Stupid tire names...

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K

Kit Sullivan

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Very off-the-wall topic, but sometimes I can't believe the corny and juvenile names some tire manufacturers put on thier products.

Goodyear "Wrangler", and "Eagle"...those are ok I suppose

Firestone "Firehawk" works too.

Goodrich "TA Radial" is a classic.

Even Cooper "Cobra" isn't too bad...

But "Ground Grappler" or "Dyna Trail Boss" is stupid. "Track Blaster" is moronic and "Ultra Commando VTX" sounds like a GI Joe accesory.

I have refused to buy some bargain-priced tires over the years, and usually based only on what they were named.

 
Firestone ... wide oval :huh:

I think I want round tires

Firestone... wide roundies :p

 
Wide Oval's always made sense to me, but i guess cause there was a lot of oval tracks close by ;)

I don't think Commando name ever worked for anything but gi joe type stuff..lol.. Dodge" Chrysler" tried to name some of its popular power house motors Commando's, Failed. variants of which included the Golden Commando and SonoRamic Commando...lol None of them stuck.

 
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Kumho makes good tires for a good price. Thier name does however get giggles.

 
I always like the small RWL tires on our cars like the Goodyear polyglass GT and the Firestone Wide Oval. They look right on our cars but reproduction's are too expensive for my taste and I like tires I can actually drive on. My car is no Trailer queen and after driving on radial tires I could never go back to Bias Ply regardless of how great they look.

 
Nitto's "Grappler" series tires are hugely successful off road tires. They started with the Terra Grappler, then the Mud Grappler, Trail Grappler, Dune Grappler, etc.

Some of my favorite off road tires:

  • Interco Super Swamper
  • Interco Super Swamper Bogger
  • Maxxis Monster Mudder
  • Buckshot Gumbo Mudder
  • Denman Ground Hawg
  • General Tire Grabber
  • Big-O Bigfoot
  • Cooper Discoverer


The dumbest one I just now saw, "Nexen Roadian." WTF is that?

My wife's car has some Arizonian tires currently. Goofy sounding name, but they have so far been great tires for her car (and the price was good, too).



I always like the small RWL tires on our cars like the Goodyear polyglass GT and the Firestone Wide Oval. They look right on our cars but reproduction's are too expensive for my taste and I like tires I can actually drive on. My car is no Trailer queen and after driving on radial tires I could never go back to Bias Ply regardless of how great they look.
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Totally agree with the RWL tires on our models. I guess I'm more old school when it comes to muscle cars. Give me chrome wheels and RWL 50- or 60-series tires all day.

 
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I always like the small RWL tires on our cars like the Goodyear polyglass GT and the Firestone Wide Oval. They look right on our cars but reproduction's are too expensive for my taste and I like tires I can actually drive on. My car is no Trailer queen and after driving on radial tires I could never go back to Bias Ply regardless of how great they look.
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Agree on the small RWL tires. Firestone Wide Ovals came on both my 72 Gran Torino Sports and Goodyear Polyglass on my Mach 1's and they looked great! I like the BFG TA's but EVERYONE is running those! My wish has been that Firestone and Goodyear would come out with a radial version of those tires. Coker tire could probably do 'em but they would be $$$$$. Agree with Kit on some of those crazy tire names. Even if they were free I doubt I would run "Kumo Sumo Mud Dawg Action Grabbers" on my Mustangs. LOL

 
You meant you wish Firestone and Goodyear were making radial versions of the Wide-Oval and Polyglass, I'm assuming. ::thumb::

I remember both Firestone and Goodyear both had their BFG T/A competitors: the Firehawk and Eagle ST, respectively. I had a set of original Eagle GTs on my '82 Mustang, and they were slightly more performance-oriented than the T/As (kind of somewhere between the STs and VR-50 "Gatorbacks").

Unfortunately, both Firestone and Goodyear lost out the market to the T/As... and BFG is struggling to keep up as well as maintain enough stock to support the market as it is. I know when I ordered my tires, the BFG 295s I wanted for the rear were on back-order for several months before I finally gave up on them and went with the Cooper Cobras I have now.

 
I remember the first set of tires I bought for my 72 Mach 1 were called "Scat Trac". I don't remember who made them but I got them from either Sears or JC Penny.

They did not last long because I bought 60 series tires and put them on the standard metal rims. I had them worn out in about 10k miles. They were too wide for the rims.

 
I remember the first set of tires I bought for my 72 Mach 1 were called "Scat Trac". I don't remember who made them but I got them from either Sears or JC Penny.

They did not last long because I bought 60 series tires and put them on the standard metal rims. I had them worn out in about 10k miles. They were too wide for the rims.
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I remember Scat Trac tires I pretty sure it was JC Penny who sold then in the catalog.


The first tires I ever bought were called were called SUPER CHARGER 60 by Kelly Springfield. I had them on my first car 1965 GTO.

 
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You meant you wish Firestone and Goodyear were making radial versions of the Wide-Oval and Polyglass, I'm assuming. ::thumb::

I remember both Firestone and Goodyear both had their BFG T/A competitors: the Firehawk and Eagle ST, respectively. I had a set of original Eagle GTs on my '82 Mustang, and they were slightly more performance-oriented than the T/As (kind of somewhere between the STs and VR-50 "Gatorbacks").

Unfortunately, both Firestone and Goodyear lost out the market to the T/As... and BFG is struggling to keep up as well as maintain enough stock to support the market as it is. I know when I ordered my tires, the BFG 295s I wanted for the rear were on back-order for several months before I finally gave up on them and went with the Cooper Cobras I have now.
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Correct! My fingers got ahead of my brain. Had some Eagle ST's on a 80 Mustang that were just white letter tires and not much else. My 85 Mustang GT came with Goodyear Gatorbacks that were more than SCARY on wet roads. Did ALOT of drag racing with my pewter Mach 1 and tried several different tires. While I do like the OE look of the Wide Ovals and Polyglass tires, the TA's offered the best traction during those late night battles!!

 
Dick Cepek Quiet Giant is an oddly cool name.

So were Pos-A-Traction Torque Twisters.

Dad's Tiger still has it's original Goodyear Blue Streak bias spare in it.

I cannot bring myself to buy any Kumho or Hankook tire. Just can't get past the names, seriously. Can't believe that they have a foothold in the US market just because of the brand name. Color me a tire snob.

A few years ago there was a tire store in rural po-dunksville PA that had a very slightly used set of 4 BFG Radial T/A's in a 15" musclecar size that I don't recall. They were all Armor All'd up, no dry rot that I saw, and were VERY early production. Had to be early to mid '70's. They looked like bias construction and tread, with square shoulders, zigzag tread and little molded in side biters. Never saw a set like 'em before.

The crotchety old man in the place wanted 200 beans for the set. I passed, mainly because of his attitude, but vowed to return later to twist his arm for a better deal.

Place closed down before I got back there.

 
Nankang. I think they are out of Vietnam. Just try finding a cheap 6.00X16 six ply tube tire anywhere else at a reasonable price. They were under $50 when I replaced the tires on the '50 F1.

 
I had "Formula 1" "Super Stock" tires on my Mustang in the mid-seventies. Big, good-looking square-shouldered tires...rode like crap!

Thier nickname back then was "Hard-as-a-Rock Super Stocks".

 
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