are you looking for a decent alternative to TireRacks poor 14" tire selection ?

[Side-Oilers]

This is one of those discussions that can go round and round. 99 percent of all Shelby ownership take their cars to the shows,or for ice cream with the grandchildren. No spirited driving for them, so what do they install on their pride and joy? Most of us go back to the early days of what we liked back in the day, for me there was no Cooper Cobras, Tiger paws or any generic tires because that's what the poor kids, or more appropriate in todays world would be financially challenged young people Hot Rodders used. Any of the BFG offerings is what was used by the (IN) crowd, 40 years later I still feel the same way. Now if you have a lead foot and haulin ass is in your blood then ditch the 14s and install some 15s with some track tires of your choice and there are some very good ones at that. All vintage race gatherings use these tires and work very well, and look the part.

+1

Remember Pos-a-Traction brand Torque-Twisters?  Huge, wide, tires with even scarier wet road manners than the old style T/As.  Lots of them on muscle cars in SoCal, in the '70s. 

I was a T/A guy.   Super Shops had regular radio ads for "BF Goodrich T/A radials as low as $39.99"  Of course, those were 13-inch diameter tires for Pintos and Vegas.

[427heaven]

I grew up in SO CAL and remember them very well, if something cool was going on it happened in SO CAL first. Speed shops, race tracks, special cars, raised white letter tires, cruising, rock bands at the whiskey a go- go, troubadour, beach babes and tube tops... Oh my, we didn't know how much fun we were having

[Side-Oilers]

I grew up in SO CAL and remember them very well, if something cool was going on it happened in SO CAL first. Speed shops, race tracks, special cars, raised white letter tires, cruising, rock bands at the whiskey a go- go, troubadour, beach babes and tube tops... Oh my, we didn't know how much fun we were having

+100 !!!

Don't forget 93 KHJ Boss Radio (AM) and later KMET 94.7 FM. Everybody listened to them. 

Where did you live in SoCal?  I'm from Culver City.  Cruised Van Nuys, Westchester, Redondo Beach, Hollywood, etc. most nights.

[2112]

+1

Remember Pos-a-Traction brand Torque-Twisters?  Huge, wide, tires with even scarier wet road manners than the old style T/As.  Lots of them on muscle cars in SoCal, in the '70s. 

I was a T/A guy.   Super Shops had regular radio ads for "BF Goodrich T/A radials as low as $39.99"  Of course, those were 13-inch diameter tires for Pintos and Vegas.

Torque Twisters on chrome Cragar SS wheels were the Shebang in the late Seventies up in Washington too. Imagine diving them in snow.   

[1967 eight barrel]

And you wonder why I bought a set of the nice 17" ten spokes and put my 15" rims in their boxes. 
                                                                                          -Keith

[427heaven]

I grew up in SO CAL and remember them very well, if something cool was going on it happened in SO CAL first. Speed shops, race tracks, special cars, raised white letter tires, cruising, rock bands at the whiskey a go- go, troubadour, beach babes and tube tops... Oh my, we didn't know how much fun we were having

+100 !!!

Don't forget 93 KHJ Boss Radio (AM) and later KMET 94.7 FM. Everybody listened to them. 

Where did you live in SoCal?  I'm from Culver City.  Cruised Van Nuys, Westchester, Redondo Beach, Hollywood, etc. most nights.

Im a Valley dude Hanging in out with the Valley girls, from the SF valley, I had my 39.00 stereo locked in to the Mighty Met as well listening to Frazier Smith and Jeff Gonzer... WHOOOAHH! Good times for sure. I spent most of my time spending my last dollars at the Van Nuys Super Shops for the little nick nack BS stuff that looked cool and down the road I hung out at the Supelveda Service center for the go fast parts. They were real racers there and knew how to make a kid feel like he was getting his 100.00 dollars worth. The owner of the Service center owned a top fuel dragster and would occasionally roll it out onto Sepulveda and do a 750 foot long burnout while we watched / blocked traffic for safety concerns. Looking at the picture of that beautiful yellow car brought back memories of what you wanted your car to look like, in your face look at me and ohhh so cool.I have to laugh when I read how ill handling those old tires are or were, when your looking for the coolness factor you don't care how well it handles but how cool it looks. I just pretended I was driving a dirt track car and learned how to control a car that was trying to swap ends.

