Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

[Peter G.]

Need help with this. I am going back and forth with this decision.

I am restoring another set of rally wheels and will put some tires on them. I can't decide if I want whitewalls or raised white letters on the tires?

The whitewall tires are correct size GR70-15 thin white walls Uniroyals.

The raised white letters are P225/75-15 Goodyear Eagle GT II.

The numbers on the production books is the whitewalls were not as common as the RWL tires.

If this helps the Corvette is a '73 and color is Millie Miglia Red with Black interior.

Does anyone have any pics of both?

Thanks.

[Peter G.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Thanks for some of the poll results. Keep them coming!!

Some info: the whitewall tires are the correct size so it makes the car look older somewhat more like the late 60's sharks and the raised white letters make the car look more like the late 70's sharks.

The raised white letter tires are wider and fatter as they are the current P-Metric sizing.

I guess my dilema with a 1973 car which is right in the middle of both models of C3 Corvettes.

Another thought: all the brochures and pictures of see from Chevrolet of the 1973 Corvette model has "whitewalls" on the car in the picture.

Just some thoughts from me. Anyone out there with your thoughts? All are welcome and especially from any '73 Corvette owners.

Thanks.

[Robert R.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Peter,
The ' 73 coupe I had back in the day came with Whitewalls (Elkhart Green and rallye wheels) but the whitewall, as I remember, was very thin.

My current car (Medium Blue, convertible) was a clean slate (no original wheels nor spare to compare), so I went with the '76 aluminum wheel and those PV41 blackwalls.
The tread is aggresive and when the tire is shined, it fills the wheel well nicely. Plus the aluminum wheels looks like ' 73s should have looked all along.

Bob Ricchio

(Will have pix of the car posted soon)

[Peter G.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Robert, you're right. The whitewall on '73 cars were a "thin" stripe maybe a 1/4 inch wide. My whitewall tires are these thin stripes.

Your setup sounds good. A high performance tire and I think blackwalls look great on aluminum wheels. '76 or '67 aluminums.

Would like to see the PIC of your car with this setup.

[Peter G.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Thanks to everyone who partisipated in the poll and responded to this post.

Looks like the majority opinion is Raised White Letters.

Thanks again.

[Alan S.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Peter,
I have a red 71 coupe that came with Firestone RWL tires. I liked it VERY much in 71. I much prefer blackwalls now.
Regards,
Alan

PS: With no tire shine!!!

[Robert R.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Peter -
Go to this link, I was finally able to get pictures of the car as we discussed. 1973 Sting Ray Pictures
Thank you for your interest
Bob

[Peter G.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Bob, thanks for your work and effort. Nice pictures. You have a beauty there in that "73! I especially like your personlized license plates.

[Robert R.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Peter,
Just when you think you know a lot about how to navigate the "electronic highway" you find that there is still much more to "travel / learn". I had originally wanted to post just the closeups of the tires for your viewing, so as to not bore you with the other shots, but ended up showing all.

The tires are Firestone Firehawk Police Pursuits P225x70-15 and they are great!

Thanks for your comments. It has been 10 years that I have been the owner of this convertible. And it probably will never get to where I really want it to be.

As to the plate, I submitted it never thinking it would be available, and "Wa-La", they showed up.
So what did you go with? RWL or Stripes?

Bob

[Peter G.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Bob, I had mounted up thin white stripe tires, but because one tire out of the four would not seal as a tubless tire and i was considering putting a tube in the tire. After much thought of safety I decided to mount my RWL tires that were all tubless.

I should be receiving any day now my new license plates. Colorado just went to a "personalized" auto "Collector Plate" and I should have.... "RPO-LS4".

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Whitewalls or Raised White Letters?

Hi I have a triple black 66 convertable that had raised white letters that I blacked out and it looks better than it did w/ the white. just a thought Jeff