Goodyear Polyglas tire
The Goodyear Polyglas tire was a bias-belted tire first made in 1967 by Goodyear. The tire had a wider tread than most other tires on the market at the time and used belts made of fiberglass. They initially were an original equipment tire on late 1960s muscle cars such as the Pontiac GTO, Dodge Charger R/T, Ford Mustang Mach I, Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 and many others along with comparable tires from various competitors such as the Firestone Wide-Ovals, Uniroyal´s Tiger Paw and BF Goodrich´s Radial T/A. The Goodyear Polyglas and comparable bias-belted tires began appearing as standard or optional equipment on many 1969-model passenger cars and nearly all 1970 to 1974 models. The most common version of the Polyglas found on muscle cars of that era was the Polyglas GT, which was one of the first commercially available raised white lettered tires on the market. Other versions of the Polyglas lineup were offered as blackwall or whitewall tires.
The Polyglas tire and its competitors were soon replaced by steel belted radials as original equipment tires around 1975. The Goodyear Polyglas (and Firestone Wide Oval) tires are still manufactured for owners of period cars. Many of these tires featured the distinctive "redlines" that were popular on high performance cars at the time, and characterized the first Hot Wheels toy cars by Mattel.
Popular culture
The Vanishing Point movie featuring Barry Newman, the white 1970 Dodge Challenger driven by the protagonist uses Goodyear Polyglas GT tires. Also in the 1973 country song "Lord, Mr. Ford" performed by Jerry Reed, he refers to a "metal monster with Polyglas wheels".
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