Radial Tires - were you an 'early adopter'?

[CharBaby]

Yes, I remember when radial tires hit the market ~'71-'72 IIRC; this is when I first heard of them! Dad had a ESSO gas station and he and his car buddys(The Boys) were talking about putting them on their daily drivers. The Boys consisted of Dad, uncles, Dad's BILs and friends.I also remember when unleaded gasoling came to the pumps shortly after or there about.

This was also around the time that ESSO had changed to EXXON and BankAmericard changed to VISA. There were also lots of credit card changes with the ESSO card and their family of credit cards. I beleive Standard Oil, Union or Unicol was involved too! We had a list(poster) with pictures of all the credit cards we could accept as part of the new EXXON family of companies.

We also gave out map for free and other stuff with a full tank of gas. "Put a tiger in your tank"

These were some of the conversations at the station during that time.

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: dnastrau
In 1974, Dad bought a set of Firestone 500 radials for our 1972 Chevy Kingswood Estate wagon. The size was LR78-15, the same size used on Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials of the era (that wagon was heavy!) Even though the Firestone 500s ended up having a bad reputation, they performed great on that wagon until '76 when he replaced them with Sears RoadHandlers (Michelins.) That car was rarely sitting still; my parents covered many miles during those years.

I also remember people saying to my dad that "your tires are all going flat" because of the radial bulge in the sidewall.

Neighbours of ours had a 1974 Impala 9-passenger wagon as a family hauler. Great big brown thing. I remember 'noticing' just how large the tires were on that thing - they looked like steamrollers!

They did a LOT of driving with that car - daily driving, and lots of vacationing with a pop-top tent trailer. I ran into them years later, and got to talking cars with the father, and reminded him about this wagon.

"That was a great car" he said fondly. 'We drove it everywhere". I asked what ended up happening to it, and he said "We were driving it down to Toronto, as usual, for a vacation, and the motor quit on the (highway) 401. It didn't owe us anything, it had thousands and thousands of miles on it at that point...."

 

[teddyboy]

Originally Posted By: addyguy

Most people here seem to be well ahead of the curve for that time, b/c I'm sure 80% of people in that period were just running cheapie tires.....but I'm too young to really remember. I know my dad's 1978 Malibu came with radials on it, and that's what it always had.


Membership on this forum is probably a good predictor for being ahead of the curve on things automotive. When you look at the subset of members who actually post, you're looking at a group that is even more obsessive compulsive when it comes to cars.