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Which tires for a Midget?

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I know all about the masking the rostyle wheels being a major pain! I've done that 2 or 3 times with MGB's and hated it each time. And yes, the Moss cutouts are crap. The wheels I am painting this time around are wires, however, so there will be no masking for me! They could actually stand to be replaced, but I am going to try to get another year or so out of them. What I really want is a set of the mini-lite knock off style wheels. I think the knock-off mini-lites with the polished area around the hub look a lot cooler than the regular bolt on mini-lites. I am thinking of using a 14 or maybe even 15 inch set with lower profile tires when I go to them. Plus I will keep the wires so I can put them on when the mood strikes me!
 
Just an update for everyone:

The sandblasted and newly painted wheels look GREAT, and the new Sumitomos drive even better! It is amazing the difference in feel between a ten year old, dry rotted, super-value-no-name tire and a fresh set of sticky rubber. It literally transformed the car, leaking front left shock and all! For the record, 175/70R13 tires fit the stock wires great and there are no rubbing or clearance issues, even at full steering lock.

I highly recommend the Sumitomo HTR 200 tires. Great road feel with these....the car really communicates clearly what is going on at each corner. They have quite a high level of grip and are quick to react in transitions. Haven't tried them in the wet yet, but then again this is a British car with a leaky top, so I don't know when I will get around to that.
 
I have 165/65R13 and they DO rub on the back. If you have a car with the square rear wheel wells watch yourself going around corners so you don't slice up your tires too badly.

FYI - I have the Bridgestone Potenza RE92 P165/65R13 from TireRack the stick very good, even in an autocross you always feel firmly planted to the ground.
 
Good point, Tullamore. I didn't think about the difference in rear tire clearance between round and square-arch cars. Mine is a 73 with lovely round arches, so I guess I may have a hair more room back there. Then again, I don't know if I have gotten a ton of suspension compression while deflecting the tire sideways due to cornering forces. Hmmmm, sounds like a good excuse for a test drive to me! I will go right out and flog it hard around a few corners and see if anything rubs, for educational purposes only of course! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
throw in some hard corners, checking out those 175's on the front


mark
 
That's a big 10-4 on the hard corners. It will be tomorrow afternoon before I get a chance to take her out, though, so you will all have to wait on pins and needles until then! When I first mounted the new tires I turned the steering wheel lock to lock and visually checked things out, and I had a good bit of clearance, even taking into account suspension travel. It looked like the place with the lowest clearance was right on the bottom lip of the front valence, directly in front of the tires. But this would only be a problem with a tire that was larger in DIAMETER, not a wider one like the ones I now have. Of course a car sitting still and one being flung around a corner are two very different situations, so I will be more than happy to go do a bit of "research" in the name of LBC science. I don't anticipate there being any problems in the front just from my visual inspection, and the fact that immediately after I got the wheels home from the tire shop me and the MG made quite a frantic, high speed run of about 5 miles, albeit with only a couple of corners on the route. Being that I was running late for my own wedding at the time, I simply had no choice! But we did get to leave the ceremony in high style, in a British racing green MG with no carpet (back-ordered) and the customary showers of sparks coming from the wiring harness under the dash!
 
Nathan, I've had my '72 on the track with the same Sumitomos and couldn't get anything to rub. Believe me, I was flogging the daylight out of it.
Jeff
 
I can now confirm that one can indeed mount 175/70R13 Sumitomos on stock wire wheels, put them on a 1973 round-arch Midget, flog the living bejesus out of it, and the tires will not rub anything front or back. I also did a little exercise where I was in an empty parking lot, turned the wheel full lock in both directions and drove in a circle fast enough to make the car slide, and still no rubs. It seems indeed that this size tire is a great fit for our little cars.
 
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