Vintage Slicks/Fitment Question

[Daniel S.]

Hi Gents,

I am looking to purchase a pair of vintage Blue Streak slicks as a vintage flair for my Corvette. It is an NCRS Duntov winning '66 L72 Coupe.

Will a 29 inch tall, 10.5 inch wide slick fit in the rear of the car without any modification and/or damage to the car's virgin-no hit body? I would run a 15x6 inch wheel. These are for show purposes only.

Much appreciated.

Dan

[Duke W.]

Re: Vintage Slicks/Fitment Question

I doubt it, but it depends on wheel offset. What specific tire are you talking about? I'm not aware of any currently available vintage racing tires that are 29" OD. Also, a 6" wheel is probably too narrow for the width of this tire. It won't look right.

The Goodyear vintage Blue Streak 5.50-15 G-12 should work. The 6.00-15 G-7 might work and is the most "period correct" being very close to the tire that Penske ran on his '66 Couple on 7" or maybe 8" wheels at Daytona and Sebring, but the car had slightly radiused fenders and small riveted-on flares, which were FIA legal. The 6.00-15 G-7 is much wider than the 5.50 and my guess is it won't work, but you'll have to make some measurements and maybe makeup some cardboard templates to check clearances. Both are about 25.5" OD and are treaded, not slicks. True slicks didn't show up until the early seventies.

Unless you're willing to shave the fender flanges/bonding strips at the tops of the fender openings (see nearby thread - Pirelli P4000 Update), your wheel/tire width choices are very limited. - no more than about a 9" section width with 6.5" tread width and 27" or less OD, but the smaller the OD, the greater the section and tread width you can get away with.

You can find the dimension data for Goodyear vintage Blue Streaks on the Web.

Duke

[Daniel S.]

Re: Vintage Slicks/Fitment Question

Thanks for the great info, Duke.

Much appreciated.

Dan

[Tim S.]

Re: Vintage Slicks/Fitment Question

Daniel,

I can check with the owner of the Baldwin Motion "KoMotion" to see what size is on his car.

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=435826#Post435826

Tim

[Daniel S.]

Re: Vintage Slicks/Fitment Question

Thanks Tim,

I actually met Glenn at the Muscle Car and Corvette National show where he displayed the car. I was displaying a portion of my Motion Performance memorabilia collection.

While the stance on that car is perfect (for a drag car) it does have some rear end modifications.





Dan

[Tim S.]

Re: Vintage Slicks/Fitment Question

Just got an email back from Glen. Currently the Goodyears are 9". When the car was raced, he thought they were 10-10.5" M&H. Best of luck!

BTW. Those Blue Streaks rock! I love em! Are they reproducing them?

[Steven B.]

Re: Vintage Slicks/Fitment Question

Uncertain if you are talking drag slick or road race but doesn't matter. I just measuered a set of original Good Year Blue Streak Sports Car Specials that were ran on a '65 without fender mods. and stock dimension trailing arms. They are 5.00 X 15's, about 25 in. tall and 9 in. section width. The wheels used were 7 in. American Torq Thrusts. The fitment could have probably gone to 5.50's without mods. If you change offset watch the bearings and studs carefully.