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It was VERY tough to pass on the look of Wide Ovals! I’ll probably go with the BFGs radial TAs, still not 100 % sure what sizes. I’ve read a lot and thinking 225/70/15s. I’d like some input from owners who made this selection, do you wish you would have went wider, etc? Thanks for your input. 1971 coupe.
Last edited by grumman41; Jun 24, 2020 at 09:05 AM.
It was VERY tough to pass on the look of Wide Ovals! I’ll probably go with the BFGs radial TAs, still not 100 % sure what sizes. I’ve read a lot and thinking 225/70/15s. I’d like some input from owners who made this selection, do you wish you would have went wider, etc? Thanks for your input.
It depends on the year of your Corvette and the type of driving you do. If your car originally came with the 225s you can't go wrong with that because changing the size will lead to speedometer error. Early chrome bumpers really look good with the Firestone Wide Ovals though. My late C3s have the 255/60/15 BFGs and I like them a lot but they were originally ordered in that size.
i recently updated my 70 with these exact tires. The first set (4) had one tire with high road force that created a shake at 60 mph. The white letters on the tires also turned brown. All four tires were replaced. The second set (4) had another tire with high road force and resulted in shake at 60 mph. That tire was replaced and the road force was in spec and shake eliminated. Bottom line 2 out of 8 tires had high road force and resulted in shake. You may want to rethink going with BFG's. If you do make sure you have the installer record the road force number on each tire and put the lowest ones on the front. I had very good luck with my local Discount tire store helping to resolve the shake/load force problem on the tires.
JFG, surprised to hear you had so many issues with the BFGs. It’s been many years since I have run them (mid 90s) but they seemed to have good quality control during that time. Those Wide Ovals look so good I may have to re think those!
Just put a set of BFG's 245/60-15 all the way around on my 71 LT-1. run smooth as silk but...…...if white letters are important to you don't buy them. The letters are brown and you can't get them white...…..very disappointing.
The BF Goodrich Radial T/A tires aren't what they used to be. The Cooper Cobras are about the only choice left.
On a Chevrolet (not a Corvette ) I have that has (aftermarket imitation ) "Corvette Rallye" wheels, I'm running 215/70r15s on 15x7 wheels on the front and 255/60r15s on 15x7 wheels on the rear. The tires were better than I expected. Surprisingly good for both grip and ride quality.
The browning issue has been a problem since the 90s, surprised they have never fixed it.
Had a few sets of those coopers no complaints at all. Definitely like the tread pattern better over the bfg
I believe good tires are so important I just won't scrimp on them. I've run BFG tires for years on all of my Corvettes, my truck, my wife's cars, etc. Always found them to be the best bang for the buck. Goodyear always made a good tire but you paid a lot for their branding/name so it was hard to justify their extra high pricing. Michelin always made a top quality tire but not too much for the RWL muscle car crowd. Firestone simply had too many problems over the years from the separation problems with their 721 radial to the major issues with the Ford Explorers. I would never buy their tires. All that being said, I too have had issue with the brown lettering. I had a set replaced on my last Corvette by BFG without cost, which was nice but they still have not addressed the problem. And they DO have a problem. It's really a shame because they had pretty much captured the entire market for every muscle car era vehicle out there. Maybe they got the attitude that "we're just too big to fail" but then the public (us) wised up to their bleeding through issues and stopped buying. Nothing worse than a beautifully restored Corvette (Mustang, Chevelle, GTO, etc.) fully detailed at a car show, sporting brown letters. I would never let that happen. Buyers were very vocal but BFG wasn't listening, so people started buying elsewhere. This gave some of the budget brands a boost and some more visibility in the market.
When I bought my current Corvette and was ready to install tires, I finally decided to break with BFG after 25 years. I still wanted the RWL look but I wouldn't go with anything Chinese or cheap quality like Kelly, etc. so I did much research and found the Mickey Thompson Sportsman ST to be the closest match to the BFG T/A in quality, production and price. Speed rating for the M/T is T (118 mph) as compared to the BFG T/A with an S speed rating (112 mph). The S rating is more than adequate for my driving so the T rating was a little more advantage. Reviews were excellent so I ordered a set. I've had them on my car now for over a year and a half with no sign of browning. They feel, wear and handle very comparable to the T/A's. So I am sticking with M/T until I find a reason to change.
Of course this is just my opinion and it's worth exactly what you paid for it.
Cheers, Greg
Sounds like good info, I’m taking a hard look at the MTs now. It’s very frustrating when manufactures don’t understand what their customers are trying to accomplish with their vehicles, I don’t think we are asking too much from BFG. Manufactures have been making white letter tires for a while now.....the process should be well known.
I too have been running them for years on several different cars with no problems. In fact my current 72 has s set on them I bought 8 years ago that are perfectly white still and I only clean them maybe twice a year and they come perfectly white. I wasn't even aware there was an issue until I bought my 71 last month and of course I just purchased BFG's because I have never had an issue before. The very first thing I noticed with this set was the blue protective coating on the letters was damn near impossible to get off. finally after getting it off I noticed they didn't look white...so I scrubbed and scrubbed to no avail. Finally realized they were clean they are just brown. Got so disgusted I went and bought a white tire pen and painted them white. Pretty sad when you spend that kind of money have to paint your letters. Now I know and I will never purchase another set.
I have the Mickey Thompson on mine. Just as good as any of the 15" performance tires out there. I usually end up changing tires for age rather than wear these days. Considering paying for either the Avon CR6ZZ (very soft) or Kelsey tire Eagle GT reproductions next time around (assuming I don't go to 17" or 18" wheels). The MT letters do get a little dirty but a soft sanding block cleans them right up.
As a bonus, when my old mechanic installed these tires for me, he clocked them so the valve stem fallen between the Mickey and the Thompson on every wheel. Didn't even ask him to do it.
And IIRC, Coker bought the molds and tooling from BFG and now makes those with the original BFG molds.I'm so confused. Thanks @Greg for pointing out my mistake.
And Kelsey makes the Goodyear Eagle repros that area available now. I'm not sure if they have the original Goodyear tooling and molds, or if they made their own copies.
Last edited by C6_Racer_X; Jun 25, 2020 at 06:08 PM.
Reason: I'm so confused.
Just to clarify, Coker reproduces the BFG Silverline (with the wide white wall) for vintage/classic cars. The BFG Radial T/A is still produced by BFG who's parent company is now Michelin.
I put a set of the M/T Sportsman S/T on my 74. They are ok. I think I'd have been happier with the Cooper Cobra tire.
The side wall doesn't seem to be as stiff as the Cooper tires I had on my Z28.
I must say they do hook pretty good for a street tire.
I had an issue with the right rear tire. The sidewall blew out.
I'm confident there was no road hazzard damage, and the pressure was at 35 psi.
Just cruising home at 65mph. Not even being mean to the car.
Talked to summit racing and M/T. M/T was willing to pro rate 50 percent after they found out it was the outside sidewall that blew out.
Summit racing was useless. They wouldn't even call the guy at M/T.
Be a long time before I spend money at Summit again.
Rant off.
M/T Sportsman or Cooper's. But I think I would lean more towards the Cooper's.
Tire selection input
