[Steve Cassani]

"I want as much rubber as I can put under a slab side while retaining an elegant little english/american roadster look."

Let your choice of wheels settle the tire issue. The elegant little English/American roadster I recall from the early sixties came from the factory with 15"x 5 1/2" wire wheels. These were widened to 6" with the switch to rack and pinion steering. The splined hubs went unchanged.

Kirkham will equip a slabside car with pin drive hubs and aluminum wheels styled along the lines of early Halibrand competition wheels. I believe these are 15" x 6 1/2"; any wider and you have to modify the subtle fender rounds into flares. Kirkham uses the fender extensions that came stock with the last 289 street cars constructed by AC. So the furthest you can push the look of the car and still retain the lithe appearance of the street car comes with the pin-drive option. Any wider than 6 1/2" and you start down the path of a roadster made to better reflect the sports car enthusiasts vision of the muscle cars of the day: wide tires with the fenders extended to provide legal enclosure. Once you are this far in your thinking, the FIA body style may be the better choice.

Heck of a quandry, eh?