think about this so I can't remember the ins and outs. I've got a stock US spec '67 landing in the UK in September. I've ordered a set of Flat 4 BRMs from Pierside for it but I can't decide what rear tyre size to go for, and I don't really want to be changing to short axles straight away if I can avoid it as I have gearbox/axle plans for later on.

What are people's thoughts? I think last time I used 205/65 15s but that was on a short axle car.

[henk]

i have 215/65 tyre's on my car with the '67 axles.
i have fuchs wheels on my car,think the ET will have an effect on it as well if it rubs or not.

henk!!!

[leec]

Never done it on a 67 axle length car but 185/70's can look great. I run these on my oval.
Lee

[Zach Gomulka]

My buddy tried 215's with BRM's on his 67, didn't come close to fitting. He had to swap to short axles.

[j-f]

I was wondering if tires like 195/65/15 rear and 175/65/15 front could look good on a bug? They are pretty close in diameter as the classic 205/65/15 and 145/80/15 but are much easier to find and cheaper!

[Donny B.]

The tire isn't the problem. It's the wheels.  It will require short axles if you use the BRMs.

[thehanz DVK]

With the long axels and normal flat 4 brm you can go with 185. , with the 6.5 flat 4 brm you can go up to 215...i have tried and it worked

[Jim Ratto]

I ran 205/65 on F4 BRM with 67 axles about 15 years ago and they fit flush with fender. I would suggest 195/65 though. I ran 195/65 Goodyear Eagle GT on my car and aside from wear, was very happy with handling, especially in the wet. I recently went to a Pirelli and the wet handling is poor compared to Eagle GT's

[Neil Davies]

Matt, I've got your old Flat Four BRMs on my car with stock '67 axles, and the same 205/65 Dunlops you had. One side fits pretty much perfectly but the other side sticks out by 10-15mm, probably due to the repro wings (a friend had the same issues on her car). Grip in the wet is marginal, so I'll probably go for a 195 but a better one when these need changing.

[benlawrence]

Never done it on a 67 axle length car but 185/70's can look great. I run these on my oval.
Lee

i run 185 70 van radials, they are great.

[autohausdolby]

I'm not super worried about wet weather handling at the moment as the bottom of the car looks like it's been sand blasted to bare metal by the dessert, so it won't be going anywhere wet until the shell's been off



I may well go a little narrower then and try for 195/65. I don't want to carry huge amounts of rubber especially, that blue '67 looked perfect on relatively skinny rears.



I have to say I do love the look of the Wide O ovals though

[autohausdolby]

Or maybe even the 185/70s that Leec suggested - anybody got a photo?

[streetvw]

185x70



same car  same wheels but with I think 165 Goodyear's

[autohausdolby]

I've always loved that car - I parked next to it one year at Action (I think), then it was in the next month's Volksworld.

[Cheesepanzer]

^^^^ That's a great looking '67.  Nice stance and I dig the old-school merged quiet-pack mufflers.  They are tucked up and angled in that classic hot rod vw look.

[Russell]

The tire isn't the problem. It's the wheels.  It will require short axles if you use the BRMs.

I agree with this, the tyres are not the problem, however a 185 at the back and a 155 at the front looks perfect in cal look mode and still stops

Russell

[Donny B.]

I agree with this, the tyres are not the problem, however a 185 at the back and a 155 at the front looks perfect in cal look mode and still stops

I agree with Russell.  the 185/155 combination is great.  That's what I had when I assembled my car back in 1995 alas the are much harder to find here in the states.  Back then I was able to get Riken 185x70 tires for cheap money, but now I can't find them.  The 155s went the way of the dodo as well.  I am currently running 195x65 on the back of my '66 and they are nice.  I am not one that is into the biggest tire I can fit.  Oh well...

[Steve67]

I am running 185/80 R15 Vredestein on widened stock rims (5,5 ET22)
I like the look, there is not much space left in the fender 

best regards
Steve

[Jim Ratto]

Steve67 can you post more pictures of your car? Looks cool

[Steve67]

thanks Jim, I will shoot some pics of how she looks now tomorrow...

[RichardinNZ]

Looking forward to the photos Steve.  Going to get some stock rims widened for my '58 and not sure whether to go 5 or 5 1/2 inch....my thinking is that 185/80 is ok on the 5 inch rim but 5 1/2 will allow me to go to 185/80 or 205/70.  Any thoughts?
Thanks
Richard

Whoops, re-read this... Ought to start my own thread not hijack this one with questions relating to a '58

[cedric]

I run wide oval under 67 and up brm and they are in the stock fender en long axels

[Steve67]

here are a few pics,  the funny right exhaust pipe is due to the lambda sensor I am currently running to jet the carbs
As already mentioned the wheels in the back are 5,5 with 185/80. In the front I am running 4 inch wheels with 145/80 Firestones.
The engine is a 1385 ccm single port with dual Solex carburators and Engle W110 cam shaft. Next thing on my list is definitely a nice muffler(don't know what to choose so far) and T-bars...




Best regards
Steve
@ RichardinNZ; I agree with you regarding tires sizes and would go for the 5,5.

[Jim Ratto]

Love your car!

[lawrence]

Nice car, Steve. I think a single quiet pack would look great on your car. Keep the bumpers. They fit the overall look of your car very well.

[RichardinNZ]

Yes...nice car.  Must get those wider wheels and 185/80s for mine!
Richard

[spillo491]

Steve, is your front beam narrowed ?

[hotrodsurplus]

Here's food for thought.

Beetles are very sensitive to tire diameter, especially in the rear. Stock height or slightly taller almost always looks better than shorter.

The stock diameter (5.60-15) is 25.75". The diameter of the popular radial conversion (165R15) is 25.4 to 25.6 which looks a touch short if you're used to seeing Beetles in their native form.

The 205/65R15 is 25.5 inches tall which looks adequate.
The 185/70R15 tire is 25.2 which starts to look short. 
The 195/65R15 tire is a scanty 24.9 inches tall and looks quite short unless the car has been lowered quite a bit (it leaves a bigger gap between the tire and wheel arch). That's not very true to the Cal Look form though.

On the other hand...
The 215/65R15 is about 26 inches tall and fills the wells with the rearend set at about a degree negative camber (classic Cal Look stance).
The 185/80R15 is about 26.7 inches tall which looks quite good even if a little big.
The 185R15 is about 26.95 which sort of pushes the limits.

I have a friend who ran the 6.5" BRMs and 215/65s. The 6.5" wheels actually narrow the track width and should reduce fender-clearance issues; however, his tires still rubbed the fenders (which were OEM VW by the way). The short axles made the fit perfect.

The fit would've been perfect with long axles and 185/70 but they always looked a bit smallish to me. The 195/70R15 is a perfect size but a less-than-ideal tire. It's made for vans so it's heavy and has a relatively clunky rain-tire tread.

[Erlend / bug66]

I have long/long axles, and 215/65 on 5,5" et30 rims fits nicely. It's lowered 5 and 5 clicks.

[hotrodsurplus]

I have long/long axles, and 215/65 on 5,5" et30 rims fits nicely. It's lowered 5 and 5 clicks.

That appears to have four-lug brakes. Bear in mind that four-lug and five-lug brakes have different wheel-mounting offsets. The four-lug drums increase the distance between the wheel-mounting surfaces. Volkswagen maintained the same wheel track by making the four-lug wheel with more positive offset. Case in point, the '66 and '67 Beetle wheels have a 29mm positive offset whereas the '68 Beetle wheel has a 45mm offset yet the track width did not change from '67 to '68.

So you can't use a four-lug car for a reliable reference unless you account for the greater wheel-to-wheel mounting width.