Staggered tire size for 16" wheels

I am going to be bolting up some 16" wheels to my 76 242. The fronts are 7.5" wide and the rears are 8.5" wide. I want to keep the overall diameter similar to stock so for the rear tires I am thinking 225/50/R16. I can't decide if I should just put the same size up front or maybe a little skinnier 205/55/R16. Also I have manual steering so I am worried that the wider tires up front might make parking tricky. The car is stock height now but I plan on lowering it in the future. Does anyone have any advice?

I used to use 205-60-15 on the front of my manual steering cars. Yes, it make the steering heavy at low speeds and parking. But it's not horrible. You'll need to trim the rear wheel well edge at the rear to clear those tires. 225 is a nice size on these cars but usually needs a bit of trimming in the back.

I have the same wheel size, and have been running Dunlop Direzza ziii in 205/50 front, 225/45 rear. Had to roll the inner fenders nice and flat in the rear, car is fairly low.

Thanks for the advice, looks like I will go with the skinnier tires up front.

Your rear tires are going to be slightly smaller overall diameter than fronts. But not by much.

I've got a set of similar sized wheels on my 940 here's is some insight on how they fit

Fronts are 16x7 205/55/16 Offset 20mm 122mm backspace
Rears are 16x8.5 245/45/16 Offset 0 Backspace 122 (This size tire is hard to find but fits great)

The fronts required a 25mm spacer but the rears fit perfectly as is.