Coker Tire Company is widely known as the world's largest supplier of tires and wheels for collector vehicles. Enthusiasts around the world are sourcing authentic tires from a company that started as a small tire and service center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Coker Tire is proud to announce a new tire in its immense line of products, the BF Goodrich Silvertown 225/60R16 whitewall radial tire, a replacement tire for late model luxury cars. Coker Tire's specialty is whitewall tires for a wide variety of vehicles. Whitewall tires have always been a symbol of luxury and style, and auto manufacturers dictated the width of whitewalls through the years. From the 1940's through the 1970's, whitewalls shrank year by year. This ultimately led to a 3/8-inch pinstripe whitewall, and this was the standard whitewall width for many years, even into the 1990's. The new BF Goodrich

60 years. A milestone that brings us back to our humble beginnings, as a simple tire and service center. Harold Coker had high expectations for his business back in 1958, but he couldve never imagined it growing into the worlds largest supplier of tires and wheels for collector vehicles. Although Harold passed away in 2014, his influence is still a major motivator at Coker Tire Company, and its our goal to carry on his legacy. In 1974 Harolds son, Corky Coker, joined the family business and its his vision and dedication that took it to the next level. With trusted employees by his side, Corky traveled the world acquiring original molds to discontinued classic tires in order to bring them back in limited supply. Corkys passion inspired new product developments,

Coker Tire specializes in whitewall tires, so we thought it would be cool to have a little history lesson about the history of whitewalls. To find the earliest usage of a whitewall tire, you have to rewind the clock more than 100 years. Originally, automotive tires were off white in color, due to the natural color of the rubber formula used by tire companies. Zinc oxide would later be used to give the tires a more bright white color. Then, in 1910, B.F. Goodrich used a substance called "carbon black" in the manufacturing process. This formula strengthened the rubber, which was quite important considering the condition of the roads back then. When mixed with the raw materials, the carbon black caused the tire to be black. A short time later, a smaller tire company jumped on the carbon black bandwagon, but only added it to the tread surface as a cost savings. The result? Black tread and

(Photos by Daniel Strohl, Hemmings Motor News) Without question, the greatest cars in the world rely on Coker Tire products for authenticity and the winner of the Hemmings Concours d'Elegance continues to prove it. This year's Best in Show is Bill Alley's 1914 Locomobile Berline, a spectacular example of an automotive rarity, as it is believed to be the only surviving car of this model. The massive touring car commands attention everywhere it goes, and it rolls on a set of our Goodrich Silvertown high pressure whitewall tires. Even though the car has been completed for quite some time, Bill keeps it looking fresh and clean, and it was enough to take home top honors from the Hemmings Concours d'Elegance event this past weekend. While the beautifully restored Locomobile stole the show with its stature and authenticity, there were many other classic cars on the show

We love getting phone calls and emails from our happy customers. It's one of the most rewarding parts of our job, besides knowing that we're keeping collector vehicles on the road with high quality tires and wheels. Lately, we've gotten quite a few pictures of cars and trucks that are now wearing a set of our tires, and we wanted to pass them along to you. Buying authentic tires for a collector vehicle can be a tough decision. Even within our product ranges, there are typically a few choices for any given make or model, so having some expert guidance goes a long way. That's why our team of Sales Representatives are waiting for your call--we can help with tire fitment, brand selection and additional accessories to make your collector vehicle really stand out. We realize that tires and wheels are expensive, and you don't want to take a chance with that type of investment. Listed below are just a few of our most recent customer

You know we love a good Barn Find, and they don't get much better than a 1954 Corvette Barn Find. This one is a real deal survivor, parked in 1964 and stored for more than 50 years. This jewel showed up at our doorstep earlier this week, and we just couldn't stop marveling at the completeness of the car. Sure, many parts of the car were in need of restoration, but then you'd mask the originality with shiny paint and chrome plated finishes. As it is now, this barn find is a piece of automotive history, and preservation versus restoration would be a delicate balance. With the incredible documentation that came with the car, the new owner plans on leaving it in "as found" condition, aside from getting it running, cleaned up and of course, putting some new tires on it! The new owner of this epic barn

The words "Lowrider" and "subdued" rarely go together in the same sentence. Normally, this type of build is over the top with wild custom paint schemes and show car qualities (ex. chrome brake rotors) that truly hinder the functionality of the car. However, the 1965 Chevy Impala that we're featuring here is a functional and very tasteful Lowrider that was on display in The Enthusiast Network's booth at the 2016 SEMA Show. The Enthusiast Network owns Lowrider magazine, as well as titles, such as Hot Rod, Car Craft, Street Rodder and more. The company knows cars, and the guys at Lowrider are experts when it comes to the culture and the right appearance that goes along with the Lowrider scene. You won't see any wild stripes and paint on this one--just a super slick candy apple red finish, that was painted many years ago with old school lacquer materials. And though it has custom details throughout, you'll see that the Blueprint Engines small block is ready to rock, and the beautiful leather

SEMA 2016 Highlights are in high demand and we are cranking them out as quickly as possible. We're blowing up our Facebook page and YouTube Channel, so keep an eye on those and then, of course, you can keep checking out our blog page to see the updates, car features and highlights from the biggest automotive trade show on earth. SEMA 2016 is in full swing, as the crowds continue to fill the aisles and we continue to reach out to our industry friends, distributors, media partners and more to spread awareness about our company and our new products. We explored the South Hall this morning, and then checked out some of the cool creations in the Silver Lot just outside of the Central Hall. Check out our SEMA 2016 Highlights from day three and enjoy the ride!

