1972 tire question
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From: Waterford CT
1972 tire question
I have a 1972 convertible and the order copy (tank sticker) shows raised white letter tires, option code 2VPU9AA. Is there any way to know if these were Goodyear or Firestone tires? The NCRS manual also shows Uniroyal tires being used on some '72's but very few so I will ignore them. The manual does not provide any guidance as to which brand tires may have been used, leaving me to believe they were both used throughout the production cycle. The car is a late build car from July 3rd, 1972 if that helps any.
Last edited by Paul71LT1; Aug 8, 2023 at 04:50 PM. Reason: spelling error
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I'm assuming you no longer have the original spare, which would have matched the rolling set. My car came with the Firestone Wide-Ovals because my spare is present and has never been on the road (rubber nibs and tread paint still intact). You may get closer to an answer with your completion date. My car was finished in the first week of May, '72 and the order copy shows the same code number (though I kinda doubt the code changed due to supplier).
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From: Waterford CT
Thank you for your input. Yes, the original spare is gone so I don't have that to guide me. My '71 still carries one of the original tires in the tub as a spare, although it has been used to about half of the original tread depth. It does confirm that my white stripe tires on that car were Firestone wide ovals. I'm just not sure whether the '72 had Firestones or Goodyears. If there is truly no way to know then I may just go tire shopping and buy the one that I can find to be the easiest to procure.
Burning Brakes
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Thank you for your input. Yes, the original spare is gone so I don't have that to guide me. My '71 still carries one of the original tires in the tub as a spare, although it has been used to about half of the original tread depth. It does confirm that my white stripe tires on that car were Firestone wide ovals. I'm just not sure whether the '72 had Firestones or Goodyears. If there is truly no way to know then I may just go tire shopping and buy the one that I can find to be the easiest to procure.
I recently purchased a set of Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s in 255/60-15 for my '69 vert and called it good. I love that tire. Only has an S speed rating, but I'm not planning on blasting down the autobahn on them.
Last edited by Corvette-ZL1; Aug 8, 2023 at 05:27 PM.
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I have a 1972 convertible and the order copy (tank sticker) shows raised white letter tires, option code 2VPU9AA. Is there any way to know if these were Goodyear or Firestone tires? The NCRS manual also shows Uniroyal tires being used on some '72's but very few so I will ignore them. The manual does not provide any guidance as to which brand tires may have been used, leaving me to believe they were both used throughout the production cycle. The car is a late build car from July 3rd, 1972 if that helps any.
Repros are available for Goodyear and Firestone. But they are faithful right down to the bias ply tire construction. They are not modern radials. Many consider them more appropriate for display cars than drivers.
Firestone and Uniroyal have modern radial tires in the modern equivalent F70 size of 215/70R15 but not w/ RWLs. From a safety perspective I would think NCRS might cut some slack on things like tires for driven vehicles. (Impressively, some of these actually have a respectable H speed rating)
If you jump up to 225/70R15 Firestone does indeed offer a RWL I think It won't have the better strength and safety of the H tires above however. I also suspect it will not meet NCRS' equivalent size to the F70.
Burning Brakes
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Nope - other than checking the original spare as was suggested. The original F70s could have been any of the 3 OEMs including Uniroyal Tigerpaws (which I'm pretty sure were also available in RWL and WW at the time) - it just varied thru production I think. But all 5 would have matched.
Repros are available for Goodyear and Firestone. But they are faithful right down to the bias ply tire construction. They are not modern radials. Many consider them more appropriate for display cars than drivers.
Firestone and Uniroyal have modern radial tires in the modern equivalent F70 size of 215/70R15 but not w/ RWLs. From a safety perspective I would think NCRS might cut some slack on things like tires for driven vehicles. (Impressively, some of these actually have a respectable H speed rating)
If you jump up to 225/70R15 Firestone does indeed offer a RWL I think It won't have the better strength and safety of the H tires above however. I also suspect it will not meet NCRS' equivalent size to the F70.
Repros are available for Goodyear and Firestone. But they are faithful right down to the bias ply tire construction. They are not modern radials. Many consider them more appropriate for display cars than drivers.
Firestone and Uniroyal have modern radial tires in the modern equivalent F70 size of 215/70R15 but not w/ RWLs. From a safety perspective I would think NCRS might cut some slack on things like tires for driven vehicles. (Impressively, some of these actually have a respectable H speed rating)
If you jump up to 225/70R15 Firestone does indeed offer a RWL I think It won't have the better strength and safety of the H tires above however. I also suspect it will not meet NCRS' equivalent size to the F70.
Otherwise, 15" tires would be as hard to get as the old Model T tires. 15" tires (even 17") are rapidly starting to disappear from vendor stock, but I anticipated that 15 years ago. I scooped up a set of Firehawks earlier this year, and I am having a pretty hard time finding them, so I suppose I got them just in time.
That's why I asked the OP what the intent was - Unless the OP must have them for NCRS shows (in which case I would recommend having two sets of wheels - one for the old crap tires for shows, and another set with modern rubber mounted for actual driving), then there is no reason to fret about what tires these cars came with. I don't think a lot of folks really care about that level of detail.
Last edited by Corvette-ZL1; Aug 8, 2023 at 07:08 PM.
