F-body-fan

I am curious what year cars came with the eagle ZR's & if anyone knows what years these tires where made. I have some that I believe are early run 1989's tires. 4th week of 89, or could they be 4th week of 1999? I am not sure when they were discontinued, but I know they had a pretty short run & I thought they were long gone by 1999?

Can anyone clear this up for me?

I do recall wanting one pair of eagle VR's for my Iroc back in 1992ish at the Good year dealership & was disappointed to learn they were no longer available & had to buy ZR's. Ended up buying a full set of ZR's back then & they are still on that car today.

Also, how many total miles do you think these tires could last, with zero abuse & good alignment?

82tarecaro

iTrader: (4)

I think you would be crazy to put a set of 26 year old tires on your car that are hard as a rock. They are not safe. I just got rid of a 10 yr. old set of Goodyears that had 0 traction and had 90% of the tread left.

F-body-fan

I have no intension of running the tires, you just made that assumption.

I am just researching what years the tires were on the 3rd generation cars & what years the ZR's where made in general for originality purposes.

The tire in the picture is on a low mile 1989 GTA Survivor I recently purchased. Yes they are more than shot, dried up, cracked & virtually no tread left on them I wouldn't trust them around the block

Ironically though, the tires I mention on the Iroc from 1992 (in my avitar) are still in great shape. No cracks or splits. They are over 20 years old. While rubber does dry up, I think it has a lot to do with were the car sits too.

BTW, I used to have a 1982 Recaro T/A Wish I had that car back! I owned it from 1987-1988. I recall having the word recaro burned backwards in my back one day when I jumped in it shirtless after it was sitting in the sun all afternoon hanging out with some friends. Great memories with that car.

F-body-fan

82tarecaro, I need to apologize. I re-read my first post & I sure did word it like I was going to see how many miles I could get out of them. Sorry about that, that wasn't my intention.

The reason I asked is because these tires have about 50K miles on them & they are smoked near bald, but worn pretty evenly. I was just surprised that there could be that many miles on them. I had a set of eagle GT's that I got 42K out of many years ago & I thought that was pretty good. I suppose it just depend on how you drive & what kind of roads.

When I bought the car, the owner said they were original tires, I didn't really believe that at first. But now that I have the car home I found the date code appears to all be the 4th week of 1989 & there are no other wheel weight marks on the rims. They never even rotated the tires by the looks of it. The fronts are in horrible shape, rears still have a little tread on them. Nothing road worthy, but there still on the car.

ev305tpi

iTrader: (3)

If my memory is correct, the VRs were available from 84 (on the 15th TA) though 1988. The ZRs were on them from 89 to 92.

I tried to buy a new set of 245/50/16s in either VR/ZR flavor in 1996 and I was told they were discontinued in that size. The gatorbacks have sporadically lived on in different sizes (a 17" on more modern mustangs) and recently released as a 15" for fox body mustangs, but they have yet to reproduce them. We were told that Kelsey tire was working on them a few years ago and there are a bunch of people (myself included) who are anxiously awaiting the release so we can buy a few sets

F-body-fan

So that probably would confirm that the tires I have pictured above is from the 4th week of 1989 then if they were long gone by 1999. I am still blown away that these tires have never been off the rims. In fact, I am not so sure the wheels ever came off the car until I bought it unless its had a brake job. lol. The rotors are rust free where the wheels contact & there is a purple paint line across one of them. Not sure how to read dates or mfg on these to confirm though.

GASPEDDLER

iTrader: (2)

Looks like your tires were manufactured three weeks after mine (1/89). Mine also appear in amazing condition considering their age.

ev305tpi

iTrader: (3)

Nice! How many miles on your car? Here is a pic of the rotor on my '92, 5k miles. Same markings (though it's tough to see in the pic). All three of my thirdgens have their original gatorbacks. Love the way they look!

F-body-fan

Those do look amazing! I think though your date code should be the 18th week of 1989 So maybe April of 1989. If these are your original tires, was your car built mid year, or at least after April of 89?

GASPEDDLER

iTrader: (2)

Yes that makes more sense. These were the original tires and yes the car was built in May of '89.

