So you haven't done it, your not sure what needs to be done to accomplish it but you would suggest someone who doesn't what to have to modify his car to bolt them on goes ahead & spends his $$$ on them anyway? Brilliant!! Knowing Mitch uses his car for competition road course events I'd first assume he's running more camber than you would want on a street car, it helps with handling as the cost of tread wear... a high camber number will pull the top of the tire in 1/2"-3/4" But the inside edge of the tire will be gone in 5000 miles.... Next I'm certain he's rolled the fender lip for clearance & possibly even did a subtle bulge which would gain him another 3/8'-3/4"... Not really the hot ticket for a bolt on scenario....
Like I was saying 235/60-15 up front...
Let's get a few things straight.
First, I didn't recommend
anyone run 255/60/15's up front. Go back and check my posts, never happened. I said a 255 wide tire would work just fine
if you could find a shorter one (different profile) and run it on a 15x8 with up to around 4.5" of backspace. I also said you wouldn't be able to find a shorter tire, and that the height would be a problem. That's not a recommendation. I did say 245's will fit, and they will, and I know exactly what that would take.
Second, I have a pretty good idea of what it would take to run a 255/60/15 like Mitch does on one of these cars. My point with Mitch's car isn't that he modified his car, I'm sure he did. My point was that it can be done, and can be done with a tire I originally said I wouldn't use or recommend. Heck I flat out said it wouldn't work, and yet it does. The fact of the matter is that a 255/60/15 on a 15x8 with a 4.375" backspace has significantly more outboard clearance to the fender than the 275's I run on my Challenger. The 275/40/17's I run on 17x9's with a 5" backspace stick out a 1/4" further outboard than Mitch's tires do. The height is the issue, not the width or even the backspace/suspension clearance in that setting. You could run less backspace and still not have to modify anything if you could find a shorter 255. As for camber, you can run as much as -1.5* on the street with no issues. I do, and I have tens of thousands of miles on my cars like that with no abnormal wear. I do spend some time driving on winding roads though, I suppose if all I did was drive back and forth to the Dairy Queen it might cause a little more wear on the inner tread.
Third, tire recommendations are difficult. All of these cars are a little different because of the fairly loose body tolerances. Ride height, alignment specs, tire manufacturer and even individual models of tires from the
same manufacturer can make a big difference when you start maxing out tire sizes. I'm well aware of what it takes to start making adjustments like that, I run 275/40/17's on my Challenger up front after all. So what it takes to fit a wide tire on one car may not be the same as on another, what works on my car might not work on another one without modifications. Just the way it goes. If someone isn't willing to make any adjustments at all, they shouldn't try to max out their tire size, they should just run something easy that will have a mile of clearance just in case.
And finally, if you'd bother to provide the specs on your own rims, I could probably tell you why you can't fit more than a 235/60/15 on there. But since you can't or won't, well, can't help you.
I run a 26x10x15 on the front of my Challenger. This is close to a 255/50 metric tire. Rim is a 15x8 with 4.5" backspace. It also is a competition style rim and not stock, so its backside clearance for tie rods and calipers is improved over stock. Clearance is close to outer fender lip and I had to roll the edge to ensure it doesn't cut the tire, but they do fit. Inner fender clearance seems fine.
To get more than 4.75" of backspace requires stepping up to a larger diameter rim to allow tie rod ends to fit inside wheel.
Exactly. The width isn't the biggest issue, the height is. If someone made a 255/55/15 or a 255/50/15 running 255's on the front would be pretty easy. But there's pretty much nothing out there in those sizes for street legal tires.
Also, running 17's still doesn't get the outer tie rod ends to fit inside the wheel. At least not on all 17's. Mine don't fit inside, which is why I was limited to about 5" of backspace with the 17x9's. Better than a 15", but still not unlimited like you get if you go up to an 18" rim and the tie rod ends fit entirely inside the wheel. On E-bodies it isn't as important though because the track width means that the clearance to the frame rails starts to come up pretty close to the same place as you run out of tie rod end clearance with the 17's. 18's might buy another 1/4" of backspace, but with tires close to 26" tall you'd run out of clearance to the frame when turning at that point anyway. Not like on an A-body where you can run 6" of backspace before the frame starts to be an issue, I run 275/35/18's on 18x9's on the front of my Duster with a 6.1" backspace. With a 15" on those cars you can only run about 4.75", so to max out you have to run an 18".
My next set up with my Challenger will probably be 285/35/18's on 18x9.5's with around 5.25 to 5.5" of backspace. I'll have to roll the fenders for that one though, and I suspect I'll have to do the last bit of fine tuning with some spacers. It'll be close. I'll just lean on the fender roller a little harder to give the fenders some push if I have to.