69vette

[Lee T.]

I purchase a set of Firestone F70-15 White pin-stripe bias ply tires (wide-o-val) from Coker tire last week. The told me they were 'just like the origials'.
What I've received doesn't appear to be as originals. I have an original tire (spare) with my car, a 1969 Roadster, which is a Firestone white pin-stripe (wide-o-val) F70-15. When my car was judged at a NCRS event two years ago, I was told by the judging team my spare was an original.
Concerns:
1. The number of treads differ (5 vs 6).
2. The lettering (ie. size, Firestone, etc) on my original tire is outside of the white wall, while the lettering on the Coker tire is on the inside of the whitewall (between the white wall and rim).
3. The white wall on the Coke tire is closer to the rim than is my original (approx 1/2" closer).

Can someone tell me if the Coker tire is legitimate as far as original replacement and suitable for 100% of the judging points?
Is there another tire manufactorer out there that makes the Firestone Wide-O-Vals today?

[Dick W.]

Re: 69vette

The only tire that is very close to the original is the Kelsey Goodyears. They take a minor hit for the variation in the DOT code. No one, that I know of, makes a correct Firestone. The problem you have with the Cokers was identified probably 15 years ago and they are still selling the same tire.

[Joe L.]

Re: 69vette

Lee-----

As Dick mentioned, the closest-to-original tire on the market today is the Goodyear Speedway Wide Tread available from Kelsey Tire.

The Firestone Wide Oval tire available exclusively from Coker (or, their dealers) is not really a reproduction of the tire used on Corvettes during the 68-72 model years. It's SIMILAR to those tires but absolutely not a reproduction. It's much closer to the original tire used on other cars of the period. One major difference between the current Firestone tire and the originals used on Corvettes is the tire's construction. The reproductions are FIBERGLASS BELTED. Corvettes during 1968-72 did not use a belted tire. That's why you will note the "Sup-R-Belt" on the sidewall of the reproduction and not on the original Corvette tire. The other feature differences in the current reproduction versus the original Corvette tires (e.g. number of tread grooves, etc.) are related to the construction differences in the belted versus non-belted Wide Ovals. Corvette was one of the few cars of the period that used a non-belted tire. I suppose that's why Coker elected to reproduce the version they have available-----there are a lot more collector cars for which this tire is original or near-original than there are 68-72 Corvettes looking for reproduction tires.

One advantage of the Coker reproduction, though, is the fact that a belted tire will perform better on the road and will last longer than the original-style Corvette non-belted tires. The ride is a bit harsher, though, and I believe that's one of the main reasons that they were not originally used on 68-72 Corvettes----the Corvette's ride was already harsh enough and the engineers didn't want to do anything to make it worse.