Were Blue Streaks for racing only, or were they ever offered as street tires (on any Corvettes)? Is anyone reproducing these (Kelsey is doing the Goodyear red and gold lines)? I have been reading up on the Grand Sports of the 60's, and from what I have read, the cars may have come originally with Firestones, but Goodyears were installed for Nassau Speed Week. I am asking because I have a spare set of knockoffs, and wouldn't some Blue Streaks just look great on them... Also I would be interested to hear of anyone's experience or opinion of the Goodyears during the 60's, especially a history lesson including Grand Sports. What a car!
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks (and Grand Sports)
Hi Everett: I can't answer your inquiry refarding the reproduction Blue Streaks but I can respond to the question about the originals, clearly marked on the sidewall was "for racing use only", they were a very soft compound tire that would not last long on the street. I had a set of Firestone Super Sport Indys on a 68 , 435 in size, ( for the life of me I don't know why I remember the size ), 560/15.50/15, they lasted about one month on the Chicago city avenues.
jerry -
Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks-2 Types
Everett-I believe the Blue Streak tire your refering to is the street version that Plymouth(Can i say that)offered on some full size cars and the Barracuda(there i go again)in the midsixties.I don't remember any other car line including Dodge(whoops)offering these tires OEM.These tires were offered for separate sale in the Corvette(sure glad i got to say that)size 775x15 and seem to turn up a Corvette swap meets today for large prices even in non-drivable condition!The other is the racing Blue Streak which other than the name has no legal street version although along with worn Indy tires many found their way on to the street with sometimes deadly results as they had very little tread and were not designed for wet driving.Here in the Detroit area during the mid and late sixties tire stores sold these castoffs and mounted them on street cars.I can't imagine these happening although some of the lowriders with those tiny tires on 10"+ rims seem to approach this scenario. LouComment
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks (and Grand Sports)
Everett, I've had some experience with the Goodyear Blue Streaks in the '60. I use to autocross, drag, time trial on 1/4 mile ovals, whatever, on them. Don Yenko would bring back to Pgh. all these well used Blue Streaks when he and the Gulf Oil team would run at Daytona. Yenko would sell these tire carcasses for $10 a piece to all the Corvette Club of Western Pa boys who wanted them. They were great for traction and lasted generally for a summer season of "go fast" events. They also saved our regular street tires. They were very rough riding and contributed to my shaking loose the transmission frame crossmember from the main frame. They were downright dangerous in the rain (being nearly a slick) because of this I took mine off immidately after an event and put street tires back on. Although they seemed to lay down a lot of footprint (for the time) on the pavement compared to the 670 X 15 bias Firestone, today's 215 X 75 radial puts the Blue Streak to shame.Comment
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streak Sports Car Specials
The tire you are probably refering to is the Goodyear Blue Streak Sports Car Special. This was probably the last of the skinny racing tires. The 7.00-15 size is about 27 inches in diameter with a tread width of about 6 inches. The contemporaneous Firetone of this era, 1963, was the Super Sports 170 T, but it was an older design and not as popular as the Blue Streak, which had four narrow "zig-zag" circumferential grooves. These tires could be run on the street. They were nylon cord bias ply construction with a low cord angle which made the sidewalls very stiff. They were a rather hard compound, and the overall design of the tire was probably similar to truck tires of the era. Needless to say, they made a Corvette literally ride like a truck, but boy did they look neat!
In the late seventies I found less than a handful of these tires at Carol Shelby Enterprises and bought them. They are marked "R-4" which I believe refers to the compound. I need one more to make a set, but I have never found it. These tires were what Dick Thompson ran on Grady Davis' Grand Sport when raced in its original configuration without the big flares in the summer of '63 The A Production Corvettes used them, also. The cars were reconfigured for the December, 1963 Nassau race, and the tires were upgraded to much wider "Stock Car Specials", and that's why they got the big flares. The rear size went to 8.20-15 and the Stock Car Specials were of a lower profile, but this data had yet to be incorporated into the size nomenclature.
