I love the look and feel of a gaterback tire. I remember when mine went out I replaced it with a pepboys ultra z tire. They seemed to feel just like a gaterback but then they got taken of the market. I say boo fo today's 16×8 tire market selection.

 

After looking at the Goodyear site and other places that sell the tire, I'm pretty sure these are made with modern rubber compounds and construction. These are "Z" speed rated tires with wet/dry/wear ratings similar to other ultrahigh performance tires. Looks to me the only thing they have in common with the original tire is the name and tread pattern.

 

At 85k miles, I'm only on my second set. But they need replacing. To get a little miles out of them, I rotated them without dismounting/remounting them; just swapped them left and right. Things go outta hand quick on even slightly wet roads. Don't run these backwards.

The originals lasted 42k.

 

Thats funny. When I first got my car in 1995 it had al 4 Gatorbacks on it. Fronts were toast within a couple K miles. I also then replacedwith the pepboys ultra Z. Thos were harder rubber, lasted a bit longer, and were dirt cheap. And I was 16 years old so they worked great.

 

Yes, But so were originals "Z" rated with those claims.

We need to know if Good Year modernized this tire.
Now that I remember, they were horrible in rain. Just took the whole car from you going thrue certain conditions.