My '82 is an original donut, blackwall. You should look at yours. Might be original.

My 79 Spare is a very ugly all black tire - and it states it is for temporary service - but it is not a little donut like they have today in cars, but it is not a full size tire either.

My spare is an ugly blackwall (for temp use only). It also has an equally ugly yellow steel wheel.

The date would be too early for judging purposes, but...it would probably be a very small deduct. The spare is really the only tire that gets judged, as it is easiest to see. Some judges are a bit more anal, and they'll crawl under there to check all four road tires, also.

The cars were delivered with five matching tires, so if your car was ordered with white-walls, the spare should be the same. That being said, the judgng manual states the "Five matching, or non-matching tires..."
As long as the tires are one of the brands/sizes/make offered at the time, the four road tires must match, but the spare could be a different tire than the road tires.

Goodyear, and Firestone were the original suppliers of tires for the Corvettes of that era. The Firestone 500 was the most common tire, tho. They 500 was recalled in '73 AND again in '74 for problems with the tread separating. I truly believe the "500" stands for 500 miles before it explodes... Those tire were junk when new. I wouldn't expect one that old to be any better, NOS or not. My b-hole puckers up every time I drive the '74 with the original tires on it from the trailer to the judging field...even tho mine are the replacement Firestone 721. I do have the original 500 spare, tho. It was not changed when the others were recalled. Go figure...
You should check yours, Marshall...you might be surprised!
That is a great deal, money-wise on the tire...I just wouldn't actually USE it! It would have to be for judging ONLY, and even then, I wouldn't pump it full of air!

since we are talking spares i just have to say that before we went to carson city i have the tire gods inspect mine and figure they should open up the spare to see what was in there, in was the original 1970 bias brand new.  so they got me a radial that would fit inside the holder and is close to what i have on the road incase of a flat i can at least drive it to a station and i saved to spare tire.

Joel, just curious.  What did the whitewall tire look like on the 74's or other years?  Anything special, narrow or wide whitewall, brand?  Any place I could see a picture of a vette with whitewalls?  I have never seen any of the C3VR members with whitewalls.  How come?  Looks?  Any NCRS whitewall vettes?   THANKS.....

I'll try to take some time tomorrow night to pull the spare and see what I've got.  I'll let you know.

Man you guys got me wanting to look at mine. I know it's the original but I've never really looked at it other than putting some air in it.It's a blackwall donut and I think it has a black rim??This is my 82 CE.