When it comes to muscle cars, your choice of tire can make or break your performance. It takes a certain caliber of rubber to make the ride right for an American muscle car, and choosing the right one can be a matter of serious consideration.
We’ve already gone and listed the best performance tires, but muscle cars require some specific aspects and features that you will want to shop for. Luckily, we’ve compiled a short list of the best of the best to get you started.
Want to dive into shopping by yourself? Check out our ultra-high performance and competition tires!
Looking to check out some low profile tires instead?
AMERICAN MUSCLE STREET TIRES
Some drivers confuse sports cars with muscle cars, and it’s easy to see why. They both go vroom vroom and look really, really sweet.
But muscle cars are all about power and acceleration. Sports cars are all about balancing handling, speed and acceleration. Sports cars are thoroughbred racehorses and muscle cars are stampeding bulls.
Tires for your muscle car need to be strong enough to handle your 400 horsepower plus engine, navigate weather and road conditions and maintain control at high speeds. It needs to handle the heft of your ride, too.
With that in mind, check out our picks for the best muscle car tires below!
Continental Control Contact Sport SRS+
We must absolutely start off with the Continental Control Contact Sport SRS+.
This is a great favorite in the muscle car community thanks to its high-end comfort, all-season dependability and extreme levels of performance. Steering, handling, cornering and weather traction all reach top levels thanks to an intelligently designed tread with wide semi-solid center rib, wide outer shoulder blocks, circumferential grooves and two-ply reinforced sidewall construction.
Like taking the winding way up the mountain? Customers cite this tire’s excellent cornering ability for switchback fun. You can feel in control (and comfort) without sacrificing safety when the weather, wet or dry, turns against you.
(Please note: Discount Tire always recommends equipping your vehicle with dedicated winter tires if you live in a region that experiences winter weather)
Continental’s easy-to-read wear indicators are also a handy tool to keep an eye on your tread. And did we mention the nifty 50,000-mile treadwear warranty? Many ultra-high performance tires do not include one!
SHOP CONTINENTAL CONTACT SPORT SRS+Michelin Sport Pilot 4S
You cannot talk about muscle car tires without mentioning the Michelin Sport Pilot 4S.
Hugely popular, this max performance summer tire offers expansive performance features for a wide range of performance vehicles, including electric, exotic and American muscle. Customers love the quiet, reliable but thrilling drive.
Michelin includes tons of standout features that reflect their long, well-earned pedigree. Their proprietary Dynamic Response Technology allows for adaptive steering inputs based on driving conditions while also handily extending treadlife. Deep rim protectors help protect your wheels from damage and the Variable Contact Patch 3.0 design perfectly distributes the weight of your vehicle during hard cornering (also helping to extend your tread life).
Your muscle car doesn’t need any additional heft, so this tire is constructed with lightweight high-tech elements to keep your unsprung weight to a minimum. And the Sport Pilot 4S includes seasonal protection in dry and wet conditions so when the unexpected shower tries to rain on your parade, you can keep going.
And fun fact: some sizes also come in run-flat!
The Michelin Sport Pilot 4S includes a 20-30,000-mile warranty.
SHOP MICHELIN SPORT PILOT 4S TIRESNitto NT555 G2
If you want no compromises and only expect the highest levels of performance for your muscle car, then you must absolutely consider the Nitto NT555 G2. Whether you have a classic or modern muscle car, you won’t be disappointed.
With a dedicated customer following, the NT555 G2 has a long foundational history in the performance sphere. The original NT555 gained popularity in the 1990’s thanks to its aggressive looks and astounding capability. The modern NT555 allows for increased wet and dry traction paired with contemporary street styling.
Relentless grip, responsive cornering control and stellar handling? All yours thanks to this tread’s twin center ribs, large tapered blocks and silica-enhanced, high stiffness tread compound. Want or have a staggered vehicle? No problem, this tire comes in section width sizes 275mm and wider with large tread blocks.
Frequent customers cite the quiet, smooth ride and track-worthy levels of capability in wet and dry weather conditions.
