Vintage looking radial tires

[KenMaisano]

I would like to put a set of Radial tires on my 69 Z. But I hate to loose the original look. coker sells these. Did Firestones ever come on a 69 Z?

https://www.cokertire.com/tires/styl...adial-rwl.html

[bigsixman]

Firestones did come on a 69 Z/28 but it was the sport car 200 style tire which looks entirely different.

[NorCam]

Ken...

The 69's only used Bias ply and either came with Goodyear Wide Tread GT's, or the Firestone Sports Car 200's on some late year builds. Not fun driving on either of them for most people, and that is why so many owners change them out. Many who want to retain that vintage look end up mounting Polyglas belted bias ply tires, or the Firestone Wide Ovals which are also belted. Coker just started making a radial version of the Wide Ovals but they don't have that typical squared off look that the bias ply tires have. They are more rounded and kinda look like many of the modern radials? Click here for a Yenko thread with those who have swapped them onto their cars. I still don't think they are offering the 60's series quite yet and have watched their release dates push back continually through 2017.

Maybe keep the originals off to the side and mount something more modern if you want a good handling tire for highway cruising, or stick it out with with either of the bias ply series? I am not a fan of the tread patterns or handling on either of the (2) correct tires and with so many people going Polyglass on their Camaro's, I decided to mount up the Belted Firestone Wide Ovals which are actually correct for 70 Z/28's. I just mounted the wheels back on the car an hour ago and still need to go and dig out the trim rings & derby caps. I'm hoping these drive well when I get this back on the road.

[William]

Originally Posted by NorCam

Ken...

The 69's only used Bias ply and either came with Goodyear Wide Tread GT's, or the Firestone Sports Car 200's on some late year builds.

I have noted this a few times recently; time to nip it in the bud.

Firestone Sport Car 200 tires were used on Z/28s and a few COPOs for the entire model year. The October 1968 Motor Trend has a color photo of a Garnet Red Z/28 with Firestones. The one-owner Z/28-RS featured in the front of JM's '69 Camaro book was built with Firestones, on or about February 20, 1969. There are other vintage magazine photos of Z/28s with Firestones.

In the early '80s I checked out a survivor 79 B Yenko built 03B at SC-Reading; still had an original SC200 spare. Probably very rare on a COPO as few were built with COPO 9737.

[KenMaisano]

Thanks guys. Has anyone put any freeways miles on the Firestone radials yet? I would only purchase them if they make a major difference on the ride.

[Crush]

I'm subscribing!

[travlnz28]

They made a big difference in the ride on my Chevelle but the bias ply tires that were on the car were 20 years old so maybe not a completely fair comparison.

[Bill Rose]

I have the new Wide Oval Radials on my 69 Nova and they handle great. They feel way better than the Wide Oval Bias Ply tires I had on the car. These new radials handle like any other radial tires.

[MosportGreen66]

I put them on our LS6 Chevelle (will post pics later). The tire is a radial. Period. The only thing bias ply about it is the vanity. They’re wonder tires and ride like modern radials because they are modern radials. Only issue is that they don’t smoke well

Dan

[92646]

Has anybody tried the red line vintage look radial tires? I have bias ply tires on my 69 Nova with manual steering and I thought the radial tires might be a nice improvement with the steering effort but only if the tires have the right look.