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My car: a 1970 W30 442 in need of new tires, I have a picture of the original owner in the car with Goodyear bias plays on it. My issue: this car is a great driver, that I do drive, I am hesitant to put bias plys on her, both due to ride and the cost.
I'm not sure how to proceed, my desire would be radials that look great and perform. I am bummed out that in this day and age there are so FEW ALTERNATIVES, I can buy a complete aluminum Pontiac engine ( and likely Olds?), BUT THERE IS NO TIRE MANUFACTURER ABLE TO SUPPLY A DECENT 14" PERFORMANCE RADIAL THAT LOOKS GOOD?!?
Apologies for the caps rant, I have an older restoration trans am car with decent Goodyear Eagles, I'm not such a fan of BFG to put them on a classic ride. I though I had heard someone was going radials with the bias ply look sided, however I did not find this site....?
So help, do I bow down and buy the ugly a$$ BFGs or is there a better, somewhat cost effective sly? ( and if you know someone that works for Goodyear or firestone - band their ear on what they may be missing!
14s are becoming a problem to find. Many have switched to 15" wheels, which are not visually different in any obvious way, to increase their possible tire choices.
Trouble with 15's is the fronts rub the fenders when you turn. I've got them on my 70 convertible. No I'm not going to trim the fender on my vintage Olds.
I'm looking for tires as well, if I find anything other than the handful that are prevalent I'll post it up.
Trouble with 15's is the fronts rub the fenders when you turn.
Sorry, but this makes no sense. 15" is the rim size, not the tire size.
You use a shorter-height tire on a 15" rim than on a 14" rim, and the overall size remains the same.
You know what dude, you know full well what I mean. And so does everyone else who has this dilemma or is looking for normal looking tires and not some rubber band size hoopty wheel.
Trouble with 15's is the fronts rub the fenders when you turn. I've got them on my 70 convertible. No I'm not going to trim the fender on my vintage Olds.
Something must be different about your setup as my '70 Supreme had 225-70-15s on it all through the 80s with no issues. In the 90s I had 235-60-15s up front and 255-60-15s in back, again no issues with the fronts rubbing.
The only time I had the fronts rub was when the tire shop mistakenly put a 255-60-15 on one front wheel, and it rubbed on hard turns.
I don't understand what the Op is asking here. Is he looking for original style tires in a radial form to keep the car original or a modern radial that will work on his car. He mentioned Goodyear and a radial version of those are available through Lucas tire. http://www.lucasclassictires.com/Goodyear_c15.htm
I recently went to belted F'Stone Wide Ovals F70-14. They drive better than I expected and look GREAT! I do notice some more on-center wander but I'm not auto-crossing it.
225 70 15s up front on 15 x7 and 275 60 15s out back on 15 x 8 with 4.5" BS. Nothing rubs. This is a great stance on any 1970-1972 A body.
14" rims are for judged shows. If you are driving your car buy the reproduction SS1 or redo a set of 15 x 7" SS 11/111 and mount on your car with good 15" rubber from BFG or Mickey T. Note the 15 x 7 is suited to a 255 60 15 rear tire. Many guys mount 275 60s on factory 15 x7 rims but tire companies do not recommend it & the tire does look bulged to my eyes when mounted. Use 215 70 15s up front if you go with 255 60 15s out back.
Okay thanks you guys. All your cars look great. I took a look at my car and they are indeed 225/70/15(275/60/15 on the back). Though they are on 8" rims, wonder if that makes a difference. Or I need to lose a few pounds. That's true anyway.
Sorry David, wasn't trying to make your post about me. Though there's been some good information put up here.
Oldsmobiledave got me to thinking. Though I couldn't retain my deluxe full wheel covers like I want. Hm.
Last edited by slantflat; Jul 7, 2016 at 03:25 PM.
Wheel diameter has no bearing on gas mileage, its the diameter of the tire. As stated wheel covers probably will not work. The reason you may have encountered some rubbing is weak springs lowering your car or wheel back spacing not compatible with your setup.
allyolds reported 245/15/60 with 7" (rims I think)... rubbed the sway bar on his 68 vert. But he also has a larger than stock sway bar according to him. So Id say 245/60/15s are about as large as you can go with stock sway bars. Im happy with the 235/60/15s up front, no rubbing.
I have the Firestone re-po wide oval. On 14" on my w-30.
There a horrible riding tire or theres something else going on, but the suspension is all new.
Im looking for either 15s or a 18inch combo, and keeping the originals
Thanks for all the replies and advice, I really don't want to go through the bother, expense, and storage to move to 15" rims. (At that point why stop at 15?��)
Ideally they would make a 14" radial that has the original Goodyear or Firestone sidewall, or something reasonably close (which isn't the case with Lucas from what I saw Eric, they are all true bias ply). Something like like the old Eagle STs would be decent. The coopers and others don't look much better, in my humble view.
I may end up buying the BFGs and going black wall.
The name says it all. A leader in the industry for years, Lucas Classic Tires stocks all the popular sizes of Goodyear Classic Radials, Performance Series and Collector Series tires.
I know they look like bias plys, give them a call.
I talked to Lucas this afternoon, all the Goodyear and Firestone tire repos they sell are bias ply, the guy on the phone was helpful, not incredibly knowledgable, the only option he suggested they have is BFGs for 14s.
My point: if someone would manufacture / offer a decent looking close assimilate to the OEM, in a radial, for a reasonable price, they would sell a few tires IMHO, apparently their market research tells them otherwise.
