Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
Does anyone know why reproduction redlines have the red stripe closer to the wheel than the originals did?
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I think those redlines on the Firebird are a bit of an anomaly. Take another look at the Banshee redlines, which I believe are more representative of back in the day.
Sidebar: Have I ever told you about the process of inventing the redline tire?
Some of you know about Paul Deesen. He was a designer in the Chevy studio in the late 50's/early 60's and then in the Pontiac studios. He did the front and/or rear ends on some prominent Chevys, he added the "skegs" to the sides of some of the mid 60's full size Pontiacs. He also designed the GTO fender emblems we have come to know and love and the concave rear window on the ’63 Grand Prix.
Like most young men, when he first started working he was quite poor - but he had right priorities. He purchased and drove an early model Corvette (a '57 ) but couldn't afford new tires. They were blackwalls and he wanted whitewalls so he grabbed a white crayon out of the kid's coloring book stash and made his own white stripe tires.
After a while the white stripes started wearing off and looking bad. He went back to the crayon box and....no white crayon.
So - he grabbed a red one instead.
It was typical back then for the studio chiefs to troll the parking lot looking for ideas on employee cars in the lot. Paul's car caught one of the studio bosses' eye and they decided to pursue it. They contacted one of the tire manufacturers and...the rest is history.
Paul was a member of our local Michigan Widetrakers Chapter of the POCI. He passed away about a year ago.
K
http://deansgarage.com/?s=paul+deesen