F-body-fan

Holy cow, that's one clean machine!!! Looking at your picts I do have one lug with the red dot, its faded out, but there. The car I have has 50K on it. Which I felt is really high miles to have original tires. BUT, I bought it from a gal who has owned it since 1991 & I think she was very easy on the car. Its full of small scratches from storage & fingernail marks under the door handles, but a decent survivor with all original stuff on it. Not all that clean underneath as it was driven like a regular car for those 50K miles. Then went into storage (her garage) in 1995


I REALLY questioned getting 50K out of original gatorbacks, but I called a local goodyear dealer this morning & he said you sure could, but it would need spot on alignment you would need to drive it like its a buick century, not a trans am. I always guessed these where 35K mile tires.....

F-body-fan

awesome! That blue is one of my favorites.

F-body-fan

BTW, that date code I posted above is from the backside of the wheel not the front...

okfoz

IIRC,
85-88 VR rating
89-92 ZR rating

I am trying to remember why I have a W rating in my head too... might be something else I am thinking of.

John

82tarecaro

iTrader: (4)

No apologies necessary dude. I am just glad you weren't going to attempt to use them.

F-body-fan

I did go 72MPH for nearly 100 miles with them...... IF being the car trailer counts at all.

F-body-fan

I keep drooling over this picture.

okfoz

The Sway bar end-link bushings are Blue... Why? Most of the original bushings I have seen have been Yellow or Black. Never seen blue.

John

ev305tpi

iTrader: (3)

the originals were blue but the bushings were starting to crack so I replaced them with blue moogs, they were the closest to stock I could find. I'll get some pics of the original ones.

ev305tpi

iTrader: (3)

Thanks!! I just got a lift installed so I'll post more from my 91 and 92 soon!

okfoz

Cool to know... thanks

F-body-fan

What did you buy, a 2 or 4? I have a bend paK HD-9 4 post. Best tool in my shop. I had a hard time justifying it at the time, now I would like to get a second one!

ev305tpi

iTrader: (3)

Nice! I did the same thing, an HD9SW, it's a 4-post Berdpack 2 cars wide. I'll send you a pic

F-body-fan

John, I have one pair of 245/50/16 VR's & ZR's in storage. I looked at the ZR's & one of them is dated 224 So that should be 22nd week of 1994 correct? Kinda funny, I always thought they were a matched set. Turns out the other one is 4 years older. Too funny. I bought them at a swap meet about 8 years ago, never checked the dates until this thread.

I also need to go look at the Iroc in my avitar. its in storage, but that car still wears the tires I bought in the early 90's that I mentioned in the first post. I think it was 1992 or 1993.

okfoz

I would agree that yes indeed that ZR tires were possibly made post 1992, as the Mustang and possibly even the early 4th gens (I do not know) may have still been using the Gatorback ZR tires. However my 1995 Formula Convertible had/came with Goodyear GS-C tires which were "Z" rated tires, so I will make the assumption that either 1993 or 1994 model year may have been the changeover, as Tires are chosen to be pretty specific to how the manufacturer wants the car to handle & ride. So by 1995 I am reasonably sure that the ZR was gone and had been replaced by the GS-C as both tires would have filled this niche.

The question of whether or not it was a 1989 or 1999, I am more than reasonably sure they are 1989 tires...

Since we are talking 3rd gens here, the tires from the factory would have been VR (85)86-88 and ZR from 89-92.

I will note that some of the early 1989 Model Year cars had VR tires..

John

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

The WS6/1LE bushings were yellow polly up until atleast 89 (my 89 has yellow) ??90-91?? I'm not 100% sure of the year that was changed from yellow to blue tho.
I have been using the blue moog myself.

F-body-fan

Do you feel the tire mfg's discontinue a tire model or size if the vehicle mfg's stop use of the tire? (like in this case) I had always figured tires were discontinued when sales drop, but that was just my assumption. Not everyone ponied up for a fresh set of gatorbacks for replacements, so I supposes sales drop fast when they are no longer used in production.

okfoz

It appears that possibly the ZR tires were used thru 1994... It is inconclusive as the RPO "QLC" did not change like it did in 1989 from the QDZ (VR) to the QLC (ZR). One interesting note is the White book does change description from "BW" for Blackwall in 1994, to "BW Highway" in 1995. I suspect (suspicions are dangerous) that 1995 was for the changeover to the GS-C tire as that is what I had on my 95 Formula. This of course may be a better question for the 4th gen community.

Regardless, Goodyear would have had 2 tires within the same niche, from past experience, they probably stopped production of the ZR and went to the GS-C (which is also a Z rated tire). Rather than hold onto both lines. The GS-C was a better compound for a performance tire, it was quite sticky when new...