I have been looking for a narrow set of aluminum slots (Ansen Sprints or similar) 15x4 for the front of my '56 chevy project for some time with no luck. Was doing some browsing today and seen that US Mags is offering new aluminum slots and they have a 15x5 with 2.50 backspacing. I am thinking the would look like a narrow frontrunner as long as I put a skinny tire on it. But I am afraid they might look to wide. Any opinions? Anybody tried them? http://www.summitracing.com/parts/usm-u10115506125/overview/
I haven't tried them but if it is any consolation I am running a pair of 15x5 Ansens on my A sedan. You don't really want a wheel tire combo much narrower then 5" on full bodied car. A 5.00x15 tire on a '56 Chevy is going to look pretty miniscule.
I have a set on my 57 suburban right now. They seem to work ok. they use conical lug nuts, not shank type. The wheels are made in China. They come polished. I got the 5" skinnys up front because a friend bought them for his Plymouth, but accidentally got the wrong bolt pattern...so I got them at a good price. I got the rears to match, they are available in a width and offset that works on this truck, I can't find old ones that will fit properly because the offset is wrong. As far as using them as a narrow front runner...should work ok. I have 4.5" wide old generic slots on the front of my Chevy II, with a 6.00-15 tire, they're almost too narrow, and the car is light. A slightly wider bias on a 5" wheel would look fine. or run a 165 radial.
Back in the later '60s and earlier '70s I can 6.00s on the front of my lighter full bodied cars and up 7.00s on a heavier car. Most of what I owned drove me to work and to the pits to race on weekends. A really skinny tire on a fat car is not what you want to run on the street and if you are building a serious strip only car you are looking for the lightest wheel that you can find tat will still hold your car up. I got a friend that runs these on a '71 Charger they are 28x7.50x15 the tread width is 5.00. He drives it on the street but not every day. They seem to hold up real well and will work on a wheel that is 3.5 to 6.5. M/T Sportsman
Thanks Squirrel and Pnb for your insights. I realize that the narrow wheel is not the best for street driving, but man I love that narrow look and have been running other vehicles with narrow wheels with no adverse affects for years. Here are those '90's tires (as squirrel called them) on my old man's 55 with 15x4 cragars. I think I have decided that the 15x5 indys are going to have too much dish/offset and not give me that narrow look I love. Here is my 56 with wheels I normally run on an o/t car (and I know that the rwl are o/t.) These front wheels are 15x4 and have a shorter version of that M/T sportsman. I think I am going to end up running these on the '56 and finding something else for the o/t car.
Phttttt well they were just on a dodge. The US wheels have always had a lot of dish. My Ansens have almost zero dish whish is important because they are going on a car that will eventually be a fender car and my axle is a little wider than the original. Ansens are really not hard to come by, the old originals are a little pricey as a rule but they continued to make them about forever. You can even come by the old ones cheap enough because most fellas don't know what they got. Oh that's a US Indy with the slick on it.
The Jalopy Journal
