The speed rating of the Coker radial goldline is S (112mph). Sounds to me like a good street compromise between the original bias and a modern tire, if you want the original look. I used to feel really cool driving around on "V" rated tires, but after 5 years I still had not been up to 149mph. I think I did maybe 112 once. Back in the day we used to do 100+ on tires which today would probably be rated "Don't even park the car with these"!
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Re: Follow-up to recent '66 tire thread...
One thing to consider is that "S" rated tires (or non-speed-rated tires) do not have sprial wound nylon cap belts. Such a belt, which is the general rule for tires rated "H" or above will usually prevent the tire from disintegrating if there is an internal structural failure due to a defect or from overheating due to insufficient pressure for speed and/or load conditions, whether the insufficient pressure is from operator neglect or a slow leak.
Installing high speed rated tires is a safety issue as much as a performance issue, perhaps even more so! It's like building a 7500 RPM bottom end for your engine that you don't expect to ever rev over 6500. I like bulletproof engines and bulletproof tires.
All of the tires that failed on SUVs in recent years, resulting in several hundred needless deaths and many more injuries, lacked nylon cap belts. Though many of these accidents involved operator neglect, the tires were built to the absolute minimum standards that were developed over 30 years ago and had virtually no saftey margin. Meanwhile we are driving much heavier vehicles at higher average speeds.
A blown engine usually won't kill you or wreck your car, but a tire failure sure as hell can!!!
Something to think about.
Duke -
So you would agree tire safety...
...means that upgrading to steel-belted radial tires over the original bias ply-no belt tires (which we probably all drove over 100mph) is a good idea, unless you have some compelling car-show trophy reason to use original type tires.
BTW, the vast majority of the Firestone tire related SUV accidents involved tread separation, not blowouts (just like the '70's Firestone 721 Radial, which NO ONE seems to remember). Also, no one seems to understand how tread failure can cause a rollover at any legal speed. Check out this link for C&D's attempt to figure it out.
Car and DriverComment
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Re: So you would agree tire safety...
I actually believe that the bias ply tires of yore were safer than current cheap radials without nylon cap belts, buy this does not include the current repro bias plys, which are suitable for little more that rolling on and off the trailer. Tread separations were almost unheard of until the advent of cheap steel belted radials without nylon cap plys that are built to the minimum DOT standards.
I would never buy a radial without nylon cap plys or with a UTQG rating of less than A A, and that eliminates any with speed ratings of "S" or less.
In many of these recent tread separation incidents the tire lost the entire tread and belt package, but the radial casing still held air. The rollovers are due to driver panic - hitting the brakes or incorrect steering inputs for such an emergency, and the vehicle goes off the road. If an SUV, it has a good chance of rolling due to the high CG. The average American driver has virtually no vehicle control skills to handle a sudden tire failure or other emergency. If pilots were as unskilled as drivers there would be jumbo jet crashes every week.
We might as well put driver's licnenses in cereal boxes. From a practical standpoint, that's what California is doing now, but I suspect we'll have a new Gov in a couple of weeks to do something about that.
DukeComment
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It's no better here...
...Kid next door failed three time 'cause she couldn't parallell park. Of course, there is no freeway driving and no emergency situation in the driving test. If there were, half the body shops and insurance companies in the country would go out of business. Of course, half the country would have to take the bus...Comment
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Re: So you would agree tire safety...
I remember the Firestone 721 Radials well. I bought five, and out of the five, I adjusted fifteen tires. When the government mandated a recall the local firestone store said my tires were not covered in the recall even though I went in with another separation failure. He wanted me to pay (again) to get new tires. I told him "No Thanks", in so many words, and never bought another Firestone tire.
The separated tread seen along the highways previously were called "gaters" by truckers are not called "Firestones", with good reason.
VerleComment
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