History Firestone Deluxe Champion RACING ONLY Tires

I am looking for some history on a pair of Firestone Deluxe Champion 5.50-16's that I just aquired. Printed on the sidewall is:

DESIGNED FOR
RACING ONLY
MIN. INFL. 36LB
MAX. INFL. 55LB







The tires are new, never run...but quite old. I am curious when they were made and what they were intended for?

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Neal

 

What is the tread like on these?
Any other numbers on the sidewall?

 

Did you try a patent search on the patent numbers? I can't read the second one.

Edit: Looks like no good on the patent #'s. Just general late 30's, early 40's tire construction and design patents from Firestone.

 

The only other markings are Made in USA and what I ***ume to be lot numbers, 003029SD and 003387SD. The tread looks like a normal street pattern...



Neal

 

Dont know anything about them. But, man, they are cool !! Heres a bump.

 

Thanks...hopefully somebody knows something about these tires.

 

BTTT for the Monday morning crowd...

 

Have you PM'd Josh Shaw? He's sorta' a tire guru/collector of race tires.

Chris

 

i'll have to take a closer look at the rear tires on this car.


i thought they were just street tires that were grooved by someone

 

Thanks for the suggestion...I sent Josh a PM.

Any others in the know?

Thanks,

Neal

 

Almost bought those but shipping would have been a killer.Good score, I bought a ton of great parts from those guys at great prices

 

We were in the space right next door with Myke's 3W...I would have liked to have met you.

Neal

 

Those are not regrooved. They came that way. Been looking for a usable set for years. The pair I have are pretty well shot.

 

They are racing tires. Firestone made them for a variety of different applications. I have found them on sprint car halobrands being used as front tires on pavement. The biggest application would have been early sports car, we find those tires mounted on jag, mg, Austin Healy wires.. Hence the 16" size. Good find!! (the "for racing only" is the easiest way to spot real vintage tires from Cokers... Cokers say "for display only". I applaud Coker for doing this. It keeps the originals valuble)

 

Thanks for the reply Josh...sports car makes sense. What era would you say these 16's are...1950's?

Neal

 

If they were for racing I wonder if they had reinforced sidewalls or some other form of internal strengthening as from the outside they look like normal road tires.

What gets me is the air pressure. 36psi minium up to 55psi!
Reinforces my thoughts on how crossplys tyres are/were treated in racing situations.

 

Yes, dead on. Post War.


Not sure what the "Differances" would have been.. that would be a good question for Corky Coker. (He's on here.. PM him)
In todays world it would be a "Legality" situation.. not sure if that was the case then or not.

 

I just sent Corky a PM...thanks for the suggestion.

I am wondering if the difference with these tires was possibly a softer tread compound?

Hopefully Corky has some more info...

Neal

 

They look to be front runners. I don't have any old catalogs but that is what I believe they are.

 

I wonder if Coker would consider doing a line of these, fronts and rears? They seem to have a more street friendly tread pattern than the grooved slicks. Gary

 

Just looking at these again. Are there support braces moulded into the rubber between each groove? A way of stablising the tread under heavy loads?

I don't remember standard Firestone road tyres having them?

 

I'll look through some old SCCA programs to see if any Sports Cars used them. Bob

 

Yes, they do have support bars between each tread rib. That would make sense if they were designed for sports cars.

Neal

 

Cool!

Potentially these tyres could be strenghened internally and externally running softer compounds. Wow! The mind boggles.

Maybe they don't do this under load!

 

I went through a book "American Road Racing 1948- 1950" by Joel Finn, it has lots of photos of Firestone equiped sports cars. Jaguar XK-120's, Allards, and a Fraiser-Nash would have 16 inch wheels. No photos are clear enough to read For Racing only, but the tread patters is the same. Bob

 

I bet you are right...

 

Great looking set of tires!

The sidewall appears to be similar to the racing only grooved ascot and the indy tires, where the rubber is minimal, and barely covers the cords. With the reinforced sidewall cords, the strength of the sidewall is all in the cord.

Nice looking tire, I've not seen a pair before.

 

My Hillegas sprint car ran one on the right front at Morristown N.J. in 1953 on dirt. Bill Holland was driving !

 

The sidewall flutes are shorter also. Here's a pic of a new one.