250 GT California Tyres

Hi

I wrote this text:-

"
FERRARI 250 GT CALIFORNIA
RW 3264, 5.5”X16 Borrani wheels. These LWB California Spyders cars left the factory with 600-16 Pirelli Stella Bianca. 185VR16 Pirelli Cinturato is also the other period option.

• The later SWB 250 GT California Spyder wheel options 5.5” RW 3526 & RW 3687 with 6”X16 wheels. These post 1960 cars would predominantly fit 185VR16 Pirelli Cinturato. Some of the early cars may have had 600-16 Stella Bianca.

• Some of these 250 GT California cars fitted 400mm Borranni wheels RW 3598 so they coulod fit the early radial tyre 175HR400 Pirelli Cinturato.

• Some of the later cars fitted 15” Borrani RW 3591 & RW 3690 wheels with 185VR15 Pirelli Cinturato. Often these 15” wheels are fitted with 205/70VR15 Michelin XWX or Dunlop ER/70VR15 Dunlop SP Sport.

• Tyre pressures for a 250GT California Spyder we have a recommendation from Pirelli in 1971 24 psi front and 28 psi rear, but this is for a 15” Cinturato 185VR15 CA67 HS, but we would employ the same pressutre to a 16” tyre of the same 185mm section. We would suggest increasing the pressure by 4psi for high speed heavily loaded use.

FERRARI 250 GT CALIFORNIA SPIDER TYRES

The Short Wheel base or Series 2 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider (SWB) fitted either the 175 HR 400 PIRELLI CINTURATO ™ CA67, the 185 VR 15 PIRELLI CINTURATO ™ CA67 or the 165 HR 400 PIRELLI CINTURATO ™ CA67, depending on if you have 15" or 400mm Borrani Wheels. As well as being original these PIRELLI CINTURATO ™ offer the excellent build quality you expect from one of the worlds best tyre manufacturers.

Some people like a wider tire on their 250GT California Spider, in which case the best tyres would be either 205/70 VR 15 Michelin XWX or 205/70 WR 15 PIRELLI CINTURATO ™ CN12. We would suggest that these cars will handle at their best on the tyres that Ferrari chose to fit them with."

And put it on our web page for these cars https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/classic-car-tyres/ferrari/250-gt-california.html#page=1

what do you think?

is it correct?

have i missed some stuff?

do you have some period pictures that would make it better?

Do you have any build sheets that would look good on here?

Would you recommend different tyre pressures?

 

I think in '50s America it would have been difficult to get Pirelli Stella Bianca, Cinturato or any radial as an after sales tyre, but they would have left the factory with them. I would think people had to just buy what ever was available when they needed replacing. 400mm would be nearly impossible and 600-16 they would probably just buy what ever their local tyre dealer sold to the XK Jaguars.

I thought the long wheel base on 16 wheels would have had either
https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/600-16/600-16-pirelli-stella-bianca.html
or
https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/600-16/185vr16-pirelli-cinturato-ca67.html
maybe a
https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/600-16/185sr16-michelin-x.html.

Certainly in Europe land some of the 250 GT cars were fitting RW 3598 https://www.borrani.com/catalog/product/view/id/216/s/borrani-wheel-rw-3598/category/1611/ so they could take advantage of Cinturato and its new progressive radial tyres. Ferrari were fitting https://www.borrani.com/catalog/product/view/id/1879/s/175hr400-pirelli-cinturato-ca67/category/1611/ which i am very pleased to say Pirelli are making again for us now.

I am surprised that you think Ferrari were fitting Continentals in the '50s? Is there any references i can use for this. I'd love some pictures

 

Oh yes. what size Continental does it say?

 

Ha ha. I would have thought, to state the brand seems funny with out stating what size. you would think the size would have been the more useful data.

The Dunlop is not made any more. Iit would probably have been this one https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/600-16/600h16-dunlop-rs5.html but sadly Dunlop dopn't make any more historic road tyres.

They do make a 600-16 Racing tyre https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/600-16/600x16-r5-dunlop-racing.html This is road legal. Great fun in the dry, but i wouldn't recommend it as a road tyre, as the performance in the wet is very exciting. that tread pattern came out in 1958

The Englebert is no longer made. Michelin do however make this https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/tyres/600-16/600r16-michelin-pilot-x.html which looks pretty close, but i have no doubt in recomending this as an excellent radial tyre in this size, where Michelin have made an excellent job of making it look like the Englebert, but done some subtle clever things in the tread design to make it quieter and an all round better tyre.

do you have that picture to hand that i could look at?

Agreed. I would suggest, specially with Ferrari. My recomendations tend to based on any knowledge i have of OE and knowledge of what is around today that would be suitable. sometimes developed from finding the OE tyres, hoefully knowing the dimensions of the tyre and then making a suggestion based on what cuurrently produced tyres have similar dimensions, and a suitable carcass structure.

 

The Borrani suggestions are difficult in that to print the book they had to make a generalization. Our web site https://www.borrani.com/ferrari-wheels/250-gt-cabriolet-s1.html is constantly being up dated. so any Borrani information you have can go on here. to be frank that web site would be much better if the chap in our office had time to put all the stuff on the web site that he finds out. But if you know stuff we will put it up. If you have relevant build sheets we will put them on there. the intention is for our web site to be correct.

 

Have you seen this page https://www.lucasclassictires.com/Ferrari-250-Tires_c285.htm