SHOP NITTO NT555 G2 TIRESGoodyear Eagle Exhilarate
When it comes to Goodyear muscle car tires, you can’t beat the Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate.
This is a tire that lives up to its name with pulse-pounding thrills paired with reliable all-season capability. With exceptional wet and dry grip, you can feel free to carve up corners and handle highways with ease. Its sleek and strong sidewall styling includes enhanced rim protectors to guard against curb damage, too.
Goodyear’s ActiveGrip Technology delivers unmatched handling and traction in wet and dry conditions while the ActiveStrength Technology™ allows for improved tire integrity and rigidity for extreme confidence. Handy wear gauges make keeping an eye on your tire’s health a breeze.
One of the biggest attractions of the Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate is the price point. It allows you to get premium-tier performance tires on a much more modest budget.
If you enjoy spirited driving, these are the tires for you. They include a handy 45,000-mile warranty.
SHOP GOODYEAR EAGLE EXHILARATE TIRESPirelli P Zero
You can’t talk about performance tires without mentioning Pirelli tires.
Rounding out our list of the best muscle car tires is the Pirelli P Zero. This is a popular ultra-high performance option for not only American muscle cars, but also exotic, sports, sedans and powerful SUVs. Its major draw? Unrelenting performance coupled with reliable and comfortable street driving.
Starting its journey as an ultra-high performance Original Equipment (OE) tire for major players like Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche (you get the idea), the P Zero’s pedigree is unquestionable.
And it’s easy to see why it’s a favored tire with its supreme levels of skill and control in wet conditions, quiet ride and almost perfect handling on corners, braking and straightaways. A customized high-silica inner tread design with extra-wide longitudinal grooves offers both wet grip and ride comfort. Pirelli’s Noise Cancelling System (PNCS) keeps noise to a minimum across the tire’s entire service life and the S-shaped tread design balances pressure distribution perfectly for high degrees of handling, cornering and braking.
Its customized outer tread design with low pitch sequence and siping not only offers low noise emission but also low-rolling resistance for better efficiency. Some tire sizes come in run-flat options but all sizes come with Pirelli’s Seal Inside™, a tire construction tech that self-seals the tire in case of a puncture to reduce further air loss.
The P Zero also comes in a wide range of sizes and fitments to fit most muscle cars, from 17’’ up to 22’’ rim diameters.
SHOP PIRELLI P ZERO TIRESMUSCLE CAR WHEEL AND TIRE PACKAGES
You can’t talk about performance, tires and muscle cars without considering your wheels too.
Wheels can make or break handling, speed and other performance metrics due to their weight, caliper clearance and airflow. They’re also an important aesthetic component which many drivers take joy (or great pains!) in selecting and maintaining.
Discount Tire allows customers to create their own tire and wheel packages or select a few well chosen “prebuilt” options we’ve assembled for you. Shopping for wheel and tire packages is an easy three-step process. Simply add in your vehicle (to assure fit), choose prebuilt or build your own options and checkout.
WHEEL AND TIRE PACKAGESNot sure where to start looking for muscle car wheels and rims? Need some inspiration? We recommend checking out American Racing Wheels, Cragar Wheels, Foose Wheels and US Mags Wheels for some excellent options.
Muscle Car Wheels & Rims
Muscle car wheels tend to be a little less flashy and sporty compared to other performance wheels. They need to be strong enough to hold up your muscle car’s weight but lightweight enough not to weigh it back. Thankfully, modern wheel construction, forging techniques and materials make this achievable for a wide range of budgets.
When it comes to styling, traditional five spoke, propeller or modular designs are still the de facto preferred look. Increasingly, however, they are coming in more modern finishes like black, gunmetal and machined to make your ride really pop.
Ready to roll?
If you still need some more direction choosing the right muscle car tires for you, try our smart tire buying guide Treadwell. In a minute or less, it will pair you with the best tires for you, your vehicle and your drive. It’s the same tool we use in-store to help you find the right tire for you.
START WITH TREADWELLIf you’re still unsure which tires are best for you, feel free to drop by your nearest store, give us a call or schedule an appointment. We’re ready to help you. Save time when you buy and book online!
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