VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc Bias vs Radial tires

Coker makes a nice vintage radial tire. Too expensive for me but radials prevent me from having to re-glue my dentures every time I hit a New York pot hole. (They usually have tail lights sticking out of them). :)

ha ha... I would hope that with the new Radials that LOOK LIKE Bias-ply that maybe our club would "officially" modify the rules about using radial tires.

IMHO, regardless of appearance and/or whatever was "original", I would hope the club would "officially" modify the rules about using radial tires simply based upon the safety factor involved.

The greatest distance I will ever run a biased ply tire is the shortest route to the location where I have new radials installed. As a matter of fact, when I put Radials on the '41, I hauled the wheels to the tire shop to get radials mounted (and left the '41 at home)!

"To each his own" - - -

'Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

Radial tires are accepted for DPC. Class Judging does not and should not accept radial tires instead of the original bias ply tires. Accepting "Safety" modifications is a slippery slope that does not preserve original features. State or Federal mandated changes or equipment are accepted.

Let me explain why I say "should not". Adding "safety" items has proven to be a nightmare in judging. In the past mirrors, seat belts, additional lights, replacement radiators, other sized tires, replacement batteries, etc. have been accepted without penalty. One member even got a waver to install an automatic transmission as he had a leg problem. Just after that was granted, he wanted air conditioning claiming "medical" justification. So, the VCCA established Driver Participation Class for those people who want to modify their vehicles for safety or medical reasons and leave Class Judging to better preserve historically accurate Chevrolets. To do anything else will penalize those that try their best to present their Chevrolets as close to the way it was born.

The other thing to remember is that tires are only a few point deduction and all vehicles scoring within a specific range receive the same award. So those points deducted might not affect the award received.

I have radial tires on my mostly original '51 two door as it is driven on many VCCA tours and they drive better than bias ply tires. Also have radials on a few more later model cars. Will gladly accept the deductions if I ever take them to a Judged VCCA meet.