The current Goodyear vintage tire offerings include a 5.50-15 and 6.00-15 vintage Blue Streak. These are both later designs than the '63 vintage tire we're are taking about. The 5.50 is only 25.5 inches in diameter, and the 6.00 is really too wide to fit a C2 without modification. These two tires are completely different from each other with different tread designs. I believe the 6.00-15 is a later design than the 5.50.
If anyone else can contribute to this thread, please do. Also, if someone knows of at least one available Bluestreak Sports Car Special 7.00-15 R4, either new or serviceable used condition, let me know.
DukeComment
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Re: Grand Sports
Very interesting about your set of old tires. I think the Blue Streaks look great, but even better are the cars themselves. Have you guys had a chance to see the recent die cast models by Exoto of the Grand Sports? I took one look and am hooked and will have to get them all. They are the most detailed models you have ever seen, and they give those that have not seen a real Grand Sport, the chance to study one in some detail. They have a website, Exoto.com, and if you look under Racing Legends you will find the Grand Sport. Since I can't have a real one... By the way, even though Chevrolet could not support the cars very well back then because of upper management, the times they raced and did not break, didn't they show the Cobra its place?Comment
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Re: Grand Sports (long)
Everett -
I did a great deal of research on the Grand Sports before spending two years building one which I finished in 1996 (the D&D Tube-Frame Grand Sport Coupe Replica, which has recently been bought out by E.R.A., the Cobra Replica folks - I wrote the E.R.A. Grand Sport Assembly Manual for them); if you have the November, 1997 issue of VETTE magazine, there's a 4-page color feature on it - also a color feature in the May, 1997 issue of Petersen's KIT CAR magazine. Helluva car - 2346 pounds soaking wet, ran low 12's at 118mph on street tires. I worked in Chevrolet Engineering for Zora in the Corvette Group in '68 and '69, so I had access to lots of detailed Grand Sport information not generally known outside of Chevrolet. I had P.S. Engineering (Torrance, California) cast and machine me a set of exact replica Halibrand KO's for it, as Phil has the original Halibrand patterns. I agonized for months about the tires, wanting the car to be absolutely faithful to the originals, but after looking at some used Blue Streaks (as Lou describes) and the new ones currently available, I decided against using any of them due to their extremely thin carcass and tread section; I DROVE the car, and Blue Streaks (or their cousin, the Stock Car Specials) have virtually no resistance at all to common road hazards that don't even faze a modern street tire. I wound up using the Goodyear "Eagle #1" radial tires with the big yellow lettering as a safety compromise (235/60x15's on 8" rims on the front, 255/60x15's on 10" rims on the rear), and they looked suitably nasty while providing good street performance and safety. I even talked to Goodyear about making me a set of Blue Streaks with conventional radial carcass/tread construction, but the cost was prohibitive (understatement of the century). Blue Streaks (the race version, not the street tire they CALLED a Blue Streak) and Stock Car Specials are strictly race tires, suitable only for racing or show. JohnComment
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks (and Grand Sports)
Apparently the original usage of Blue Streaks happened with the Goodyear sponsorship of Camoradi USA in 1960. This is alleged to have been Goodyear's FIRST foray into the world of Sports Car Racing. As for wear, I am told that the Camoradi Corvette was driven to Le Mans, practiced, received a new set of Blue Streaks for the race and completed the race on one set of tires - 1/3 tread remaining on the fronts, 1/4 remaining on the rears; at which time they changed the tires and drove back to Modena, Italy. I am also told - by a reliable source - that Goodyear has recently discontinued their replacement Blue Streak - true or false?Comment
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks (and Grand Sports)
The original Blue Streaks up to about '63 were streetable and long lived. Beginning in late '63 racing tire technology advanced rapidly. Softer compounds, lower profiles, and reduction in tread pattern void ratio made them progrssively more specialized for racing and less "steetable". I assume the reproduction Blue Steaks you refer to are those currently available from the GY vintage racing catalog. All of these are of a later design than the original tires from the era when the "drivers were fat, and the tires were skinny", which ended by late '63. I don't think there ever was a street tire that carried the Blue Streak name, but Goodyear did offer a high performance street tire, circa 1963, called the Wingfoot Special. This tire was supposedly a street version of the Blue Streak. Recently, Goodyear has brought back the Wingfoot name, but they are an "appearance" tire, not a true high performance tire.
