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An American Legend Turns 35.October 31, 2005 More than three decades after its introduction, the BFGoodrich® Radial T/A® tire remains a nationwide phenomenon. Still one of the world's best-selling performance tires. Still the choice of customizers and movie makers everywhere whenever they need a tire that screams muscle, as in the case this summer of the hit movie "The Dukes of Hazzard." Movie-car builder Eddie Paul, who gained fame building cars for "The Fast and The Furious" and "XXX", points to the choice of Radial T/A tires for the XXX Pontiac GTO. "There was no other tire to consider for that car," Paul says. "BFGoodrich was the tire the muscle-car guys wanted," Paul says, harking back to the late '60s and '70s era that the GTO derived from. "Usually when you saw another tire on a muscle car, it was because the BFGoodrich tire was unavailable." Having become the popular standard for the street performance crowd back in the muscle-car heyday, the Radial T/A tire managed to retain its status leadership to the present. Former Motor Trend editor and consultant Eric Dahlquist credits the Radial T/A tire with having completely changed the way American car enthusiasts thought about performance tires. "Before BFGoodrich introduced that tire," says Dahlquist, a frequent guest commentator on The History Channel, "the only consideration in performance tires was bias-ply tires. BFGoodrich changed that, and, over the long haul, brought it to the point where nobody would consider anything else." In addition to movie vehicles, the Radial T/A tire remains a popular choice for top customizers like Performance West. Larry Weiner, president of Performance West, builder of project cars for GM, Ford and other manufacturers, says he fits BFGoodrich® tires on all his project cars, including a pair of Mustangs, a '67 and a 2005, that toured the show circuit last year, and a project '59 Chevrolet that will tour this year along with a 2006 HHR—both on Radial T/A tires. To Weiner, the Radial T/A tire has achieved absolute iconographic status in the street performance world. And has enjoyed that status for more than 35 years. "I remember when it was brand new," says Weiner, who equipped his 1969 Chevrolet Corvette 427 with Radial T/A tires in 1975. "That tire was the phenomenon. It was the buzz-word. If you had Radial T/As, you were cool. They were great tires." Weiner says things haven't changed in the intervening decades. Radial T/A tires continue to be the tire to have in the street performance world—particularly with hot-rodders and muscle-car owners. "It's the tire of choice for so many people because it's got that brand legacy," Weiner says. "It identifies you as a cool guy if you run that tire. It shows that you're savvy about tires and performance." An American legend indeed. 
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