67 Tire Brand and Design

[Robert M.]

What brand 775x15 black wall tire came standard. Did early cars come with a scalloped edged tire and later cars come with a smooth edge tire?

[Michael J.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Rob, they came in Goodyear Power Cushion, Firestone Deluxe Champion, Uniroyal Laredo, BFG Silvertown 660 or 770, and General Jet Air II. All nylon IIRC and 2 ply with a 4 ply rating, and the tire edges design depended on the OEM brand.

[Robert M.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Thanks Michael.that's a big help. I was most interested in knowing if the tire design depended on the build date of the car.

[Dennis O.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

My new '67 had Uniroyal Laredo blackwalls from the factory. I immediately took them off and sold them to Uncle Louie for $10.00 because I had purchased a set of double white-strip premium tires from Gamble-Skogmo. How things have changed!

[Robert M.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Dennis, it is great to hear from someone that also drove a 67 when it was new! You have a few years on me. I could not afford a 67 new and did not get my first until the end of 1969.

[Joe L.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Thanks Michael.that's a big help. I was most interested in knowing if the tire design depended on the build date of the car.

Robert------


If it did, no one has ever figured out what the relationship was. Why" Well, the vast majority of folks that have owned 1967 Corvettes in the last, say, 30 years have no idea what brand tires were originally installed. So, it would be pretty difficult to come up with any kind of survey data.

[Michael J.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Thanks Michael.that's a big help. I was most interested in knowing if the tire design depended on the build date of the car.

You're welcome, I don't think design was build date related, at least there is nothing in the new '67 TIM&JG that would indicate anything like that.

[Michael J.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

My brother owned a Goodyear store around that time period, I used to work there busting tires on weekend in high school. I remember, as it was just down the street from a Chevy dealer, '66 and '67s coming in from that dealer and the owners wanting the brand new Uniroyal or other off brand tires, as they saw them, replaced by Goodyear Blue Streak tires the race cars used. My brother did a great business taking the new OEM tires in trade and selling very expensive Blue Streaks to the Corvette guys.

[Dennis O.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Dennis, it is great to hear from someone that also drove a 67 when it was new! You have a few years on me. I could not afford a 67 new and did not get my first until the end of 1969.

Robert,

Thanks for the recognition. I have one interesting story. My car was an L79 coupe with 3.70 rear end gears. I never specified what transmission it had, but I believe it would have been a CR with those gears. For the first year I had the car, I didn't race anybody, because I figured it was "just a small block". About that time, Steve Hendrickson (yeah, that Steve Hendrickson) and I bought a '65 GTO with a blown engine for $500 from the Buick Dealership where he worked. We found a rebuilt 421 out of a Gran Prix and installed it. We had a couple of problems, but ended up with a pretty good car. One night, after consuming some adult beverages, I told him that the GTO "didn't seem that fast" to me. A half hour later, we were out on the quarter mile strip he had marked off on a county road north of town. Long story short, I smoked the GTO quite badly. After that, I raced a few folks; 383 Road Runners and the like were no problem and I don't remember ever running into any big block Corvettes or major Mopar muscle (hemi's and 440 6-packs). Just lucky, I guess.

I was there.

[Robert M.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Robert,

Thanks for the recognition. I have one interesting story. My car was an L79 coupe with 3.70 rear end gears. I never specified what transmission it had, but I believe it would have been a CR with those gears. For the first year I had the car, I didn't race anybody, because I figured it was "just a small block". About that time, Steve Hendrickson (yeah, that Steve Hendrickson) and I bought a '65 GTO with a blown engine for $500 from the Buick Dealership where he worked. We found a rebuilt 421 out of a Gran Prix and installed it. We had a couple of problems, but ended up with a pretty good car. One night, after consuming some adult beverages, I told him that the GTO "didn't seem that fast" to me. A half hour later, we were out on the quarter mile strip he had marked off on a county road north of town. Long story short, I smoked the GTO quite badly. After that, I raced a few folks; 383 Road Runners and the like were no problem and I don't remember ever running into any big block Corvettes or major Mopar muscle (hemi's and 440 6-packs). Just lucky, I guess.

