If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Kind of a spinoff from the other thread. But, if Goodyear offered classic Gatorbacks with modern compounds, in a 245/50/16 size for our 3rd gens, would you buy them?

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

No.

I had to look up what a gatorback tire was.

It was a cruddy all season tire. Not worth paying extra for. if it was a super cheap price point it might be considered.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

You had to look them up?!?

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

What's a Gatorback?

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Are you guys kidding me?

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....e+ZR+Gatorback

It was the original equipment, top of the line, high performance tire on our cars from 1985-92.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Would depend on the car. If it was a 10k mile original, then yes, but purely for restoration purposes, NOT as a performance tire. If it was my RS, then no (granted I realize my RS didn't come with them).

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

LOL already it's looking pretty bad... What did I tell you? What have I been saying? LOL

Your poll really needs a "hell no!" option. Or maybe "No, with extreme prejudice".

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I don't care if anyone wants to buy them, I'm just shocked that there are members of TGO who don't even know what it is. It's like saying, "what's TPI?"

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Set the Tirerack review to "lowest rated" and read up. Fun stuff.

These are just highlights, there are several more pages of people calling them junk. So yeah... Hell no! **** Goodyear and the blimp they rode in on.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I have NO idea why you're remotely surprised. I could poll 250 random people off the street and unless I hit a late model Mustang owner that bothered to read his side walls, I bet not a one would have a clue what Gatorbacks are.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Oh, there are lots of good reviews too. It seems the bad ones are from people who are mad that they bought a summer tire and can't drive it in the rain and snow. Boo Hoo.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Actually, I'm quite surprised. I mean, we're not on OldSchwinn.org, we're on Thirdgen.org. The Goodyear ZR50 Gatorback was an integral, OE component for our cars for a long time from the factory. I just figured anyone who's into 3rd gens would be familiar with that.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

It's not so much that people buy a summer tire and expect it to work all season... They're original equipment on cars that normal people would expect to be able to drive year round. Almost all of the reviews are from people with late model Mustangs.

Arrange the reviews by positives and the first page is full of people who have no miles on the car/tires, or enjoy the adrenaline rush of constantly being out of control. As you go further into the positive reviews, almost every reviewer makes excuses for why they suck so bad.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I would buy a set or 2, If If they use modern compounds, construction and were reasonably priced (which they wont be).
That will make them nicer but they sure aren't a rain/snow tire because it was designed as a dry tire. They prolly won't even be made by Goodyear like most of the repops but I'm sure Goodyear will get money from them.

Just for giggles one year I put a one wheel peel rearend in my car and with the gators on, it didnt do to bad in the snow, 2ish inches with some weight in trunk. Only when the posi was in it with no weight I had problems. I got the damn thing stuck 4 inches outside of the garage in the driveway in the same snow .. same car with posi and snow tires wasnt much better..

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Dude... There are 130k members on this forum. There are maybe half a dozen regular posters on this sub-forum. How many people give a **** about Thirdgen history? How many of them care about the original tires?

We're talking about what would be a $200-300 PER TIRE reproduction. To suit everyone you'd have to have the VR50 and ZR50 reproduced since early Thirdgens got the VR, and later got the ZR. Corvettes used a different size. Mustangs use a different size. The half dozen of you that would want a 245/50*R16 probably aren't even going to agree on the V vs the Z.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I will say that my new F1s are better in the rain than the old Gatorbacks. Anyways, that's not why I would or wouldn't buy 'em though.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

LOL I never drive my thirdgens in the rain, and I still wouldn't buy them because the BEST part about owning a TPI car is vicious 0-60mph acceleration. Everytime I've put Goodyears on the back of my Formula (several times, surprisingly) traction goes in the crapper and it turns into a burnout machine. It burns out worse on Goodyear tires then it did on a 100hp shot of nitrous. It's fun for a few minutes, but then it's completely lame.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I could be flexible on the rating. VR or ZR is fine with me. :lmao:

IIRC, the actual tires didn't change, it was DOT which changed the way they rated speed.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Which Goodyears did you have?

The point is moot anyway, we don't have a whole heck of alot of choices for our cars.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

My Iroc still had Gatorbacks when I got it in 98, drove absolutely terrible on them. The Formula had Eagle RS-As when I bought it. I put BFG Comp T/As on both cars, the Iroc has been driven about 10k miles so they're still like new, but the Formula never gets spared the rod. When the BFGs on the rear started throwing sparks during burnouts, I happened into a pair of Eagle GSCs. It was like driving in the rain all the time. Even with the pressure dropped they couldn't hook up to save my life. I picked up another pair of new Comp T/As (right before they were discontinued) and all my traction came back.

