Hey all,

I am close to buying a 1972 Ford Pinto sedan, and it has sat around for approximately 3 years. With this in mind, I'm going to have to buy new tires. I work at a tire store, and know that a tires life is only 3-5 years, but as the car has sat,and had the tires on before, the ones on the car will most likely be dry rotted, and unsafe to drive on.

With that in mind, What is the size in p-metric that will work on this car, and still keep the speedo accurate?

I know they're 13's but I don't know if it would be a 175/70-13, or a different size.... I just mentioned that size as that's the size I have on my Kia, so it was the first on my mind.

Any help on the right sizw will be greatly appreciated.

Thanx

175/80-13 were on my '74 wagon. However, I've seen 185/80-13s on factory "sport" rims (both 4-spoke rallye rims and 5-spoke alloy rims).

Is the car sitting on its rims? Even if the tires are rotten, you can still see what size they are.

Well,

The actual deal is, the car is located out of state, and I am going to order the tires at the store I work at. We have both sizes you mentioned, but only cheapy tires in that size, and I'd like a better tire than what we have in stock.

Thanx for the info

A little difference in tire size shouldnt change the speedo enough to be concerned about. Speedometers are a little off anyway.

My Mercurys stock size is 225-70-15 and I installed 235-70-15 which increased the hight by about 3/4 of an inch. At the track when I went through the traps I would look at my speedo and compare the MPH with the slip. I couldnt tell a difference. I did notice a slight diff. in performance. I recently replaced the tires with 235-60-15 which is about an inch shorter than stock.  When I go through the traps the speedo reads 90-93 MPH and the timeslip reads 87 MPH. So my unscientific conclusion is dont worry about it. As long as youre close.

Yeah,

it was that on the 72's also... The problem is that nowa days the tires go by what is known as a P-metric setup.

75R-13 is what was known as alpha-numeric, and is no linger used...

That's the problem I'm having.. I can't find out what size would translate down to the size from 1973.


I think I'll probably end up going with a 185/80-13 like Poison Pinto has on his sport wheels.

Thanx for the info though

No appology needed.... I sorta forgot to mention that.... Thanx for the info on the exact size though, I can get some nice tires for the car relatively cheap since I work at a tire store.......

 A lower profile will inprove preformance by lowering the ( rear gear).