Was thinking about my garaged Hellcat today while daydreaming of warmer weather. As I followed this car
![Land vehicle Vehicle Car Tire Automotive tire]()
I started to wonder, exactly why are the tires so skinny on our cars?
Tire question
-
Hey Everyone! Vote for the Site Favourite HOTM winner for the year of 2022 HERE!
1 - 17 of 17 Posts
It would be interesting to hear the reasoning from the Dodge engineer(s) responsible on why they went with the 275 in the rear. I gotta think there was a reason....
That's exactly what I was thinking. I just want to find out the reason.
Who knows... It could even be something silly like they wanted to use an off the shelf tire (rather than a specially developed one like some cars have) or maybe a price point (face it every project has a budget) for the bean counters. Whatever the reason it would be interesting to know what it is...
Just had another thought. Maybe they wanted a size that is readily available and relatively speaking inexpensive because they figured regardless of size most Hellcat owners would need new rear tires every 2 to 5K because of all the burnouts!
Joined
·
13,620 Posts
I thought about that. I also thought that it might have to do with all the shizzy complaints about the older SRTs having larger back tires than front and rotation and other issues??? Really, they built us a daily driving race car and I guess they had to figure out where the daily driving bs came in. Might have to do with fuel economy too. I am sure a wider tire brings down the fuel and we all know the feds love to attack our gas guzzlers!!!
The bottom line is the car the way its configured cannot except a wider wheel from the factory for what clearances they wanted. What some of you may or may not know is in order to get the 1/2 in wider width from 2014 they pinched the steel on the wheel well just to get that 1/2 inch more. Also I think it had something to do with the aerodynamics for the high speeds keeping the wheel tucked in.They could have flared the rear wheel wells just a little bit or tubbed the rear to accommodate larger tires. An extra $500 or $1000 I could have easily absorbed. 305s would have not been an issue at all!
They could have gone this route!
![]()
BKuz
The other way once you own it is to do some mini tubs Lol.
SRT went with the 275 width tires because they wanted to get the car as close to 200mph as possible.
They tested wider tires but due to the wind resistance and added weight of more rubber on them it slowed down the top speed - thus deciding on using the 275 tire.
If you install wider tires on your cat you will find that the top speed goes down to around 194ish.....which is fine for most of us but not as good for advertising of our cats.
They tested wider tires but due to the wind resistance and added weight of more rubber on them it slowed down the top speed - thus deciding on using the 275 tire.
If you install wider tires on your cat you will find that the top speed goes down to around 194ish.....which is fine for most of us but not as good for advertising of our cats.
BKuz You got it right the first time + bean counters.
You know, now that you mention this I think I remember hearing one of the Dodge executives say exactly this in one of the YouTube videos...
Maybe they needed an option when you buy.... 199MPH option gets you tires as we have now and 194MPH option gets a staggered setup with 10" rims and 305's LOL.
A taller tire actually has more rubber on the pavement than a smaller wider tire.
1 - 17 of 17 Posts
