Thread: Sleeks... When did they start?

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My first set of slicks

In about 1966 someone sold me a well-used set of
recap slicks....they were awfully tall but they looked
cool. We mounted them on some station wagon wheels
and went to the drag strip on Saturday. On Saturday
night, I did the local cruise without taking the slicks off.

It started a misting rain. Stopped at a traffic light on
a gentle uphill, I got stuck. Stuck in the middle of a
street. People started honking but the car wouldnt go
at all....spinning both tires with posi. I waited for everyone
to go around me and backed over to the curb and waited
for the mist to stop....and got the heck home. (maybe I
did run them on the street just a few more times!!)

mike in tucson

The misty rain story brought chills up my spine. One night after doing a lot of "bench racing"(and a few barley pops) the guys at the shop decided to go to a local bar where "Rare Earth" was playing and upon departure we found it to be snowing quite heavily. It was sticking to the ground very well and I had failed to remember the '69 'Stang still had it's slicks on it (Duh, I didn't even think it might snow in Colorado in March). Being a spooled 4:56 rear end, well, you can imagine the sawing I was doing on the steering wheel to pull away from a stop light and managing to keep it straight enough to go down the street. Low and behold, red and blue lights appeared in my mirror and I thought my heart fell out of my chest. After being told to get the thing home before I hurt something (or somebody), I was so glad to drive to a buddy's house 3 blocks away and park it. WHEW!!!!...It was so cold that night, he never suspected the "consumption" of brew that was on my breath. That has never happened again.

My first set were some M and H 11 inch dragster slicks I ran on my '64 Chevy in about 1965. How they fit under the fenders, I have no idea, but they sure looked great,and with 5:13 gears the car sounded faster than it really was.

Got pulled over by two cops one night, and as they were looking over the car one cop says " and look at those bald tires you're running." The other cop just gave him a dumb look and said "Uh, those are racing slicks." First cop just said "oh."

I got out of it by telling them I came home from the strip and my other car wouldn't start so I needed to drive this one to get to work. They bought it, and I got a warning.


Don

Sleeks were popular in the seexties, not as much in the feefties.

I bet she fllips a coin every time she thinks of posting something. Poor girl, we really like to have fun with her.


Don

Denny, your fingers are on the wrong row on the keyboard. Couldn't understand a word you were saying.

Don

Originally Posted by DennyW

Você apostou que o ya don. Você tem que poder gracejar pouco. Faz a vida muito mais melhor!!

Is he calling me names again????????????????????

Are 'Sleeks' tires made in Mexico?

Originally Posted by C9x

I thought Texans called em "tar's."

Yes, thank you.

Or in a sentence; "I'm a gonna run down to the store and git me some of them slick tars".

Faith can use this if she buys 'em in Texas.

Kitz

I V's tire shop in Tampa made recapped sleeks in the 50's for the likes of the Garlits brothers and other local racers.

hiboygirl. no one ran slicks in 55 ,exhaust manifolds were the norm. there are too many things that are not 50s about this car. I had headers in 56 on a 50olds, they looked like a flat head header. they were not open. good luck.

Hot Rod magazine, January 1956, has ads for headers and pics of cars at several drag strips with slicks on them. Also an article on a Caddy engined '55 Ford pickup with a 4-71 blower. Great pics of the Glass Slipper, too.
If they were in a mag in January, they must have been around for a while before this date!
There's also a National Schools ad showing a flathead Ford in an open wheeled street rod with chrome headers.

Did anyone notice that she hasn't posted on this thread for four months?

I started following drag racing in '58. There were slicks on all of the serious race cars then. They were the type that looked like the edge of a "piecrust" on the shoulders. Many were recaps, or made by small companies. I remember that Firestone got into it by about '63-'64. The "piecrust slicks" started to disappear about '66.

I just got this off of a site for M&H Tires, which is now under new ownership.

"In the early 1950's M&H Racemaster pioneered tires for drag racing which has now become the fastest growing sport in the world today."

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Did anyone notice that she hasn't posted on this thread for four months?

Too many guys who sound like they have knuckles that drag on the ground?