Goodyear tire history: the missing piece of the puzzle found.
 

So as I continue my research into the history of Goodyear tires on Shelby's Cobras and Mustangs, one of the pieces of the puzzle eluded me:

What tires were on CSX2000 while the car was being assembled in Dean Moon's shop in Feb"62?

The previous posting on this subject yielded a lot of good info from many of you. Thanks for that.

But no answer. Some speculations, but no answer.

Well, after I spent a lot of time with a magnifying glass and on the net, I’ll stick my neck out and say that CSX2000 was delivered from AC Cars to Shelby in Feb’62 rolling on Dunlop tires.

And they remained on the car as Shelby assembled it at Dean Moon’s shop and and for a least a day as Shelby performed the first road tests in the following day(as suggested by the dusty tires in those iconic Dean Moon shop photos).

By the next day, John Christy had been given the car for it's first magazine road test (SCG May 1962). While the photos aren't good enough to yield any sidewall clues, the tread certainly looks the same. But the tire sizes quoted in the Test Data panel don't match. Probably Goodyear tire sizes Shelby was planning to put on the car as soon as he could.

And also, I found, by searching British websites about vintage Dunlop tires , many references to Dunlop OEM tires as supplied to British car manufacturers and the Dunlop RS5 TL in size 6.40 x15 is listed as the the OEM tire supplied to AC for the “AC Ace, Aceca and Cobra”.

You'll all have to wait for my article to be finalized to find out all the details.

So I’m going to press saying the last piece of the puzzle has been found.

Now let the discussions begin!

I’m going to get my bucket of popcorn. And a beer!

Cheers
Greg