DukeComment
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks (and Grand Sports)
There were street Goodyear Blue Streaks available in the sixties. There was a version installed on a '66 GT-350 with small RWLs and NO blue narrow wall-the size was 6.95 x 14. There were also versions with blue narrow walls (just not originally installed on the Shelbys.) The '65 GT-350's (and early '66's) came with Blue Dot Goodyears. These were 7.75 x 15's. Just blackwalls with a blue dot on the sidewall. These were "Special high performance, nylon" tires (for their time, of course.) All of these versions are extremely difficult to find.Comment
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks (and Grand Sports)
Brant - thanks for updating/refreshing my memory. The 7.00-15 R-4s in my possession have the narrow blue line on both sides. Also the "Goodyear" is white (both sides), but the "Blue Streak Sports Car Special" lettering is not. These tires are not marked "racing use only" or any similar verbiage as I believe they predate the use of this convention, but they are directionally marked for front and rear use (opposite direction rotation for front and rear). These are definately racing tires, but their tread, compound, and casing construction made them suitable for street use, although this was probably the last purpose built racing tire that could be considered reasonably "streetable". To the best of my knowledge, these tires were manufactured in 1963. "Nylon" appears on the sidewall, but the number of plys is not listed. The sidewall rubber is thin - thinner that a street tire, but the sidewalls themselves are not unusually thin, which is why I suspect they are of four-ply construction. The sidewalls are extremely stiff due to the low cord angle. Your post indicated that there was a street "Blue Streak" without the narrow blue line OEM on '66 Shelby GT 350s. Did the sidewall contain the words "Sports Car Special"? To the best of my knowledge, any "Blue Streak" that also included the words "Sports Car Special" are pupose built racing tires and had the narrow blue lines. I think my question is did the street "Blue Streaks" you or anyone else has spoken of have either the thin blue stripe or the words "Sports Car Special" molded into the sidewall?
DukeComment
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Re:Vintage Goodyear Blue Streaks
You can get the Vintage Blue Streak sports Car Special from Sasco Sports they come in sizes 6.00,7.00,8.00 all X 15 call Charlie Gibson @ 877-377-7811 I believe they might be dot approved alsoComment
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Re:Vintage Goodyear Blue Streaks
Thanks for the tip, but I'm sure the tires they offer are from the current Goodyear Vintage Racing Tire Catalog. The 7.00-15 is a much later design than the '63 vintage 7.00-15 that I have. A friend of mine runs the currently available 7.00-15 vintage racing tires on the rear of his Safir GT-40: 6.00-15s on the front.
DukeComment
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Street Blue Streaks
I'm running a set of street Blue Streaks on my '64 right now. They are 7.75x15 tires that were probably made in the late sixties. The side walls say "Goodyear Blue Streak HP" in small raised white letters. Inside of that is a blue line about 1/4" wide. Inside of the blue line is a whitewall stripe about 3/4" wide. Yes, that's right, they have raised white letters, a blue stripe, AND a whitewall.
Plymouth ran magazine ads in the late sixties showing a Barracuda with Blue Streaks on it. Those tires had raised white letters and blue lines, but no whitewalls. I guess those tires were probably a Mopar factory option. However, I don't remember seeing any in the showrooms back then. The one set I saw on the street was installed by the car owner.Comment
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Re: Goodyear Blue Streaks (and Grand Sports)
Duke, The tires that I mentioned did not have "sports car special" on them. I have had the ones without "sports car special" in both black wall and blue line. As another post mentioned, I think the blue lines may have been installed on a Mopar of some sort. I sold a set like this in a 7.35 x 14 to a guy with a Barracuda. BrantComment
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