Goodyear tires

[bkhpah]

The tires I have been talking about are from the Chevrolet line only...BKH

[tom406]

Re-reading the original post, and confining our discussion to Chevrolet examples, I think it is safe to make some assumptions. Kelsey appears to be using the Dec '69 no-size/size cutoff for all Polyglas tires, GT or non. The fact that the '70 LS6 prototype was wearing sized Polyglas F-70-14 in the Oct '69 issue of CARS shows that the sized tires were available before this. My faith in the Dec '69 date is for Polyglas GT tires, the F-60-15 size in particular. There is ample evidence that the 14" Polyglas versions had the sizes on them earlier than December. But as BKH alludes, were 14" Polyglas tires even available as OEM on the '69 Chevrolets? Noone has yet offered an example of an original '69 Camaro or Chevelle with F-70-14 Polyglas tires, just the Wide Treads. If you have an untouched low mileage car, particularly a late '69 production car, please take a minute to check the spare and report your findings!

[JoeC]

Kelsey Tire may be correct that the Polyglas tire was not used by Chevy until 12/69. I remember reading something about Chevy Engineering being slow to approve the polyglas tires for high speed applications. Chevy stuck with the old design nylon cord Wide Thread GT and Speedway tires on the hi performance cars and Corvette until the Polyglas tires had been real-would tested by the other manufactures.

[Rowdy Rat]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JoeC: I remember reading something about Chevy Engineering being slow to approve the polyglas tires for high speed applications. Chevy stuck with the old design nylon cord Wide Thread GT and Speedway tires on the hi performance cars and Corvette until the Polyglas tires had been real-world tested by the other manufactures. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Joe is absolutely correct on this aspect. In fact, Corvettes never used fiberglass belted tires for this very reason. Duntov was quoted as saying that the Corvette required a tire capable of 140 mph speeds and the nylon belted tires were the only ones that met his criteria. Nylon belted tires were used in Corvette applications until they were replaced by radial tires for the 1973 model year.

Regards,

Stan Falenski

[Keith Tedford]

From what I can recall, '69 SS Chevelles didn't get Goodyear Polyglas tires. Z/28s got the Goodyear Wide Tread GT tires which were entirely different and totally useless in the traction department. Personal experience.
All I can remember '69 SS Chevelles with was Uniroyal and Firestone but others may have been used.

[tom406]

It's not a Chevy, but we just got in a '69 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler, Dan Gurney edition, with original everything, including the spare. It's a no-size on the sidewall Polyglas, F70-14. The car was built 5/69. Again, not Chevy specific, but it helps give an idea of the timeframe of size vs. no-size production by Goodyear in '69.