tire recs for top-flighting a drivable 65

[Jim V.]

Ok...Lets say your priorities are:

1) You are NOT a drug dealer (limited capital) and you have 1.5 kids in college

2) You really would like to Top-Flight your 65 red roadster with its original fenders

3) You do enjoy driving to the NCRS meet, in a straight line, with your liver remaining in its designated cavity

What tires would you recommend? Coker, Diamond Back, OEM radials...or...? What do you think?

Yes, life is full of compromises.

Thanks
JimV

[James W.]

Re: tire recs for top-flighting a drivable 65

Jim,

I would recommend that you install a set of OEM radial tires. Forget about driving on the reproduction bias ply tires if you are considering going any distance with the car. The bias repros are horrible in the rain, ask me how I know. As for the radial tires that would be judged as OEM your choices are very limited. If you want goldlines I've heard that the ones sold by Diamond Back are very good. If you want whitewalls, I would go for the 205/75-15 Goodyear Regatta II. If you want blackwalls, your only choice would be the General Ameri-G4S. These are the brands advertised in the correct 205/75-15 size by the Tirerack, but there may be other brands that can be bought from your local tire dealer.

I drive my '64 convertible to the NCRS meets, I had my car flight judged last fall with the General brand blackwall tires that I listed above and they were given the standard 60% deduction as outlined on the judging reference manual. I drove it 1700 miles to the Southeast Regional meet back in May and I'm getting ready to drive it to the Salt Lake City in few weeks.

Best Regards,

James West
Omaha, NE.

[William C.]

Re: tire recs for top-flighting a drivable 65

If you drive the car, most lost points for radials as James described will be made up by the driving points.

[Jim V.]

Thanks....and

Thanks James and Bill!

Bill...what's the deal on the driving bonus? My Judging Manual (second edition spring 93) refers to the Reference manual which I currently don't own.

James...I have some BFG 205/75 ww radials now. Since BFG was a supplier in 65, I should expect a 60% deduct, even though the whitewall width is clearly under the 13/16 of the originals?

Thanks again for your insight.

JimV

[Eugene B.]

Re: tire recs for top-flighting a drivable 65

James and Bill,
I always read posts about tires. I have a '65 that will be on the road again this fall and I will be shopping for tires.

I don't understand what all the negative comments about bias ply tires is about. Before we had radial construction tires, we all drove thousands of miles and never had catastrophic results or extremely unsafe handling experiences. At least I did.

Is the problem that the currently reproduced bias ply tires are not the same as their OEM counterparts? What makes the new bias tires so bad?

BTY, will the Goodyear Regatta II, 205/75-15 fit correctly in the C2 tire tub?

I appreciate your comments and experiences.

Best regards,
Gene

[John H.]

Re: tire recs for top-flighting a drivable 65

Bias-ply tires were awful in the 60's, just like they are today - we just didn't know the difference then, as that's all there was, and the way they behaved was "normal" at the time - tires were tires in those days.

I'd encourage you to get a more current TM&JG than your old '93 Second Edition - the current one is the Fifth Edition - available at the store link at the top of the page.

Most 205/75-15's won't fit in an original spare tire tub, although they WILL fit in the repro tub, which is about 1/2" larger in diameter; I've had two different sets of 205/75's on my '67 (Coker first, then Diamondback just recently), and both fit in my repro upper tub on '67 N89 bolt-on wheels.

[William C.]

Re: tire recs for top-flighting a drivable 65

Driving points is pretty simple, 1 point per 100 miles driven up to 10% of the raw score. BTW, I drove my '65 for about 20 years on a set of the old repro Goldlines without incident, including the PV of the car in '88 and a few drag races (Supercar Showdown" after that. Most have just gotten used to Radials, and 60 foot times at the drags are awful with the old tires..

[Jim V.]

Whitewall confusion....delusion

Lets see... bias belt BAD, radials GOOD!

So, if I go with an OEM manufacturer of a service replacement P205/75/15 whitewall, it MUST have a 1 inch whitewall for a 60% originality deduction (9 oints), or if the whitewall is, lets say, 3/4 inch then 100% originality deduction (30 points!) and 100% condition deduction (30 points) totaling -60 deduction. Is this true?

If that is the case, what 1 inch whitewall OEM 205/75/15 radials are out there.

BTW...I will order the updated judging manual NOW..

Thanks for your help!

JimV

[John H.]

Re: Whitewall confusion....delusion

JimV -

You should also order the "Corvette Judging Reference Manual" (formerly the "white book", now the "blue book" with the new 7th Edition); it lays out the standard deduction levels in detail for all manner of replacement tires (and for lots of other things). Every member interested in judging should have this publication along with their TM&JG.

[Jim V.]

Re: Whitewall confusion....delusion

Thanks John...ordered, and on its way!