Greetings,
Today I dropped the spare tire in my 1973 Bigblock coupe and found it was a Firestone 721. I know the original tires on these cars were the infamous Firestone 500s which earned a justifiably explosive reputation as they were subsequently recalled and replaced by the Firestone 721s. The DOT code of the spare is W2HF 1EW144. The rule of thumb for decoding the DOT date codes for pre-2000 tires is the last 3 digits indicate the week and last digit of the year of manufacture. In this case it can be the 14th week of 1974 or 1984. I cannot find any information online about when Firestone introduced the 721. Is it possible the 721 was available as early as 1974? Thank you.

 

The 721 came out in '77, and when it replaced a recalled 500 it was free of charge.
I'm going to guess your spare was replaced like that. Firestone made that tire into the '80s
I bought mine new & it came with 500s. What a POS.
My right rear blew on a deserted 2-lane in eastern Colorado back in '79...

 

That tire didn't end up in your tub as a recall replacement for a Firestone 500, it's the wrong size.

In 1978, tire makers switched from the old letter sizing of tires, to metric sizing. The OEM size tire on your 1973 would have been GR70x15, the metric equivalent of the G70 is P225/70R15, but the tire in your tub is a P215/75R15. If it was replaced under the recall, it would be the correct OEM size, so it was more likely replaced by a previous owner for some other reason.

The things that Firestone did to avoid responsibility during the Steel Radial 500 debacle, was probably some of the worse corporate cover up and criminal behavior, ever in this country. Almost from the day they released the 500 in 72, they knew they had a problem with them. Instead of suspending sales, and not re-releasing them until they found a fix, they continued selling them and making changes along the way. Effectively using the buying public as test dummies. They fought the release of test and survey results, and refused to stop selling or recall them. As it became more clear to them that they were going to be forced by the Feds to recall them, they shipped their remaining inventory of 500's to rural areas of the south, and sold them to unsuspecting buyers at half off, or more.

 

They never learned EITHER...witness the FORD 'EXPLODER" fiasco.

 

I was lucky when mine blew. We had been cruising along in the upper eighties when I felt a vibration.
I'd slowed down to around fifty when things went boom. Thank God it was a rear.
About 8 or 10 inches of tread separated but the tire held air and I got us pulled over...

 

This is what came on the 73. This is my original spare.





Donnie

 

I didn't even notice the tire size. Your comment makes sense and it kind of fits with the "4" as the last digit. This tire was probably manufactured in 1984. When I purchased the car it had 225s on it. I have since replaced them with 215s and it is time to replace them again. Thanks for your help.

 

That's the first 500 whiteline tire I have seen. My brother has a full set of white letter Firestone 500's with tubes in them for showing his 73 only.

 

I think I still have the 500 spare that came with my '74. Anybody want it???

 

I have these 4

 

I found this in the spare tire tub of my ‘77 last summer. It will become a decoration of some sort, deflated of course.

 

Those Firestone ATX and Wilderness AT tires on the Explorers, that exploded and caused the wrecks and rollovers, were made in the same plant as the 500's that had all of the problems. Coincidence?

In 75 I got a new Nova as a company car, that came with 500's. Within the first 2000 miles of having the car, I had two of the 500's explode. The first let go just as I was pulling into a customer's parking lot, the second one was a little more exciting. The second one came apart 2 days later on RT 295 in New Jersey, at 7:00 am doing 70 mph, on my way to Philly International. Not only did I have to change the tire in a suit and tie in rush hour traffic, but I ended up missing my flight to Boston.

Firestone refused to replace the tires on the car with something else (better), claiming that I must have been driving with them under inflated. Fortunately, my employer realized that not only was it unproductive for me to drive around on tires that were unreliable, but also dangerous, and approved my request to replace them with 4 new Goodyears. I took the 500's and dumped them at the front door of the local Firestone store, which is when I noticed they had a pile of about 30 or 40 more "under inflated" 500's beside the store. I've never owned another Firestone tire since.

The 500's came in blackwall, white wall and white lettered. In 79 I got engaged and bought a 74 Corvette for my fiance, from a couple who had an 80 on order. Their 74 came with blackwall 500's, but when the problems with the 500's became public, they replaced them with 4 Goodyear Radial GT's, and put the 500's in their garage. When I bought the car, they gave me the 500's. I sold the 500's to someone at Corvette Carlisle about 20 years ago, who was going to use them on their 73 or 74 for NCRS judging. I made him sign a note saying he realized that they weren't safe for road use.

 

i do

 

You and me both brother...