It's been a good while since I did a comparison with the genuine GT vs the repro. Kelsey Tire remakes them, and now the prices are $500-ish for just one tire. Meaning that you can read this as this is a tire for that "next level" in restoration. You simply wouldn't typically buy this tire to just drive around in. Unless you got money to spare. $2K for a set of "so-so" wayback machine tires isn't cost-effective, that's all I'm saying.
At first glance, you would think it was 1982 all over again. My first go-round with the ROWL Eagle GT was on a new 1982 Camaro Z28 I ordered from Glen's Chevrolet in Pocatello, Idaho. Dark blue with dark blue velour interior.
Went down memory lane for this one. Here's what's left of the dealership. You can see the "pad" out near the road where the big, tall Chevrolet sign used to be mounted. Picked up my new car right in front of the show room steps.
Speaking of, I recalled they had "Chevrolet bowtie" shaped handrails on those steps, and sure enough, they're still there.
But I digress. The Eagle GTs were mediocre performance tires at best. Better than the bread n butter radial, but not super-great. Good looking tire, though. They looked like a performance tire, but in reality, they were just a wider tire with soft rubber that was pretty good on dry pavement, but they would peel off the rubber if you had a car that could even remotely spin them. GM seemed to put them on everything performance back then.
So I'm sure they haven't changed the molds on the new tires, so I'm figuring I'm pretty safe to show the minor differences that probably still exist today. Not that they're bad, because from 20 feet away, you'll just be amazed they're a GT and not a GT II in that fact alone.
For the most part, they got the tires pretty close to spot on. And here they are. Repro on left, "NOS" genuine Goodyear one on right.
The NOS ones I have I believe (don't hold me to it) are a tad earlier than the repro is depicting. What I mean is that at least for 1982 or 83-up, the Eagle GT has the tire performance criteria, aka "TPC" code patch strip under the size pasted there. I don't know exactly when that got on there, but most of them had it. The NOS set does not. I have to look at the date codes again.
And then, who can forget about the Eagle GTII. It's a different tire than the GT, and I believe it actually rode better and wasn't as mushy. JMO.
At first glance, you would think it was 1982 all over again. My first go-round with the ROWL Eagle GT was on a new 1982 Camaro Z28 I ordered from Glen's Chevrolet in Pocatello, Idaho. Dark blue with dark blue velour interior.
Went down memory lane for this one. Here's what's left of the dealership. You can see the "pad" out near the road where the big, tall Chevrolet sign used to be mounted. Picked up my new car right in front of the show room steps.
Speaking of, I recalled they had "Chevrolet bowtie" shaped handrails on those steps, and sure enough, they're still there.
But I digress. The Eagle GTs were mediocre performance tires at best. Better than the bread n butter radial, but not super-great. Good looking tire, though. They looked like a performance tire, but in reality, they were just a wider tire with soft rubber that was pretty good on dry pavement, but they would peel off the rubber if you had a car that could even remotely spin them. GM seemed to put them on everything performance back then.
So I'm sure they haven't changed the molds on the new tires, so I'm figuring I'm pretty safe to show the minor differences that probably still exist today. Not that they're bad, because from 20 feet away, you'll just be amazed they're a GT and not a GT II in that fact alone.
For the most part, they got the tires pretty close to spot on. And here they are. Repro on left, "NOS" genuine Goodyear one on right.
The NOS ones I have I believe (don't hold me to it) are a tad earlier than the repro is depicting. What I mean is that at least for 1982 or 83-up, the Eagle GT has the tire performance criteria, aka "TPC" code patch strip under the size pasted there. I don't know exactly when that got on there, but most of them had it. The NOS set does not. I have to look at the date codes again.
And then, who can forget about the Eagle GTII. It's a different tire than the GT, and I believe it actually rode better and wasn't as mushy. JMO.