radials on 1940 Packard 110 coupe?

[Guest jim rosenthal]

After a few months of work on the brakes, fuel system, and suspension, my 1940 110 coupe is ready for tires. I have had advice both to use radials (from Coker, made to look like the tires which came on the car or something similar) AND to stick with bias-ply tires as that is what the suspension and wheels were made for. (what's not in doubt is that anything fitted will require tubes and flaps, as these are not tubeless rims) So my question is this: for a car that is a nice #3 car, just driven for pleasure, not for showing, what is the best thing to fit on the rims? The advantage of radials seems to be better control and handling (how much of an issue this is on a 1940 Packard I have no idea); the advantage of bias tires is that they are available in cool old designs that will look authentic, and they cost a bit less.

This is obviously a "newbie" type question and if it's been discussed before I apologize; I did search and couldn't find it. Any advice from more experienced folks much appreciated.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Hi Jim, I have seen your postings here and on BaT, by the way, having just sold a simillar Packard and being an MB SL fan & owner I think our tastes are simillar.

Glad to hear your Packard is ready for the road. We were very pleased with the Firestone WWW on our 120, sourced from Universal. FWIW I think any handling advantage of rads will be negated by the natural limits of the car and no matter what the manufacturers of them say, you can spot them at 20 paces - they just do not look right on a prewar car to me. We did tubes but no flaps and never had a problem, and that is how the car was set up before, as well. I did use flaps on a Model A but that was due to wheel design, If you are concerned about the inner wheel surface you can also go the duct tape route, but unless it is rusty you should be fine with just the tubes.

Show us some pics when the car is ready to go!

[Guest jim rosenthal]

Thanks.I think I will go with them. As you say, the original look counts for something, and there are a lot of cool old designs in the Coker and Universal catalog.

[Guest jim rosenthal]

It turns out that Lester, Firestone, and Goodyear bias-ply tires are all made in the same PA plant. The Lesters are cheaper because they don't have to pay a fee to use the Firestone and Goodyear logos etc. So I got Lesters. Hard to imagine that on a low-horsepower car like this, with drum brakes, radials would make a difference.

Interestingly, the man at Universal tire said I didn't need flaps, either. Just tubes.

Thanks for your help and I will post photos of the Packard when it gets here.....

[Owen_Dyneto]

I've been touring on bias-ply Lesters (and the predecessor company, Lincoln Highway Tire Co) on my 34 Eight for 45+ years with complete satisfaction. I'm confident you'll be satisfied with them. And correct, you don't need flaps or gutter strips, just tubes.