TR2/3/3A Whitewall Tires for TR3

[Editor_Reid]

Anyone got a favorite source for whitewall tires for an early TR3?

 

[JHaydon]

I haven't used them yet, but I'm constantly told to go with Diamondback if you want whitewall radials.

I got a set of Coker bias-look radials recently and I'm less than thrilled with them, although that's largely because of the horrible job the tire shop did mounting and mis-balancing them. Once I get them balanced properly I might be able to tell if they're round or not. I've heard so many horror stories about them but of course when you have something like 80% of the market you're going to have more stories than anyone else... Coker also sells brands other than their own.

Shopping for actual bias-ply WWW for another car I came across the site Tires and Wires which seems to have good prices as well as the one size I needed that some others don't carry. On the size/brand I needed, they beat Coker by $1.

Speedway Motors also carries some bias-ply whitewalls by BFG, Firestone, and a couple of others (not the size I needed for the other car) and they've always done well when I've ordered other things from them: > Speedway Motors | Performance Auto Parts & Expert Support <

 

[Editor_Reid]

JH, those are very good leads - thanks!

 

[GilsTR]

Reid. Check out Lucas Tire. Online they show a number of choices
including Michelin. I have purchased tires from them for our
TR3 And the Model A Ford. Good experience.

Gil. NoCal

 

[karls59tr]

Am I the only one that thinks white wall tires don't look good on a TR3. Just sayin"

 

[Editor_Reid]

Am I the only one that thinks white wall tires don't look good on a TR3. Just sayin"

That's right Karl, you're the only one. You can look it up.

Seriously, whitewall tires seem to be a somewhat divisive issue. For cars of that era - my TR3 is a '57 - I think whitewalls look great on a stock car, like something on the showroom floor. For race cars, I would not choose whitewalls as they look a little too dainty for a rough and tough racer.

In any case I'm happy to peacefully coexist with whitewall dislikers. I will put them on my TR3 to please me.

 

[tr6nitjulius]

Diamondback Tires > White Wall Archives - <

 

[karls59tr]

That's right Karl, you're the only one. You can look it up.

Seriously, whitewall tires seem to be a somewhat divisive issue. For cars of that era - my TR3 is a '57 - I think whitewalls look great on a stock car, like something on the showroom floor. For race cars, I would not choose whitewalls as they look a little too dainty for a rough and tough racer.

In any case I'm happy to peacefully coexist with whitewall dislikers. I will put them on my TR3 to please me.

to each his own

 

[mezy]

White wall tyre were never fited here in the UK except for push bikes, not sure they would have even been available, so it would be a no no for me just not inkeeping with the car.
I think the white walls were popular in a America due to the size of the side walls, they made the tyre look more low profile,
I have seen old US cars here at shows without white walls and the solid black sidewalls look huge.

 

[Editor_Reid]

White wall tyre were never fited here in the UK except for push bikes, not sure they would have even been available, so it would be a no no for me just not inkeeping with the car.
I think the white walls were popular in a America due to the size of the side walls, they made the tyre look more low profile,
I have seen old US cars here at shows without white walls and the solid black sidewalls look huge.

The father of a local friend here (Portland, Oregon) was once a British car dealer. Among the marques he sold was Triumph. His dealership building was actually more like a storefront at a strip mall, and with such limited room he parked some of his new car inventory in his driveway at home!

This first photo shows his dealership. This was in Beaverton, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, in the mid-1950s. Note the self-service laundromat next door - the same size as the British Motors car dealership!:

The second and third photos show some of that inventory at his home. These are new small-mouth TR3s:

Note that the center car in that lineup of TR3s - the one with the whitewall tires - has a red hardtop. That hardtop was taken from a red TR3 as a mix and un-match exercise by the dealer. The white car did not come from the distributor with a red hardtop. Here's a rare color photo of that car, although of course the color in these very old prints fades over the decades it is still possible to clearly see that it was a white car now with a red hardtop:

Regarding the whitewall tires, my question would be, When, where and why were the whitewall tires put on that car? Obviously it is not an accident. Someone deliberately replaced the new blackwall tires that the car would have worn when leaving the UK, so perhaps the distributor switched the blackwalls for the whitewalls? Was that just a way to mark up the price, anticipating that the premium for the whitewalls would more than cover the distributor's cost of the swap?

It seems a little odd that they would remove new blackwall tires to make this change, but if the factory didn't do it, and the dealer didn't do it, then it must have been the distributor, and the distributor wouldn't do it if it lost money doing so.

Anyway, thanks for the good leads on finding whitewall tires, and thanks in general to all for the discussion on this subject. I appreciate everyone's interest and contributions.

 

[JHaydon]

Whitewalls seem to be uniquely American, and so popular back in the day that ANYTHING on wheels was declared to look better with whitewalls, regardless of what the designers intended. It's hard to come up with a parallel today, except maybe "microfiber" and "memory foam". Whatever the product is, it needs microfiber and/or memory foam or nobody will buy it (except for me).

The only thing I've heard that approaches an explanation for the appeal of whitewall tires was when Luigi in the movie Cars said: "You don't want blackwall tires! They BLEND into the pavement. But these whitewall tires say, "Look at me! Here I am! Lllllooove me...' "

Definitely a matter of personal choice, at least most of the time. Some cars look weird with them, and some look weird without them. Of course, your lists of "with" and "without" may differ from mine!

 

[Jim_Stevens]

Still if I were to have whitewalls, I’d think I’d rather have them on bias-ply… my 2¥