I've got Eagle GTs (GT IIs?) on my convertible. Bone stock 2.73 geared, TBI auto, almost 4k lbs, spins the rears with ease.

My brother in law wanted a Mustang so we found a 91 LX 5.0 auto convertible, again with Eagle RS-As. It had a few mods, off road H, 3.73 gears, etc it was still dog slow, but it'd chew those 245/50ZR16s like nothing. It was entertaining, but slow. Did I mention it was slow and still could do a sick burnout?

There have been others... Goodyear sells a lot of tires as OEM, so they always show up in the tire pile. I've had several pairs on the back of winter beaters. I've got a set of take off Eagles from my brother in law's other 5.0 Mustang on the back of my turbo Mustang. They seem alright, but then boost doesn't kick in until around 3k rpm, so they aren't under the abuse that the tires on the Formula are subjected.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Nope.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Goodyear ads tended to bury the nickname "gatorback" in the text, if it was present at all.

I know it's meaning because I read some car magazines (and then some) back then. But for the most part, I just called them Eagle VR50s back then.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Couple things. First, I'm not sure how fair it is to base your opinion of these tires, on a set you bought with a car, which were probably a dozen year old.

The other thing, I certainly don't want to be put in the position of defending Goodyear. Yes, they have put out some sucky tires, as have other manufacturers.

At this point in time though, the pickings are pretty slim as far as performance tires for our cars go. Some of the better ones are just plain gone for good. We now have exactly 4 options: 1 from GY, 1 from BFG, (currently back ordered), 1 from Firestone, and 1 from Yokohama, (in limited supply). The rest are all season/snow tires or second tier name brands.

Generally, my Gatorbacks ***WHEN NEW*** , performed pretty comparably to the newer offerings out there. Plus they'd have the advantage of having the proper OE "look" for our cars. That's all. That's enough to make me want to buy them if they were available. I mean, let's face some facts, no manufacturer currently offers something in a 245/50/16 size which is substantially better.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

That's not a fact, that's only your opinion. All season tires aren't exactly snow tires. They're rated for some use in mud/snow, but the big difference is if you get caught in a freak storm you're not completely screwed. There is absolutely nothing to say that an all season performance tire is going to perform worse then a summer performance tire. Don't dismiss a tire just because it's all season. I run all season tires on all my cars, it kind of came with the territory in South Dakota. I can honestly say I've had to drive my Formula through mud (road closed detour), and a few years ago I got caught in a freak snow storm. In both cases I had no trouble getting around. I guess the difference is I actually use my cars when they aren't in storage. If they only sat at car shows, then maybe I could accept a tire that's absolutely terrible in anything less then perfect conditions.

Don't forget the thirdgen rule of thumb... When the times comes to part with real cash ($200+ each, per tire) the yes votes are going to drop by between 50 - 75%.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

The very day I picked up my brand new IROC-Z from the dealer, I was caught in a violent thunderstorm on the way home. I made it home okay. :nod:

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

First time posting in weeks... glad to see the usual suspects showing up with sour grapes and stirring the pot... :lmao:

I'd buy a set of reproduction Gatorbacks and mount my 91 16" wheels on them and leave them in the garage. I'd then throw the original tires out.

I'd only use the Gatorbacks for show; I'd much rather have new Good Year Eagle F1-GS-D3s for driving, or the Firestones that I currently have. Or if I ever get those 18" CCW Classics, then I'd go for Michelins.

I do wish they'd reproduce them, though. People debating the performance merits of a 20 year old tire versus modern offerings are missing the point. This is a thread posted in History / Restoration. In the era of the thirdgen, the Gatorbacks were the best factory performance tire available as the car hit its peak performance years. Tires are significant part of a complete restoration.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

:yup:

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Exactly right!!!

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Let me see if I understand you correctly... Your argument is that they're an important restoration part, so it doesn't matter that they'd only be good for car shows? It doesn't matter that they suck at so many things, as long as they are accurate for the car?

I disagree that tires are an important part of a restoration. They're barely important on classic cars, where the tires looked vastly different then modern replacements. Tire technology hasn't changed that much since 1985. The biggest difference is modern tires don't have to sacrifice all season suitability for ideal condition performance. Modern tires don't even look that different, you're talking about paying a premium price for a lower quality tire for a tread pattern, and sidewall markings. The vast majority could care less about such things.

