Home 1968 Shelby Cobra GT350, GT500 & GT500KR My 1968 Shelby Cobra GT350 1968 Shelby Tires and Wheels

1968 Shelby Tires and Wheels

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My GT 350 car came from the factory with steel rims & wheel covers/hubcaps. I mentioned elsewhere that I learned that apparently all the 1968 Shelby Mustangs came with steel rims and hubcaps. Seems there was an issue with the two piston, Kelsey Hayes disc brakes so single piston discs were used on the 1968 Shelby Mustangs. And it seems that those single piston disc brakes wouldn’t fit inside these 15″ ten spoke Shelby aluminum rims without rubbing.

So very few, if any, 68 Shelby Mustangs actually got the ten spoke aluminum rims. When I ordered the aluminum ten spoke rims, in 1983, I didn’t know this story. I assumed this car just didn’t get the aluminum rims. And sure enough, one of my new rims rubbed the stock KH brakes. A grinder in the right place quickly fixed that issue.

The Shelby Mustang GT 350 came with Goodyear Speedway 350 E70-15″ tires. These were bias belted tires. This is from a time before radial tires were available. Radial tires were a huge tire upgrade.

The ten spoke aluminum rims shown above on my car are NOS I ordered directly from Shelby American about 1983. These rims are 15″ x 7″ wide.

By the way, all the new, high speed performance tires do not come in 15″ sizes. They are for 16-20″ rims. BF Goodrich is one of the FEW companies left that make any kind of performance tires for a 15″ rim. A couple of summers ago I put new Goodrich TA’s on it. Goodyear no longer offers a performance tire for 15″ rims.

BF Goodrich White Letter Performance All Season

These are the sizes of the tires on my car.

Front Tires 215/65R15 95S SL
Rear Tires 245/60R15 – 100S SL (same height but rear tires are about an inch wider.)

  • S speed rating allows for continuous use up to 112 mph

BF Goodrich TA P215/60R15 / P245/60R15

  • UTOG 400 A B
  • Max Load 1,345 lbs.
  • Max Inflation pressure 35 psi
  • Tread Depth 11/32″
  • Tire height 26.6″
  • Tire weight 22 lbs / 30 lbs
  • Rim Width Range 6-7.5″ / 7-8.5″
  • Measured rim width 6.5″ / 7″
  • Sect Width 8.7″ / 9.8″
  • Tread width 7.2″ / 8.3″
  • Overall diameter 24.2″ / 26.6″
  • Revs per mile 861 / 782
  • Country of origin MX

Quick story. I had Goodyear ST’s on it. Put them on it late 80’s. Probably didn’t have 10,000 miles on them. They looked like new tires. I was talking to a tire dealership client about cars and tires and asked him how long those radial tires were good for? He said normally about 6-8 years max. Really? I did a Google search and found numerous discussions in the different car forums about guys who did what I did. They put tires on a classic car much more than 10 years ago. The tires look like new. A number of these owners were very surprised that the tires come apart while driving down the highway. The belts break, get loose or whatever inside the tire. There are many stories in the forums about that happening. So when my dealer said 6-8 years life he neglected to tell me what could happen. I was realized my tires had outlasted their expected life. It didn’t take me long to picture driving down the highway at 60+ and experiencing a tire failure. That would be a terrible thing to have to deal with my car. I am a risk manager by career. This is risk management. I put new tires on my car. Tires are a very important item on a car. I’ve never run questionable tires on a car. Bad tires are a real bad idea.

Second Quick Story: How I learned about the steel rims on the 1968 Shelbys. I was at a local car show. Got to talking to one of the other Shelby car owners. I mentioned that my car had a 1967 RUG Toploader. He off handed said that goes well with the 67 rims you have on your car. 67 rims on my car? Those rims were offered by Shelby. He told me that all the 68 Shelby’s came with steel rims and hubcaps. Really? So I reached out to SAAC and sure enough he was right. Only a small handful of cars in 68 got the ten spoke rims due to the above disc brake issue. I have long since disposed of those steel rims and hubcaps. Didn’t care for the looks when I had them. I was real surprised how much a set of those wheel and hubcaps are worth today. A lot of owners got rid of them.