I am thinking of buying a set of polyglas tires for my 71. I understand that radials are the way to go for performance but can somebody give me the pros and cons of each.

Polyglas have the nice original look along with poor traction and high price.

Radials are generally more moderately priced and offer better sizes and traction handling etc but you loose the right off the factory assembly line look.

Originally posted by doggy69:
Polyglas have the nice original look along with poor traction and high price.freshayr,

Opinions differ. You can find "group purchase" deals on many different boards. There was a group buy on dubdubdubdotV8buickdotcom a couple a months ago where the price was about 15% off. As for traction, well, check out the low 12 sec pure stockers at PSMCDR and the low 11 sec F.A.S.T. (stock appearing) cars in Hot Rod, Hemmings Muscle Car, Chevy High Performance and Popular Hot Rodding. These guys run on repo Wide Ovals and Polyglas.

Bias ply for show, Radials for driving! I know that I am dating myself here but I can remember having polyglas tires on my 68 SS396 when it was only a couple of years old! The tread life was terrible (about 10,000 miles if you didn't beat them up to bad) and they tended to follow every groove or rut in the road. What an improvement when radials came out! Just my two cents worth.

Cheers
Steve graemlins/beers.gif

john I know where you went with that and guess what your wrong not trying to fight...but bias ply tires dont hook the guys who use them spin off the line and slowly ease into the throttle....tire technology has advanced along with everything else simply put

I have an original set of Uniroyal F70X14 tires that bite at least as well our 235 x 70 T/As. The Goodyear Polyglas tires were the best traction tires available in 1970. When cars can run low 12s and high 11s on these, it must say something about the tires. We're talking lots of torque and horsepower.

You can run 11's on bicycle tires....its how you get into the throttle that determines the traction...if you roll into it slow enogh you'll stay hooked...the biasply tires might hold heat better and break down but that equates to poor tread life not good traction.... heat kills tires just like anything else....

Keeping in mind that the 71's made the move to the 60 series tires with more ground exposure I would say you wouldn't sacrifice too much in traction. Different story for those comparing to their earlier Chevelle year cars with 70 series or even earlier Chevelles with old bias ply structure.

"Performance" doesn't necessarily mean going from point A to point B faster. It also means ease of handling, cornering, etc. while driving. There is no comparison on this issue. That is why they don't put fiberglass or bias ply tires on cars anymore and haven't for decades.

Radials for driving pleasure and safety, original replacements for show and originality if that is more important to you.