September 3, 2021 - My Chevrolet sedan is about to need re-tiring – that is, a new set of tires. It came with blackwall tires, and I was thinking of sprucing it up with a set of new whitewall tires. I know that they are more trouble to keep clean and white, but the white dust in my neighborhood would be less visible on whitewall tires.
I was shocked the other day when in Walmart that I could not find a whitewall tire for sale. I then decided to take inventory of the cars around East Texas that have whitewall tires. To my surprise, very few cars, especially the newer ones, had my favorite tires on them. Where has the whitewall tire gone? Is it going the way of the transistor radio and the dial telephone?
I did a quick research job on this and discovered that virtually all the new cars are sold now with blackwall tires. The modern trend toward more minimal styling and large wheels favor very low-profile tires. This leaves little room for a whitewall tire. As of 2010, the Lincoln Town Car was the only new vehicle offered with a factory whitewall option, a narrow white stripe.
Although whitewall tires are virtually non-existent as a factory option on modern cars, they are still manufactured in the original bias-ply or radial form by specialty outlets. The last car available in the United Kingdom with whitewall tires was the KIA Pride.
In 1964 I purchased a new Mercury Comet, but could not afford the extra expense of whitewall tires. So, for a nominal price, I purchased sidewall inserts from Sears Roebuck and had them installed over my new blackwall tires. One could not tell that the whitewall was a fake. The inserts worked nicely for a while until one day, on a trip to Orange, Texas, the right front rubber insert broke and almost took off my fender before I could get stopped. So much for the inserts.
The status of the whitewall tires versus the blackwall tires was originally the reverse of what it later became. With fully black tires requiring a greater amount of carbon black and less effort to maintain a clean appearance, these were considered the premium tire. Since the black tires first became available they were commonly fitted to many luxury cars through the 1930s.
During the late 1920s, gleaming whitewalls contrasted against darker surroundings were considered a stylish but high-maintenance feature. The popularity of whitewalls as an option increased during the 1930s, while automobile streamlining and skirted fenders eventually rendered the two-sided whitewall obsolete. Also, the availability of whitewall tires was limited during World War II and the Korean War.
The very wide whitewall tires reached their zenith in popularity by the early 1950s. The 1957 production version of the Cadillac Eldorodo was fitted with whitewalls that were reduced to a one-inch-wide stripe floating on the tire sidewall with a black area between this strip and the wheel rim. The whitewall stripe width began to diminish as an attempt to reduce the perceived height of the wheel/tire during the decade increasingly lower vehicle heights were in vogue.
Maintaining a clean whitewall was an issue. Some motorists added aftermarket curb feelers that were attached at the bottom of the wheel opening lip to help reduce scraping the whitewall tire against curbs.
Personally, I hope that the whitewall tires make a comeback soon. I think they would look very “sleek” on my solid black Chevrolet Malibu. I might even consider putting a set of them on my 2012 Chevrolet pick-up so as to liven it up just a bit. But then, maybe not.
