maj75

The tires on my ‘69 are Goodyear Eagle GT. They are well past their sell by date. I’m considering repro bias ply tires. The car wont be driven at really high speed and I won’t put a lot of miles on it. Just occasional cruises and local car shows. My car originally had UniRoyal thin white stripe tires on the rally wheels. They aren’t reproduced. My grandfather was a Firestone dealer and I’ve thought of getting a set of white letter tires even though they were not available for the ‘69s IIRC. There are obviously other bias ply tires available as well.

I’m looking for opinions from people who drive their cars on repro bias ply tires. How does the car feel compared to more modern radials? An experience with one brand vs another of bias ply repros? What about sizes? The F70 tires seem a bit narrow for the 8” rims. Anyone tried G60 tires?

The opinions on the “modern” radials, BFG, Cooper and MT don’t impress me. I’d rather go with a skinnier blackwall tire like a Michelin in a 70 series I think, rather than the so-so current crop of white letter 15” tires.

And no, I don’t want a wheel/tire setup that’s greater than 15”.

John Starr

I replaced my BF Goodrich radials with correct Goodyear RML bias ply F70 x 15 from Kelsey Tire 2 years ago. I decided to go with the Goodyears since the original spare is in the tub. They look really good on the 8 inch rims. The ride is different from the radials - car will find every crack in the road but now I'm used to it.

loup68

Obviously you have not driven a sports car on bias ply tires. They were horrible! They nibble at every little imperfection in the road and dart back and forth, trying to pull the steering wheel out of your hands. Radials do not do that. The one thing that they did better was that they were more forgiving on taking a corner too fast. They would skid sideways. You can corner a lot faster in a radial tire...until you reach it's limit. Then they break loose from the road without any warning. Lou.

Alan 71

Hi m,
"My grandfather was a Firestone dealer and I’ve thought of getting a set of white letter tires even though they were not available for the ‘69s IIRC"

The white letter tires became available on 69 model year cars during June of 1969. Remember 69 production ran long.... all the way to December of 1969.
So they could have been on your car originally depending when it was assembled.
The red stripe tires were available during 69 production and many folks like them on certain color cars. Have you considered those?
Regards,
Alan

The Firestone RWL tire.

marshal135

I had the F-78's on a67Mustang back in HS.
They rode like a radio flyer lil red wagon.
Lou68 is right.
They make some retro white wall tires that would be a better choice IMO.
Unless its being judged, back in the day when radials came out everyone swapped out
and never looked back.
Marshal

449er

Why would you go back to a inferior tire? Bias ply tires are dangerous compared to radials, your car though

redrdstr72

ThumpingLotus7

I've done thousands of miles on Coker Firestone Wide Ovals on my 71. It's all dependent on the road. If its a good well paved road (no grooves or tracks) without a steep crown no problem, if its one of those roads where the road is old, and they paved a third of a lane for a mile its really quite annoying as each wheel wants to go its own way.

When I put the bias ply on the car becomes a two handed car, no more resting an arm out the window, because at anytime the car could shift direction, especially on my new york highways doing 70. Around town though its okay, just kinda funny when you squeal going around a corner doing 25.

With that said there is nothing else like the look of the bias ply tire, and when I have them on more people ask me about the tires then anything else. They are a real conversation starter. Like the poster above though, I have a set of BFG radial TAs which more or less live on the car since I got them. The bias ply are relegated to the month or two before an NCRS event so that I can get re-accquainted with driving them before the trip.

maj75

I grew up driving cars on bias ply tires. I ran bias ply BFGs on GTOs, Trans Ams, Toyotas until they stopped making them in the 80s.

If you aren’t driving your Vette on the current crop of bias ply repros, stay out of the discussion. If I cared about “more modern” I’d drive my C5. The whole point for me is that the ‘69 ISN’T a modern car and I don’t need it to feel like one. I want to feel like it’s 1969 again.

To those responses regarding real world experience on current tires, THANKS!

Alan, my car was built Sept, 1968, so Firestone’s wouldn’t be “correct” but they would probably be my first choice for sentimental reasons. I’d love to hear how they compare to the Goodyear bias ply repros.

Torqued Off

Great point some people just do not understand. There is a mindset on here that the only way to drive a C3 Corvette is as if you are on a race track. Others just enjoy the car for what it is, and drive responsibly on the streets. And....there are others that don't drive them at all.

Alan 71

Hi m75,
"my car was built Sept, 1968, so Firestone’s wouldn’t be “correct” but they would probably be my first choice for sentimental reasons. I’d love to hear how they compare to the Goodyear bias ply repros."

I really don't know how the ride of the reproduction Goodyear tire compares to the reproduction Firestone tire.
What I mainly hear about is that since the Goodyear tire is a more accurate reproduction, (in appearance), than the Firestone tire, it may be a slightly better choice for Flight Judging on 68-72 cars.

The tread pattern and side wall information of the Coker Firestone reproduction shows it to be a reproduction of the 'Super Belt' tire, not the 'Super Sport' tire, and not of 'Nylon Cord' construction.

The tire, of which the Coker Firestone is a reproduction, wasn't used on 68-72 Corvettes. People use it on Corvettes because until recently it was the only choice for a tire that appeared to be like the original 68-72 Firestone tire.

I'm pretty serious about the choice of tires for 68-72 cars.
I urge you to not disregard rr72's mention of the new Coker Firestone RWL RADIAL tire. From the pictures of that tire I've seen on line, and mounted on a car here on the Forum on a member's car, it looks like it might be a nice choice.
I have a set of the Coker bias-ply tires and a set of new original Firestone RWL tires. If I was going to begin driving my 71 I'd be looking seriously at the Coker Firestone RWL radial.

I drove my car about 35,000 miles on sets of Firestone RWL tires in 1971 and 1972. I was in love with how they looked.... but realized that they weren't much of a tire even by 1971 tire standards.

So???
Regards,
Alan

dan1495

I had the repro Firestone’s on a 69 I owned a few years back and have the Goodyear’s on my current 72. As Alan mentioned the Goodyear’s are nylon belted, and they tend to flat spot when cold. The Firestone’s didn’t do that. Neither one drives very well but I would give the nod to the Firestone’s for driveability, judging concerns aside. I would also like to try the new Wide Oval Radials, they sound like maybe the best of both worlds.

exposingtime

I had repro firestone wide ovals on my car for about 6 months while going through judging and a regional performance verification.

The ride was terrible. Not so awful on local streets but on the highway the car was all over the road because of the semi truck grooves. If the car sat for more than 2 weeks you could feel the flat spots until the tires heated up.

My car was super tight before the bias tires, but still had most of its original suspension bushings. 750 miles and they were absolutely toast. They were already cracked, but they were falling apart after bias.

The ride was much more relaxed the day I swapped back to my 245s
Gary

maj75

Those Wide Oval radials might be a good option. Looks like the bias ply with radial construction.