Alright, every night for the past week I have been all over the internet trying to find a 60/65/70 series narrow whitewall radial tire. The only ones I can find are at specialty places like coker tire. They want well over two hundred bucks per tire. Simply cant drop a grand on tires.
I’m wanting to put a 22560R15/21565R15 or a 21570R15 size tire with a 3/8 or 1/2’ whitewall on a a 15X7 wheel with a 0 offset and 4" backspace.
75 series may be too large plus the tires appear “swollen” to me.
Has anyone seen anything in their travels or do you have a narrow whitewall currently on your car? Thanks.
Narrow whites are still much easier to find than the wider whites. A year ago I got a set of Toyo 225/75/15 with a 3/4" WW tires from Diamondback. Nobody else had what I wanted. They were around $900 shipped to my shop door from the Carolinas.
But they are PERFECT and the car, 75 Olds 88 Convertible, is the best riding car in the fleet. If you decide to go this route, stay away from Coker. They are junk. Diamondback is the way to go.
For a long time I’ve had the strange urge to put on the old school “high performance whitewall” tires where the stripe is thin, and further away from the inner edge of the sidewall - more towards the middle / outside. Like this:
I think it would be a cool look (especially if combined with SS wheels), but I haven’t seen ever seen these kind of tires on a Cougar in person. I think they would have to be custom made by a place like Diamondback, as far as I know you can’t get them anywhere. So yeah, expensive.
If you want the skinny whitewall look like Andrew posted photos of, you’re going to have to step up and pay. There’s just no way around it. Nobody outside of the specialty manufacturers is making a thin whitewall like that today nor have they for a very long time.
I love the skinny whitewalls and have considered putting them on my car.
I had actually checked into this a while back and learned that the old bias ply tires (such as in the pics, above) could have whitewalls that high because the sidewalls were uniformly stiff. Repro tires such as Diamondback, simply add whitewall stripes to regular radials, which require the top half or so of the sidewalls to be flexible. Adding whitewalls (basically a rubber stripe vulcanized to the side of the tire) reduces flexibility, meaning no whitewalls higher than a certain point.
It’s a battle that keeps leading to dead ends, in my experience.
If I remember correctly, the absolute perfect tire sold as originally just does not exist any more…even if ordered from Coker. It was different with a GT-E because it was actually one of the first Radial tires produced back then, and was specifically designed with the performance in mind.
I have forgotten what Coker would make, but the radial tire with the white line “outside” far enough just couldn’t be done. Perhaps the Bias Ply could be.
But the bottom line lesson I learned? I was caring more about perfection on tires than most people. And it really didn’t matter in the end Definitely go with the look and the performance/safety you need. I agree, though, that it’d be pretty cool to have the hubcap and narrow-line look if your car had it originally.
Definitely go with the look and the performance/safety you need. I agree, though, that it’d be pretty cool to have the hubcap and narrow-line look if your car had it originally.