Elephant Tracks, pt 2: Smoking gets expensive

"TheElephant" (426cubicinches) 03/04/2015 at 19:47 • Filed to: ElephantTracks, Tires

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When I picked up The Elephant, it had just over 13,000 miles on it and it was wearing it's second set of Goodyears. They were almost bald.

He jumped the start and I won even though I mangled the launch.

Because I wanted to take her on a road trip - through the NRQZ, then up across PA and on to the New England coast line - I didn't put much thought into it. I slapped on two new rears (about $410, thankyouverymuch) and lit out for the east coast, learning quickly that my new toy was seriously under-tired.

When I got home 2,400 miles later, I decided it was time to address this problem.

In a perfect world, I could have just ordered some tasty 13" wide wheels shod with 335 and call my traction problems solved. Unfortunately, you can't get much tire under a Challenger - most R/T's and SRTs came from the factor with 9" wide wheels and it's tough to get anything more than 10" in there without rolling the fenders ( that's what she said? ).

Drag Radials were my second thought, but then I hit an aesthetic issue: I'd have to drop down from 20" wheels - at least to 19", maybe even 18" - and I'm not looking to do that.

So, I was left with the Volume Option: get some good high performance summer tires and replace them often. I went with BFG Sport Comp II. A full set was about $725, mounted and balanced.

That was in August. In October, I replaced the rears again for a mere $340.

By now, the car has consumed 16 tires - eight of them on my tab, costing about $1,475. Holy cow it's expensive to be a smoker.

With warm weather hopefully coming (even though there's a fresh foot of snow out there), I have been thinking about more options. I know a 285 will fit - that's the stock size for a Hellcat, and they don't have flared fenders.

Maybe something like this? This wheel/tire package looks like business:

Old-Busted-Hotness > TheElephant 03/05/2015 at 07:50

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Fun fact: the 2015 models have rolled fenders from the factory, because Hellcat.

TheElephant > Old-Busted-Hotness 03/05/2015 at 23:14

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Is this true? Are there pictures to prove it?

If so, then I won't feel so bad about rolling mine...

Old-Busted-Hotness > TheElephant 03/06/2015 at 05:53

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Yes, it's true. 2015 fenders carry a different part number. The only difference is the rolled lips.