Slicks in the 60's

What was the size of slicks that you could get back in the day? I don't want to go too big or cut the wheel wells from stock. I have a 63 Impala.

 

NHRA stock classes were limited to 6 & 7 inch.In other classes 9 inch was a big tire in the day.Hard side wall till late 60's Hope this helps

 

It is hard to accurately answer a vague question like that. The '6O's' was such a time of change for so many things, tires, slicks were no exception. Today, a 'slick' looks about the same as one did 1O or 2O years back. However, in 196O, they looked nothing like they did in 1969 becuase of rapid development.

If you do not want to cut the wheel wells, like they did do in the 6O's, then you are probably limited to a 6" or 7" rim and maybe 8 or 9". Also be aware that there are race tires on the market with the samesurface width but with considerably wider section width which can really effect how it may or may not fit under your car.

 

I've seen a couple 1964ish speed catalogs that list the 8" wide wheels whether they be Americans, Halibrands, Ansens etc as "Street/Strip" wheels and the 8.5" wide ones as competition only. The 8.20x15 would have been the choice tire until the late 60's to my knowledge. Inglewood, M&H and a bunch of others supplied them and they fit both the 8 & 8.5" wide wheels. Not sure if that info helps but that's just what the info said when I was doing research on my Ansen 5 spokes.

 

In 1961, a friend and I ran a '36 Ford coupe with a '41 Merc flathead in the "D" altered class at Minnesota Dragways in Coon Rapids, MN. It had a set of 7" recap slicks in 7.60-15 carcasses from Ellingson's tire on Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis. (How did I remember all of this?).

 

Hurst racing 14"x7"

 

I raced in "Stock" from 67-69 and we were required to run no bigger than a 7"wide slick,Then in 70[I think],we were allowed to go to a 9"wide slick.It really depends on the look you are after,and what will fit. JMO,ROY.

 

Yup, everywhere from piecrust recaps to wrinklewall, really there was never an era in automotive tires that changed as much than from the couple years from the late 50's, 'till the mid 60's

 

Got the first set of wrinkle walls in 1967 I think. First pass on these[with one of the first L-88 out] the car stood on the bumper. What a difference. 12 inch M&Hs on an A/gasser.8.5s, 10s, and 12s were available per my memory.

 

I wasnt available until 1976!

 

Got a pair of 10.50 x16 M&H piecrusts on the shelf that were new about 1960

 

The pie crust style slick I think is used a little to often seems you see them on newer gasser style cars, not sure on the exact year they went away but early 60's, These are my 66 slicks bought new and a new set of steel wheels from GM at the same time I was told by the original owner used one day at the track, but who really knows they do look almost new though.









I re mounted them on my FC wheels and have them on my 68 Camaro I think that was close to end of this era slick.

 

I got these old Inglewood 7.60’s that are pie crust. They don’t look like they have a lot of wear but not sure I’d trust them.

 

These are 8 inch "smallest they make" in towel City Slicks brand that I picked up this summer to put on a 1964 Chevelle. Note: That I do have to remove the lower shock mounts to drop the rear axle enough for clearance to get em on and off The wheels are 8" wide with a 4 1/2 back space.

Norb

 

Yea, I ran those 7 inchers in stock class around that time at the track, too. They were no good on the street though, because of the soft, flimsy sidewalls. For street driving, I have a vague recollection of 10" wide Mickey Thompsons for "bigs" in the back, on 15" steel Corvette wheels @ 8" wide. Those wheels were just about all you could get in a 15" steel 4.75" bolt pattern.

 

http://www.348-409.com/forum/threads/wheel-size-again.5959/
15" wheel and some larger discussed here, overall diameter and width is what's important.

This is a good site, calculates diameter and width by tire size.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc?tires=255-60r16-255-65r16

 

Here's a thread i did a few years ago. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/early-racing-slicks.1036192/

 

On Chevy's, the hot setup was 409" rims or station wagon rims, which had a 1" deeper offset,
and 7" slicks, at least for street racing. This was in the 60's.

 

One year off the 60's. 1970.. What I was running on my off topic Hemi car.

 

What wheel do you have?
Are you buying wheels, willing to buy wheels to fit a bigger tire?
Do you just need to know the tire that will fit on your current wheel, or the largest wheel / tire that will fit a 63 impala?

If the exhaust goes over the rear axle, that's where a lot of wheel tire packages run into issues on these cars, the thread from 348-409, states 15x8 with 4 1/2 backspacing is the best bet for an 8" wide wheel,

 

During the 60's slicks started out as nothing but recapped tires early on, and by the end of the 60's wrinkle walls made new as slicks were what everyone ran. As mentioned tire technology just took huge leaps during that 10 years!
If you want a rear tire that would be run when your '63 was brand new, I'd go look at Towel City cheater slicks. Made on brand new casings, and in a size that would be period correct for your '63 Chevy.

 

Kids....

 

As I recall until maybe the mid 60’s there were also a lot of recap pie crusts slicks around. Back then recaps we’re pretty common for street cars also.

 

This thread shouldn’t go on without mentioning good ol Bucrons. Not to easy to come by these days :

 

This pair is a typical example of the hard rubber cheater recaps that were made by quite a few shops in the ‘60’s. Most were done on 6.70, 7.10, or 7.75 casings :

 

7.50 or 8.00-14 Caslers were the best cheaters we had in my opinion.

 

Casler was a big name. Depends which coast you were on; as to what was available.