Driving on Goodyear Speedways

[68krrrr]

I have a fresh set of the Goodyear speedway 350's  because I just love the look of them ,wondering what's others driving impressions on these are ,they seem to be allover the road with me once I get going 60 mph or so ,the car gets real floaty i have to move the steering wheel back & forth to keep it straight & kinda tracks in the lines on our crappy SoCal freeways.Is this how they are I have pressure at 32 psi like it says on the tire ,or maybe my suspension or steering is worn out ,I did notice all the bushings are kinda old & cracked up .Btw keeping the gold ten spokes for now they where done well & seem to be a Pia  to get them refinished  I talked to a guy recommended in another thread & he said he didn't know when he could even get to them,they kinda match the gold Gt500 emblem.

[557]

Yeah,those old "square sidewall"tires love to grab a road groove and "run with it".Not the hot ticket for pleasure driving IMHO....

[shelbydoug]

They were high performance tires in their day. They are no longer. They are at least terrible if not worse.

They don't corner, cruise, stop or stick. Even worse on a wet road. They're probably life threatening?

The best thing  that you can do is put a set of radials on to drive it and just save those for car shows.

They are a very good looking tire but that's about the limit of their ability.

Oh, they are generally worn out by 10,000 miles.

[Shelby_r_b]

+1 to the other comments.  I had the same bias ply tires on my early 67 GT350 Magstars and I had a separate set of radials on knockoff Magstars.  Moving from the bias plys to the radials was night and day.  I could drive with one finger when the radials were mounted, and your description of the bias ply tires is spot on.

[Coralsnake]

Nothing wrong with those tires

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ncJVyu-JQhE

[68krrrr]

Thanks I did have these on my KR also I just don't remember them being this bad

[Bob Gaines]

Many owners are getting radials and putting on the Goodyear glue on letters for the vintage look. A number of companies on line that you can google and get info from.

[shelbydoug]

The tires on the test cars were prepared with special soft compound tires made especially for better times by Goodyear.

They had an "S" in the designation.

They were somewhat better then regular production Goodyears.

I had the E70's on my 68 when I bought it. I didn't know any better. Radials were something "European" and "not for American performance cars".

I believe that the recommended tire pressure for them cold was either 26 or 28 psi? What does the sticker in the glove box say?


I also found that changing the rear shocks from Konis to Comfort Rides teamed with radials mysteriously kept the rear end in and stopped the jouncing. Seems so simple now. Everything then seemed a secret and proprietary information?

[Rickmustang]

In my 427 powered GT 500 (600+ hp) I could smoke them in any of the 4 gears. Dangerous. Get radials if you're gonna drive.

[Royce Peterson]

You have the tire pressure too high which will cause the car to hunt and track poorly. As Doug said tire pressure recommended by Shelby was 28 but you may find 26 works even better.

No doubt modern tires will give more modern handling but who wants that in a 52 year old muscle car? I don't.

I have a fresh set of the Goodyear speedway 350's  because I just love the look of them ,wondering what's others driving impressions on these are ,they seem to be allover the road with me once I get going 60 mph or so ,the car gets real floaty i have to move the steering wheel back & forth to keep it straight & kinda tracks in the lines on our crappy SoCal freeways.Is this how they are I have pressure at 32 psi like it says on the tire ,or maybe my suspension or steering is worn out ,I did notice all the bushings are kinda old & cracked up .Btw keeping the gold ten spokes for now they where done well & seem to be a Pia  to get them refinished  I talked to a guy recommended in another thread & he said he didn't know when he could even get to them,they kinda match the gold Gt500 emblem.

[gt350hr]

  +1 Drop the pressure a bit like Royce said. Bias ply tires ( obviously) do not follow the same rules as a radial and "crown" with higher pressures unlike a radial with it's belt to keep the tread flat.  I grew up driving on 6.95-14 bias plys in '66 and went through every new design since then. The freeways were worse back then. Try 24-26 in the rear for less "wandering".
  Randy

[67 GT350]

Nothing wrong with those tires

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ncJVyu-JQhE

Don't you love it, the right tail light is out!

[8T03S1425]

Nothing wrong with those tires

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ncJVyu-JQhE

As not much gets past the collective eyes of the forum crowd, I'm guessing that a few more than just me saw that the KR in the road test didn't have the coiled cobra next to the "428 Cobra Jet" fender badging.

And, as the camera pans through the KR, when the car is introduced, the front fender looks to be a color mis-match.

Does anyone know the back story on the missing coiled cobra or the color mis-match, if that is a paint mis-match.

Steve

[68stangcjfb]

I heard all the horror stories about bias ply tires. But I really have no issue driving my 68 1/2 with the F-70-14 Goodyear polyglas tires. My car doesn't have power steering which probably makes it a little less darty. And I run 35 lb of air in them. Also, when they showed under the hood in that video, I couldn't help but notice that tower clamp on the upper radiator hose as opposed to the wire clamps that are on the reproduction radiator hoses.

[67 GT350]

I had a 67 GT K fastback with the new Firestone Wide Oval tires on it, Cooker tire offers both Bias Ply and Radial....I chose the radial tires which the sidewall lettering was the same as the bias tires and wow did that car drive nice!!! I wish you could get small letter Goodyear tires that were radials.