Here is some more information and documentation on the Firestone tires on an original Spoiler II. Our good friend The Judge, Marty Burke, has done it again. He came up with a photo of a Spoiler II being delivered to its new owner on the showroom floor of Fred Jones Mercury.
Not only is this a very cool photo but it also clearly shows that the Gurney is wearing Firestone Wide Oval shoes! Well, maybe not!
Cris Vic has much better eyes than I do and says that these are Good Year tires and that it is a Cale not a Gurney. I admit I counted the letters in the sidewall and they came out perfect for Firestone! Well, I forgot that Good Year used the winged foot logo between Good and Year. That means that the correct number of letters could also be Good Year with the logo in between; both would be 9 digits.
I went back and blew up the image some more and also went out looking for the reproduction Firestone tire. Below is what I found.
Now, did the Talladega get the Firestone Wide Oval whitewall and the Mercury cars got the Good Year white letters? Let’s see some more evidence and thoughts.
Marty,
By any chance would Mercury have offered the Spoiler II without white sidewall tires?
I would not have made that guess, based on the WSW Wide Oval designation on all Talladega documents that I have seen.
In 1969 the WSW would have been considered “upscale” which the Mercury Division certainly was considered to be when compared to Ford.