[1967 eight barrel]

I grew up in the cradle of speed too. I grew up not far from Mc Donnell-Douglas Aircraft.  Running at Terminal Island when Big Willie was there. It wasn't the sixties but about 1981. Cruising PCH, the Strand, Whittier Boulevard and a few others. As the Low Riders started doing the same violence came into play and as usual, the few bad ruined it for those who where looking for a bit of eye candy and hijenks. I never drank, did drugs or vandalism.
Unlike the millennials and current crop of unmotivated kids I never sat in the house in front of the TV, played video games or slept all the time.
I played sports, worked a part time job and when I became a junior in high school I started community college. I had a college class that started at 0530. Two after school.
Reath Automotive did most of my work back in the day, or Leland at Curtis and Christensen on Anaheim Boulevard in Long Beach.  I remember the Super Shops, Downey Speed, Service Centers and the constant bombardment of commercials on KLOS and KMET radio stations.
I probably was fringe because I had a 1969 Datsun SSS 510 and a 2000 Roadster before buying the Shelby. The "Ricers" were a rarity in the day and my 1985 Toyota turbo truck that Garret Air Research used to make their intercooler kit and adjustable wastegate.
I blew the doors off a brand new Corvette with the window stickers still in it the first night I brought it home after the intercooler kit was installed and the HKS computer. The guys wouldn't even look at me at the next light. 
It's easier to long for simpler times, isn't it?
                                                                     -Keith

All the fun and games ended when I entered military service and OCS.  I miss the sim

[Side-Oilers]

427heaven and Eight-Barrel: We were probably out there are the same time....Van Nuys, Strand and regular trips out to OCIR and Irwindale drag strips.   

Westchester had a good street racing culture too. Meet up at the Bob's Big Boy on Manchester Blvd, then head over to Pershing Blvd to run. Pershing was only about a mile-and-a-half long, but was six lanes wide and straight. It was on the far back side of LAX, mostly for cargo use, so not much traffic, especially late at night.

Yes, the low riders ruined the Van Nuys cruise (and other places) in the early/mid-80s. Got dangerous. Cops closed it down. Used to be, the LAPD was just sort of in the background.

On Van Nuys Blvd, we usually parked in front of the Super Shops to watch the action.

Culver City had a place like Service Center. Performance Unlimited. The store wasn't flashy like Super Shops, was more hard core.

Love the story about the dragster burnout on Sepulveda.  Good times.   

[1967 eight barrel]

I think what breaks my heart is what the liberals did to the state. I have been in the DFW area since 2003, but it was a nice place to grow up. My last return there in 2013 left me flabbergasted. S*it hole fits. Looks like a third world country.
The good news is a lot of us have started up a couple cruise nights.  Grapevine on Friday nights and In and Out on Saturday.
Some of you may remember Frisco Burger in Downey on Woodruff Ave or Mel's Drive in on Firestone Boulevard in Downey.
The creative mechanical types like us this will end with.

I feel old now.
                                  -Keith

[Bigfoot]

Dennis
Where was that on Sepulveda?

I know it was years later but I lived on Sepulveda in 92.

[67 GT350]

1967 eight barrel, you are so right and now New York and California are in a contest to see who can destroy their State faster, its neck and neck, sometime CA is ahead and sometimes NY passes them around that track of destruction. What scares me is that the people are moving to other States hoping to cause ruin to them too! WOW great to hear the stories though! I sometimes wonder if we should just give those two States away and lets just have 48 States. It is so true...."Dumb and Dumber"

[427heaven]

Dennis
Where was that on Sepulveda?

I know it was years later but I lived on Sepulveda in 92.
[/     quote]    It was real close to Roscoe and Sepulveda blvds, on the north end of town.

[Side-Oilers]

Dennis
Where was that on Sepulveda?

I know it was years later but I lived on Sepulveda in 92.
[/     quote]    It was real close to Roscoe and Sepulveda blvds, on the north end of town.

We spent a bunch of time at Bob Jennings' Dyno Shop on Sepulveda in that general area. Plenty of fast street & drag guys used Jennings for performance work. 

I definitely remember that Service Center store. 

[427heaven]

That was the place to be back in the day... Now all the fast guys go to Bill Maropolous to dyno there stuff. He has a lot of world record holding engines in many types of race cars.

[69mach351w]

I grew up in SO CAL and remember them very well, if something cool was going on it happened in SO CAL first. Speed shops, race tracks, special cars, raised white letter tires, cruising, rock bands at the whiskey a go- go, troubadour, beach babes and tube tops... Oh my, we didn't know how much fun we were having

+100 !!!

Don't forget 93 KHJ Boss Radio (AM) and later KMET 94.7 FM. Everybody listened to them. 

Where did you live in SoCal?  I'm from Culver City.  Cruised Van Nuys, Westchester, Redondo Beach, Hollywood, etc. most nights.

Just watched Motley Crue's "The Dirt" on my 'puter, and Vince Neil had a mansion on Redondo Beach. 

I'm in the Blue Ridge Mtns in W. North Carolina and as a teen back in the 70's always wanted to visit SoCal. 

May get there one day