1969 Tires

[Bill Stephens]

I have a 1969 and I am getting ready to replace the tires. There are G60-15s on the car now, but one web site I saw said that original equipment was f70-15.

I'd like to find out whether this was indeed the original tire and if there's a big performance difference between the two. Also, I'd like to know whether original equipment was black wall, white wall, or raised lettering. Thanks.

[Dave S.]

Re: 1969 Tires

Bill,

F X 70 X 15 was the original size. Either white stripe(WS), Raised White Letter(RWL) or Blackwall(BW) was possible. Original equipment was either Goodyear Speedway or Firestone Wide Oval and they were Nylon cord. Originals are available if you look but are very difficult to drive on as the Nylon cord design was poor. Goodyear (through Kelsey Tire) makes the best RWL reproduction. The white stripe reproductions are not great. This tire style was used from 69-72.

[Joe L.]

Re: 1969 Tires

Dave and Bill-----

Red Line was also available-----the last year for Red Line tires on a Corvette.

F-60-15 tires, although never original used on a Corvette, work well, too. I used Goodyear Polyglas F-60-15 tires on my 69 after the original Goodyear Speedway Wide Treads wore out. In fact, I used several sets until they went out of general availabilty and radials became about all you could buy. In my opinion, the F-60-15 Polyglas were the best handling tires I ever used on the car. They were rough riding, but gave the car "slot car" handling characteristics.

Kelsey has them available again in reproduction so I'm thinking that I might just........

[Donald S.]

Re: 1969 Tires

Bill,

Raised white lettered tries were not available until later in the 1969 production year (September, I believe).
Don Smith #28087

[Daniel Grunwald]

Re: 1969 Tires

Bill,
I put a set of Michelin X ones on my 70 in size 215-70-15. They have a narrow white stripe,(just barely under 1/2 inch), and they seem to handle and stick very well. The narrow whites are not too plentiful but these are regular production tires. There may be detail differences but the look and handling will please you. I also have some red lines from Diamondback Classics on my 67 and they will do the red line on the tire of your choice if you want to go that way.
Daniel

[Daniel Grunwald]

Re: 1969 Tires

Bill, Just another note. If you look at my post on the tire clearance problems with the red lines posted in this forum you will see that I may have a new set of red line tires to sell that would fit your car if I cannot get sufficient clearance on my 67. grung3@inil.com
Thanks, Daniel