Hello Darrell and All Happy New Year.
For Christmas, my wife gave me an autographed copy of Dave M's book. In it he says: "Firestone was the dominant tire supplier for the Corvette and had taken us into the steel-belted radial age in 1973." Firestone had to recall all their steel-belted radials in 1977 due to a corrosion problem with exposed steel threads. He goes on to state that Goodyear tires were the only tires delivered on Corvette's in 1978. Also, "This started a long and productive relationship with Goodyear..." My 82 had 43,000 miles on it when I bought it. The previous owner said that it had the original tires. The wear looked right and sidewall condition was what I would expect for the age of the tires. I put Firestone Indy 500 Firehawks on last summer. Arizona is pretty hard on tires. I really noticed an improvement on cornering and an improvement on gas mileage.
I have not finished reading Dave's book yet. It is a fascinating read. And yes, with new tires a straight road a stock 82 will get up to 129 mph. I used an aviation hand held gps for the speedo.
Happy New Year to all. It is my wedding anniversary today and we are finalizing the plans for the garage. The building permit is in hand.
Keith
Quote and reference from Dave McLellan:
Corvette from the Inside Page 81
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Nobody ever waves when I'm driving the Explorer.
K Woody