correct tires for a 1966 gt350 #1761?

The correct tires for all of the 14 inch wheels is the 6.95 X 14 Goodyear Bluestreak. I paid a lot of money for my 5 NOS tires some years ago. Look for a repro from Kelsey available in the coming new year.The wheels are a gray primer color which shouldn't be hard to match up if you still have your originals. Sorry that is what I have always done otherwise I would offer a factory color.

 

The repro Bluestreaks are now available. A friend just bought a set from Kelsey and I was able to compare it to a nice used original he has. Some minor differences in the sidewall but overall very nice! $350 each.

 

That's exciting; we've been waiting......does anyone have pics of the new tires?

 

...reason is...I had asked this question a while back.

I am looking for two sets of tires to replace the "really-now-unsafe set of tires from the early seventies" on my '66 Hertz car.

I'd like to put a set of good-lookin' anythings on a set of repro Magnums, for driving...
..and a set of "correct" tires on the original wheels, for show.

Which category would the new Kelsey's be in?

What would you do?

Also...not to change the subject... but for Bob and the tire gurus..

These pics were posted on the SAAC forum of a Hertz car when it was rented in June of 1966.

Comments on the tires? Can you tell what they are?

 

Exactly what we would expect and Bob described..... Goodyear Blue streaks

 

Yes, I am very glad to hear Kelsey has finally brought the Bluestreaks to the retail market. I have been pestering him for about 4 years now on those tires. I would like to add that if you are going to drive your car on the street a good set of Goodyear radials would be heads and shoulders over those old technology tires. I would use the Blue streaks for show. The only other thing I would add would be that back in the day the same size bluestreak were used on some Mopars but with the difference of having a actual thin blue side wall in the groove around the perimeter(hence blue streak). That is wrong on a Shelby. It is a Blackwall on a Shelby as the pictures posted illustrate.I have found many other vintage pictures like that which give provenence to the blackwall tire. Many restorers and collectors including myself up until about 10 years ago thought it should have the blue. It was one of those many learning experences that I continue to go through in the pursuit of trying to understand how these cars were built .

 

Here is a picture of an original High performance 66 Barracuda tire Bob was describing. Not much easier to find than the no stripe Shelby version.

 

The Barracuda one has a groove approx 1/8-1/4 deep with the blue stripe molded into the rubber. The Shelby version has a raised ridge in the same location. SO owners in the past have attempted to paint over the blue stripe only to still have the groove remain

There was one gentleman in the 80's that attempted to reproduce the Shelby tires by gluing the GOODYEAR letters and emblem on trailer tires (same size) from the era. A few of these are still floating around.

I'm pretty sure Kelsy has found a nice Shelby version... not sure if they are going to reproduce the Barracuda version also

 

That was the part of the sidewall that to me looked a little off compared to the used original, the ridge wasn't quite as sharply defined on the repop. Didn't have the time to go over them in detail but everything else looked very well done. Even the tread pattern was very comparable.

Is there any reason they can't (won't?) reproduce these tires with modern radial technology? Vintage size and look with modern performance?

 

I may be wrong as I'm not a tire expert but I would guess that if and when Kelsey produces the tire, it will be one tire.
They will all be produced with a blue stripe in the casing. Without a groove used for Shelbys. Cut a groove to 'expose' the blue and it's used for Barracuda. (Like the way whitewalls were produced)
Or, I'm full of air.

 

No your full of ----. ha ha just kidding . I couldn't resist. You left your self wide open on that one . Seriously I believe you are right.That would be logical assumption.

 

I just wanted to chime in on the Blue Streak discussion, I have a set of the mopar bluestreaks and they have the white letters on the inside of the blue streak. I also have a set for a 66 Shelby and they have a blue streak like you say is wrong. All I can tell you is I purchased three of the 5 tires I have out of the trunks of 66 Shelbys that were new with the original new 10 spoke wheels that I would have to assume they were in there since new. I know that the majority of the tires that came on 66s were without the blue sripe, but I can tell you there must have been a run of some with the blue stripe or that many cars would not have had them in the trunk. I purchased these tires in the late 70s and I have only seen about 3 or 4 sets of them, but I am going to say they are correct. I will send you a picture of the mopar tires and I believe thay are more rare than the Shelby tires. Some of us have been arguing this point for a long time, but any of you guys that are trying to cover up your blue streaks don`t do it so fast because I think your tires are correct. For any of you that think they are wrong sell them to me I will buy them. If any of you have a picture of them on a mopar I want to see it, we have been in the tire business for 50 years and I never saw any like this on the mopars.

 

Please do not take this question as confrontational but do have any pictures or other concrete proof of your belief?

 

The picture of the tire in the #8 reply that he says is the mopar tire is the tire I am saying is correct for a 66 Shelby, this is the same tire that I purchased 3 of from people that were selling there cars and kept them out of their trunks, and they were all on 10 spoke wheels. We have 4 66 Shelbys and have owned others. I have 4 new blue streaks for a mopar and they are different, they say 695x14 but they are not as wide as the Shelby tire and they are not as heavy built, the tread design is a little different and the letters are close to the bead of the tire on the inside of the blue streak. The letters are the same size and style as the Shelby tire and the blue streak is blue rubber like the Shelby tire. I have had these mopar tires since the mid 70s and it is the only set I have seen new. I saw a picture one time with this style tire on a Barracuda in a original magazine car test but I don`t know what magazine it would have been in, it was too long ago. I will say again that I know that most of the 66 Shelbys did not have the blue stripe but it has been too many found in cars not to think that some of them had it. One of the cars that I purchased one out of was from Jim Bridges, he has had a lot of the cars and a friend of mine and we took it out of a car he had one time that was original, and it was a new one on a new 10 spoke and we determined that it had been there from the start. He has a 66 he bought new but it did not have the blue stripe.

 

Bob I am just basing this on what I have seen and what people have told me, I purchased the one from Jim Bridges and we took it from the trunk of a car that was basically a unrestored original car, I purchased another in California at the 1984 SAAC meet, a guy had it that he said he took out of the trunk of a car he had owned and it was a brand new tire on an original 10 spoke wheel that had never been on a car, I purchased the other one from Jim Bridges that was not new but very close and it was on an original 10 spoke that looked like had never been dismounted, the other two I purchased dismounted. The tire that Kelsey used to reproduce the Blue Streak, I think was one of Brent Galloways from S.C. and his has the Blue Streak. He just purchased those tires in the last few years from a friend. I don`t want to make anyone mad over it, I have just seen 3 situations where either I saw them in the trunks of original cars or someone else did. I will take you a picture of what I think the Barracuda tire is but it may be a day or two I have them stored away.

 

Doing a quick goggle here are a few pictures from just the first page of the search

Top one is a poor scan from an ear magazine showing the Formula S Barracuda package. Not hard to make out all the details but you can see the stripe and the letters on the out side of the stripe




Next picture is a scan from the sales lit showing again the letters on the out side of the stripe.



Respectfully but you mention that "did not have the blue stripe but it has been too many found in cars not to think that some of them had it." How many have you found that may be original to the car?

As the poster of the picture above I can tell you that one did not come from a Shelby and have never heard of anyone, before you claiming, the stripped tires came in any 66 originally. Interesting ... but its going to be pretty difficult to prove I would think. One would think that all of the cars you believe came with these would have very similar VIN's

There was a full set of NOS stripped Mopar tires one a 66 Shelby shown at SAAC in 2006 sure would have been happier if they were correct I do remember a number of friends in the late 70's throwing on sets of the blue stripped tires on their 66's - we didn't know any better and at least we could find them locally.