You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

Does anyone know why reproduction redlines have the red stripe closer to the wheel than the originals did?

I think those redlines on the Firebird are a bit of an anomaly. Take another look at the Banshee redlines, which I believe are more representative of back in the day.

Sidebar: Have I ever told you about the process of inventing the redline tire?

Some of you know about Paul Deesen. He was a designer in the Chevy studio in the late 50's/early 60's and then in the Pontiac studios. He did the front and/or rear ends on some prominent Chevys, he added the "skegs" to the sides of some of the mid 60's full size Pontiacs. He also designed the GTO fender emblems we have come to know and love and the concave rear window on the ’63 Grand Prix.

Like most young men, when he first started working he was quite poor - but he had right priorities. He purchased and drove an early model Corvette (a '57 ) but couldn't afford new tires. They were blackwalls and he wanted whitewalls so he grabbed a white crayon out of the kid's coloring book stash and made his own white stripe tires.

After a while the white stripes started wearing off and looking bad. He went back to the crayon box and....no white crayon.

So - he grabbed a red one instead.

It was typical back then for the studio chiefs to troll the parking lot looking for ideas on employee cars in the lot. Paul's car caught one of the studio bosses' eye and they decided to pursue it. They contacted one of the tire manufacturers and...the rest is history.

Paul was a member of our local Michigan Widetrakers Chapter of the POCI. He passed away about a year ago.

K

http://deansgarage.com/?s=paul+deesen

[earntaz]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Can you believe that? It makes my head explode.

Shift knobs are another pet peeve of mine.

My dad used to line the screw heads all in the same direction on carburetors, light switch covers, etc.

K

Even the gauges are cattywumpus ...

[67since67]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I think those redlines on the Firebird are a bit of an anomaly. Take another look at the Banshee redlines, which I believe are more representative of back in the day.

http://deansgarage.com/?s=paul+deesen

For reference, These are assembly line installed Firestone F70x14s. '67 version top, '68, with the stripe moved a bit inward, on bottom. Note how the Wide Oval logo is located on the rim side of the stripe. On the later OEM and repros the logo is located on the tread side, as the stripe is closer to the rim.

Bill W

[Canuck]

All the manufacture promo ads in 67 -68 S near the outer circumference. Under hard cornering the tire would flex to the point where the stripe was on the pavement.
I saw this at an autocross event in 1969 when a guy was running his 67 Firebird Sprint and the whitewall was shredded on the front tires.

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Lee Stewart]

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by earntaz

Even the gauges are cattywumpus ...

Gages I could tolerate, as it was a practice at one time to orient the gages so that all the needles were pointing straight up when operating in the normal range.

I'm not sure that's what these guys are going for, though.

K

[Lee Stewart]

I thank you all for providing info on the position of the redlines. I have collected a bunch of Factory PR photos showing different models all with redlines:





















After looking at all the photos, there were multiple redline tire providers. Is it possible they all didn't place the stripe in the same position?

[earntaz]

For what it's worth -- here's a pic of the red lines on my 67' Corvette ...