Competition 260 & 289 original "kidney bean" wheels

[my427cobra]

As I dig deeper into the Shelby Goodyear racing tire distributorship history of the period (1962 to 1970) I'm learning a lot. And more every day with threads like this one. I am very deep into writing an article on this subject for SAAC and documenting large amounts of material for historical preservation.

However, one little piece of history to put in perspective the steep learning and development curve that Goodyear was climbing in 1964:

In January 1964, Goodyear enlisted the Cobra racing team to test tires at and in preparation for Daytona. They brought more than 30 sets of different tread designs, different shoulder designs, different rubber hardnesses (notice I didn't use the word "compounds" as compounding technologies as we know it today was just about to begin - you'll have to wait for my article to find out how it began), and different widths/sizes.

So what Goodyear comp tires that may have been on a comp Cobra immediately prior to Jan 1964 would have been very different from the Goodyear comp tires used by race time at Daytona.

And much more to think about after that race as Goodyear's race tire development skyrocketed.

I'm having fun!

Cheers
Greg