I had picked up a little shimmy in the steering wheel this week and thought I would get the wheels balanced today. ooops both front tires have started to seperate not much but out of round. Of course they didnt stock any brand in my size so I swapped the rears to the front for the next few days untill my shoes arrive.
I went with Federal SS595 255/45/17 ZR rated tire. They look very agressive and the price was superb....$151 cdn

Awesome! I think Monday im tossing my Uniroyals on, I hope winter is over!

Be glad your car warned you that its tires were seperating, a high speed blow out would, well, blow!

That really is an excellent price for a Z rated tire.
Let us know if the 255 width presents any interferences but that should give you the stock diameter.
I thought that to go to that width of tire it was recommended to go to a minimum 8" wide wheel?

The tire is rated for a 7-9" rim the guy at Kal Tire showed me his grand prix with Federals on 16" rims with a 2.5"drop.
He gauged the wheel well and siad there should be no problems, I think they're only a half inch wider?

Yeah they should be like .8" wider. They should suit the SSEi well. What is the traction rating? A or AA? I would also guess these tires are probably a little more grippy than the stock Goodyears?

My dads getting some Eagle F1'* for his GTP when he gets his tax return and he'* getting 245/50/16'* which are about an inch wider than stock, and they are supposed to be able to fit fine on the stock 7" rim, so yours should fit fine on the stock rim being only 10mm wider.

Luckily his stock RS-A'* only have 22k on them, because my tires on my STE are pretty bad and my right rear tire has a bad belt or something I guess. Between 20 & 40mph the car shakes and vibrates like mad. So I'm getting the stock RS-A'* off the GTP which are going to be a little wider, and just a little taller, but I don't care, they are free tires with decent tread on them. (well, two of them have decent tread, the other two are a different story, obviously their going on the back) The tires on the GTP are 225/60/16 and mine are 215/60/16. My speedometer should read about 2% slow with these tires. But since it already reads 2% fast, it will be perfect.

Shawn

Stock rims on the GTP are 6.5" wide. Many places will not install a 245 tire on a 6.5" rim...but some will.

Cheers,

No they aren't, unless you're talking about pre-97'*. The rims on my GP are supposedly 6.5" (although when I measured them on the tire balancer at school it said they were 7), but his rims are DEFINATELY 7" wide. Lots of people run the 245'* on stock GP wheels too. The tire shop also didn't have any problem mounting his 10.5" wide slicks on 7" wide GP wheels, they look kinda funny though.

Shawn

The 16" 5 spoke Aluminum, the 16" Crosslace, the Tri-spokes, the Chromed Aluminum and both the painted and polished Torque Star rims are all 6.5" for all GPs 1997 to 2003. There were no rims offered for 2 nd generation W-body Grand Prixs with a rim width greater than 6.5".

Cheers,

Where did you find this information at??? I have never heard this ever before. I know his rims are 7" (besides his rims aren't any of the ones you listed above), but even if they are 6.5" rims, there should be absolutely no problems putting 245'* on it. If there are problems, which I don't see happening, I will mount them at school.

Shawn

Here is the options specs for a 2000, a 2003 and a 2004 Grand Prix. Even the 17" rims on the 2004 are 6.5" wide;



And the 2003;



The 2004;



Quite a few people have run 245s on 6.5" rims, but for the most part a 245 tire will have a cross-section of around 10" so it will not have as good a turn in response, or yaw charactorsistics, as the same tire in 225 width mounted on the same 6.5" rim.

Mind you if drag racing is your primary goal then the wider tire may be better. If autocross is more your style then the 225 would be better. The 1st generation W-body had 16" X 8" rims available that came with 225/60R16 tires, now those puppies would stick pretty well in corners.

Cheers,