It's not about missing the point, or stirring the pot, this is a discussion forum and we're discussing the merits. If you can't grasp that, than you've missed the point of this community. Personally, I'm glad they're history. It's for good reason, they are really terrible tires. As for restoration, they're about the last thing most people are going to be concerned about. I'm not even aware of a single car show, applicable to our cars, that is meticulous enough to care about the brand, tread pattern, or sidewall markings of the tires.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Me too. The Gatorback is old tech and not perfect. But in it's day, it was THE most badass performance tire which money could buy. The best of the '80's vs modern, second string, compromise/econoperformers. Let's face it, the manufacturers are not spending much development and production money for our sizes.

I think a ***new*** Gatorback, (as in manufactured recently rather than a couple of decades ago), would fare very well against a budget tire like the G-Force. In fact, just going off of my first hand experience, I'd guess it would pretty much blow it away. Now, if BFG still made KDWs in 245/50/16, now that would be a whole other story.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Apparently BFG sold the entire auto tire line to the Michelin division. Don't expect anything new from BFG.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I would ONLY for it to look authentic (with the original rims on of course:))

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

You don't like them. Got it. So then, what's good? Which tire available today, in our sizes, is the best? NONE of the manufacturers offer their premiere tires in our sizes. NONE.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

5:47ish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbnEOY7ywk

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

You missed my point... read it again. I'd rather enjoy driving the car on modern tires that aren't Gatorbacks; I posted a thread in wheels/tires talking about how much better my new Firestones were than the original Gatorbacks. However, I'd love to have available reproduction Gatorbacks so that should I want to make my car 100% correct again, I could do it. Hence me wanting a new set to hold in the garage. Having the right tire is important in a restoration. Many classic tire producers strive to make their new radials look just like the 60's bias-ply tires.

No need for all the bitterness. They're just a set of tires. Nobody's making you run them. :lmao:

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

:goodjob:

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I voted yes - but it can't have an outrageous price tag. 200 apiece would probably be my limit. Also - it would be nice if they improved the tire with modern technology.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Out of all of the tires I have ever owned Michelin tires are the only ones that I have gone back to over and over... I have Yokohama tires and I like them ok, and I have some Dunlap tires and honestly I like them a lot. I have also had Firestone tires and have also liked them... My Wife had some Continental tires and they did not wear well at all...

With that said, I have had the following and will NEVER buy these brands again:
Goodyear
General Tire
BF Goodrich
I did not have good experiences with these brands, The BF goodriches i had one tire delaminate, another tire always ran like it was out of balance even after I had them balanced and balanced and balanced. It was just lumpy from Day 2. General Tire... Not sure why but I had one set that I got 3 out of 4 flats, at different times... I guess it probably was not their fault, but that is my sentiment....

With that said, I know of people that have had great luck with these brands

I have never read anything good about the gatorbacks, ever... Would I get a set... Probably for my 1989 but that would be as a restoration, beyond that nope.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

The all around best tire I presently own are Continental Extreme DWS. I have these on my daily driver 1988 Thunderbird with 5.0 HO 5 speed Mustang drivetrain, and they are incredible. I have never had traction in rain or snow with that car until I put those tires on. They may not be sticky like an all out performance tire, but if your car goes through seasonal extremes like mine does, they are fantastic.
As far as the Gatorbacks - I would get them for my TTA because the tires are the only non-original item on the car. I baby it, and don't drive it to extremes, so for that car which is a show car only, I would definitely want a set - but not if they price them too high.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I don't know. I haven't run any of the currently available tires to see how they stack up. But what I do see is 9 tires with sufficient speed ratings to be considered a high performance tire, currently available on Tirerack. Premier tires or not, I would expect most of them to perform at least as well as a fresh set of vintage Gatorbacks.

No I got the points you communicated. You started off with smart *** commentary about the thread and the people involved in it so far, touched on why you'd be interested, explained why the point of contention is unimportant to you, and then stated an opinion I disagree with. I asked for clarification of your point, to call attention to how the issues I take with Goodyear tires are unimportant to you. That doesn't mean my opinion is invalid, or irrelevant to the discussion. In fact you're basically agreeing with the statements I've already made.

You can argue that the real world performance or lack there of doesn't matter, because YOU would use them only for shows or restoration use, but that doesn't change the fact that the topic before you got involved, was about modernized Gatorbacks. Why modernize a tire that's not intended to actually be driven on? Now who missed the point? :doh:

I already touched on why 60's tires aren't comparable to 1980's tires. You might want to go back and read my reply again and see if it soaks in this time.

What bitterness? Before your smart *** remark, this was just a discussion over the merits and potential success of a reproduction tire applicable to our cars. I couldn't care less if they reproduce them or not, but if the topic comes up I'm going to throw in my 2 cents, so that those who haven't had the pleasure of driving on Goodyear tires can get both sides of the story. A quick perusal of the Tire Rack reviews shows that I'm not even close to the only person with a negative opinion of these tires. Fortunately anyone who's interested can go and read both positive and negative reviews, they don't have to take my word, or Chazman's word on it.

