78 Pace Car Tires

[David G.]

I have two 78 Pace cars that I believe have the original tires. One car I have had for 12+ years is a Canadian Export car with 35,000 kilometers on the odometer. I'd have to google how many miles that is. haha
The other car I just recently acquired with less than 600 miles. Neither of these cars has the recently introduced Kelsey reproduction tires installed. However both cars have two tires with TPC Specs 1032 embossed above the Goodyear verbiage and two tires that do not have the TPC markings. Is it true that only the TPC marked tires came form the factory?

[Tom R.]

Re: 78 Pace Car Tires

I have two 78 Pace cars that I believe have the original tires. One car I have had for 12+ years is a Canadian Export car with 35,000 kilometers on the odometer. I'd have to google how many miles that is. haha
The other car I just recently acquired with less than 600 miles. Neither of these cars has the recently introduced Kelsey reproduction tires installed. However both cars have two tires with TPC Specs 1032 embossed above the Goodyear verbiage and two tires that do not have the TPC markings. Is it true that only the TPC marked tires came form the factory?

I'm attaching a linke to an article I wrote on the P255 Pace Car tires. if tire supply was left over, they were distributed to tire stores for sales. So its highly possible they were sold over the counter. Only us in these modern times place value over tire codes and labels. back then...they were just tires to be sold. In general, TPC code indicates tires manufactured per the OEM specifications and therefore standard equipment. No TPC code indicates tires meant to be sold over the counter.

The date code on the back side is key to when they tire was manufactured.

http://hunt4cleanair.net/Articles/KelseyP255.pdf