Anyone seen this before, was this on a magazine or Billboard, and what year did this came out? Image Unavailable, Please Login
I wish good year would make these tires for our cars again. I would be front and center for them on my Testarossa. Great find on the ad, I don't recall ever seeing that one.
Probably a UK ad. Australian cars came with NCTs, but kph in the eighties - they wouldn't have used mph in an ad.
TR never came with them. They were not a great tire. They filled the gap between the awful TRX and the so called Gator Back which was a pretty good tire.
I wonder if the car on the photo in the ad is really a QV. Shouldn't it have small rectangular indicator lights on the front fender, rather than the round ones? Robert
Good year gator back , that's it .... I remember they were good year's. Wish they would make a batch for the Testarossa again.
My 85 308 GTB with original tires. Not only a great tire, they last a long time. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Loved the Gator Backs... I was a Michelin fan before (had 315mm wide XGT Sports on my '86 Z51 'vette that would pull 1.08G's on a skid pad), but the GB's were just perfect on the 308.
You want 80's tires again? For $500 shipped you can have a set of BFG's that blow the Gator Backs away and don't sound like a tractor tire going down the road. Wanting 80's tires again is like wanting an 80's cell phone. I think the Gator Backs were more than that in 1987.
I have 4 original gator backs sitting here in my loft, look mint! Perfect for someone that wants to put original tires on a car for a show. I personally don't do that but there are some that do.
Some of the early 83 QV's still had metric wheels. For example, the test cars supplied to R&T (a GTB) and C&D (a GTS) in their first review of them in Aug 83, were wearing Michelin TRX's. It was mentioned ( I think in the C&D issue) that the NCT's were coming soon. You would have to ask someone like Brian when they were all rolling on NCT's because, I think, even a few scattered very early 84's were metric, but I may be incorrect.
I would want them to see exactly what it was like back then to spec out of the factory. Same reason to have a 14 xwx on a 308 , or a TRX on a bbi. My car is far from show car , are they the original TR tires ?
Gator Backs age terribly. They were rock hard many years ago. When I drive a TR on original tires and I sometimes do it is a pretty scary experience. Might as well be on ice.
Your in Texas , I'm in Toronto, we have ice here today. It would fit right in I dont recall them being that bad on the trans am gta and iroc . I think those 16s were gators as well. Anyway, it would be an experience to be able to buy a new pair and drive them for a few seasons. Hope they make a special batch one day.
Also, not all 308 QVs with factory 16" wheels ran the NCTs - my late 84 Euro QV came with 16" Pirelli P-Zeros, and the windshield sticker lists the Pirelli tires with the size and pressure info.
In Europe, what we call "la première monte" in French (= the first mount) usually varied from country to country, the factory offering one brand as "standard", and two others as options, and the different importers choosed what they wanted. "Euro" 328 were delivered with Goodyear Eagles NCTs, including the french cars; from february 1988 onwards, with the "revised suspension" on 328s, the tyres on French 328 reverted to the Michelin MXX, which was in inches, not in millimetres (and is impossible to find today) Rgds