At $800 a set (conservative estimate) I doubt many people are going to be interested in buying a set to just rot in the garage, or bolt on at car shows. I would wonder how many of the yes votes would still be positive if they had to enter their credit card number to place that vote.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I've had similar problems with my BFG KDWs, but I loved their performance so much, I didn't care and I bought them again! I guess you'd have to consider them iffy after about 25K miles.

My wife had a Passat with factory Continentals. Worst tires EVER! I bitched and moaned until VW changed them to some sort of Goodyear, (can't remember which ones), and those were great.

I guess we all have varied experiences and expectations.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Less than the F1s. I'd pay 200 bucks a pop for them.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

I'd probably buy them at least once for nostaglia, I'm just that way LOL. Anyone wanting originality or to use authentic parts would buy them as long as they were priced decently, period. I admit that I put Nitto DRs on the back because my KDWs (also unavailable now and I wasn't that fond of them) could not get traction, so I doubt I'd be all that happy with the VR50s from what I hear.

Also, now that I've seen how the DRs kick up rocks and how I'm not really looking for races anymore, I have to find a really good street tire for the next time around and am unsure of what to get. We don't have alota great choices right now. It's probably between F1s or G-Force Sports I guess.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

My car is not a 10K mile original, but it is a 29K mile original car, and all it does is ride around in an enclosed trailer and go to shows. Yes, I do start the engine weekly, sometimes drive it around the block or up to the gas station for some fresh non-ethanol premium, but other then that it does not see much use. When the snow and ice is out, it goes up and down the driveway a few times (my driveway is 700 feet long), but not on the street. Can't get road salt on the baby. Granted as a 29K mile car it is no number one, but it is a real nice number two. The car shows in the stock class, and has never lost points for having non-OEM tires. Granted most of the shows we attend are 100 point shows, not the 1000 point shows where they check for dirt behind your brake drums/discs, so maybe that is the reason... We did enter one 1000 point show, and did get honorable mention, however it is hard to compete with a thirdgen against classic cars from all years. No one takes a thirdgen seriously, except another thirdgenner, and sometimes other gen f-body people. In that 1000 point show, no one give a s*** what kind of tires were on the car. I don't see the OE tires as a big deal one way of the other, however the ever OCD me might actually buy a set of repoduction Gatorbacks for the sake of originallity. That does not mean that Goodyear sucks any less...

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Mine is a 21K and not trailered. I enjoy it on nice days.
I love the generals I have on them. great traction and good ride. and at <90$ a tire a great deal for this size. I dont like the aggressive tread on the sidewalls though. maybe cool for others, I dont know. Not speed rated, but I am not going fast in this car and they dont light up easily like the gatorbacks used to in the day.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Maybe if it was an extremely low mileage car that didn't get driven. I personally wouldn't. You never know when you might get caught in the rain. Even if it's barely driven. There are much safer better performing tires. Putting them on a nice IROC trying to be super original is just silly if it's driven. It would be a shame to lose it on poor performing tires and crash.

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

Personally, if F1s are currently available (they were not when I bought tires for the 88 duo), I would grab those...

I agree that there are no good, high-end tires in our size. The problem I find isn't the traction, but the response. The sidewalls feel like mush. I have G Force Sports on the IROC, and Firehawk Wide Oval Indy 500s on the 88 TA. Both were the best available when I bought them...Firehawks in June, IROC last May.

They simply don't have the crisp turn-in feel of my ancient Comp TA 60 series 15s on my 86 TA. Not even close. So, I have a set of tires pushing 15 years old with a bigger sidewall smacking down brand new 16s. Not good.

The Comp TAs give a great burnout now, even with the paltry 190hp the 86 puts out :lol: Because of our recent October blizzard, I went out for my final ride Friday night...chose the '86. Did a gorgeous, non-power-braked burnout coming off a light and got rubber all the way through first gear. I was impressed my little 305 gave a good show :)

Of course, it shifted to second and fell flat on its face, but I digress ;)

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

This guy gets it. :goodjob:

Re: If they still offered 245/50/16 Gatorbacks, would you buy them?
 

You do know that your non-WS6 86 T/A and both your WS6 88 T/A and 88 Iroc have completely different steering boxes right? You can't make a valid comparison of the tire's steering response when the steering ratio and effort is different. I'd tell you to swap wheels and try it the other way around, but I doubt it would overcome your preconceived notions...