I was there.

Great Story! I close my eyes and I was back there too.

[Robert M.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

My brother owned a Goodyear store around that time period, I used to work there busting tires on weekend in high school. I remember, as it was just down the street from a Chevy dealer, '66 and '67s coming in from that dealer and the owners wanting the brand new Uniroyal or other off brand tires, as they saw them, replaced by Goodyear Blue Streak tires the race cars used. My brother did a great business taking the new OEM tires in trade and selling very expensive Blue Streaks to the Corvette guys.

Michael, boy do I remember the Blue Streaks! The one guy that could afford a new 67 L71 we all thought was a blow hard. That is the first thing he did, change the tires to Blue Streaks. The second thing he did was take off the vacumn carb linkage and throw it away. Everyone replaced it with progressive mechanical linkage. Funny thing, this is the car I bought in 1969 for $3850!:-)

[Michael J.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Michael, boy do I remember the Blue Streaks! The one guy that could afford a new 67 L71 we all thought was a blow hard. That is the first thing he did, change the tires to Blue Streaks. The second thing he did was take off the vacumn carb linkage and throw it away. Everyone replaced it with progressive mechanical linkage. Funny thing, this is the car I bought in 1969 for $3850!:-)

I have often wondered why the L71 had the vacuum linkage, most everyone with multi-carb setups in the day had progressive.

[Robert M.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

I have often wondered why the L71 had the vacuum linkage, most everyone with multi-carb setups in the day had progressive.

Michael, it was a gimmick. Chevy was pushing economy and performance. As long as you drove normally the car ran on a two barrel. When you put your foot down the other two carbs opned up and it was vacumn controlled. Total junk!

[Robert M.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

My brother owned a Goodyear store around that time period, I used to work there busting tires on weekend in high school. I remember, as it was just down the street from a Chevy dealer, '66 and '67s coming in from that dealer and the owners wanting the brand new Uniroyal or other off brand tires, as they saw them, replaced by Goodyear Blue Streak tires the race cars used. My brother did a great business taking the new OEM tires in trade and selling very expensive Blue Streaks to the Corvette guys.

Believe it or not my car with the original tank sticker came with bolt on wheels and black wall tires. The car currently has repro wheels and bias ply red lines. I just bought a set of 5 original bolt on wheels and I am thinking of putting bias ply black walls on them, should I decide to put them on the are. Your opinion is welcome. The car is Goodwood Greem/black with a white stinger.

[Patrick B.]

Re: 67 Tire Brand and Design

Michael, boy do I remember the Blue Streaks! The one guy that could afford a new 67 L71 we all thought was a blow hard. That is the first thing he did, change the tires to Blue Streaks. The second thing he did was take off the vacumn carb linkage and throw it away. Everyone replaced it with progressive mechanical linkage. Funny thing, this is the car I bought in 1969 for $3850!:-)

Holley 4 bbl carbs with mechanical linkage to the secondaries also had a secondary accelerator pump to supply fuel during the period between opening the secondary butterflys and getting enough airflow to draw fuel though the jets - hence the term " Holley double pumper". The 4 bbls with vacuum secondaries had no secondary accelerator pumps because the secondaries opened gradually as the airflow increased.

The 3- 2bbl system was analogous to the vacuum secondary 4 bbl. The end carbs have no accelerator pumps and to force them open suddenly with mechanical linkages will simply cause a huge stumble. Unless different end carbs with accelerator pumps were used with the mechanical linkage there would certainly be a performance loss rather than gain. I kept the vacuum linkage on my first Corvette - a junky 67 L-71 coupe in 1971, and I'll keep them on my present 67 L-71 convertible restoration project.