Our walking shoes are getting wore in now that we're finished with Wednesday at SEMA 2016. We continue finding cool cars and trucks sporting our tires and wheels, but we started the day by attending the SEMA Prayer Breakfast, where Chattanooga, Tennessee residents, Jim and Amy Jo Osborn spoke to a great crowd of automotive industry professionals. It was an action packed day of fun and we found ourselves drooling over hundreds (no, wait, thousands) of beautifully built hot rods, crazy trucks, and everything in between. Of course, we had our eyes glued to the tires beneath this custom creations, and we're here to show you some of our favorite rides equipped with Coker Tire products. At the end of the day, we attended the ETTN reception, the International Happy Hour (where we received three Global Media Awards) and the HRIA reception. It was a busy evening, but it's all part of the greatest automotive trade show on the planet. Check out our highlights from today's action and keep checking

Spring time in Tennessee is a good time to own a street rod. We have our big cruise in April, and then when May rolls around, it's always time for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals South in Knoxville, Tennessee. We make it up to Knoxville to check out the event every year, and bring you some coverage because it's a nearby event with tons of cool stuff on the grounds of Chilhowee Park. This year, the weather was excellent, which always brings out a great crowd. We spotted a bunch of cars at the Street Rod Nationals South with Coker Tire products rolling beneath them, so check out some of our favorites and support your local NSRA event! [products] [caption id="attachment_7493" align="alignleft" width="780"]

We love running across long time hot rodders, who have seen just about every stage of our automotive aftermarket industry. Jon Kosmoski is one of those guys, and he founded the "House of Kolor" paint company back in 1956. This guy has formulated custom automotive paint, and he's sprayed an untold amount of cars, trucks and motorcycles over the years. While the House of Kolor brand is now a part of the Valspar company, Jon is still involved, and he still has a passion for building awesome hot rods. His latest creation, a beautiful 1934 Ford Cabriolet, debuted in the House of Kolor booth at this year's SEMA Show. The build came down to the wire, but the finish quality is second to none.

We love it when a big company like Hagerty comes up with a cool idea that utilizes its employees in a way that gets them away from their desk for a few days. The Hagerty Swap to Street Chasllenge is a group of Hagerty employees that have been tasked with restoring a '46 Ford truck in 100 hours, while on display at the AACA Hershey fall meet in Pennsylvania. This event is the ultimate swap meet, and the idea is for the Hagerty crew to source all of the necessary parts from the swap meet. Some parts will be used, while others will come from some of the new parts vendors....such as Coker Tire, of course! We provided a set of Coker Classic 600R16 radial whitewall tires and Hot Rod Steel wheels for the Ford pickup. The goal is to restore the truck and drive it back to the Hagerty headquarters in Traverse City, Michigan after the show is over. The cool part about the whole deal is that it's being filmed, and a LIVE FEED is available to see the progress. You can click here for the live feed, and click here to get more information on the build. [products]

While there was an abundance of nicely restored Tri-Five Chevys at the inaugural Tri-Five Nationals in Bowling Green, Kentucky, there were hundreds of modified cars. Some were slammed customs and some were sky-high gassers, while others had cool nostalgia vibes with '60s style modifications. We enjoyed the diversity of the show, and the fact that LOTS of cars were rolling on Coker Tire products. We picked out 15 customs and gassers to showcase here, so keep scrolling and check them out...also keep us in mind for your Tri-Five Chevy tire and wheel needs!

Last year, we heard about the Tri-Five Nationals, and instantly wanted to be a part of the inaugural event. It helps matters that it is organized and promoted by our buddy Chris Sondles from Woody's Hot Rodz, which is a shop that specializes in Tri-Five Chevy builds and sells many of our products. As the plans for the event developed, Coker Tire stepped up as one of the leading sponsors, and presented the "Celebration of 60 Years of the 1955 Chevy", a special section with original 1955 Chevrolets of many models and configurations. As we rolled into historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, it didn't take long to see that the Tri-Five Nationals was destined to be HUGE. And that's exactly what it was--the official car count was 1,858 registered entrants, all ranging from 1955 to 1957 Chevys, including a few pickup trucks and Corvettes from the famous Tri-Five years. Tens of thousands of spectators took part in the event, which had drag racing, autocross racing, a massive show-n-shine area, a swap meet and a packed vendor area.

We've been attending the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky for many years. A lot of things have changed during all those years, but it's still a must-go for all street rodders. This year, the event saw 10,000-plus street rods, muscle cars, gassers and more. We saw lots of Coker Tire products on the grounds, and enjoyed the variety of applications. From rough and rowdy rat rods to high end customs, we spotted a bunch of great cars wearing our products. Keep reading to take a look at some of our favorites, and also look forward to a couple more posts with special cars that caught our eye.

When SEMA created National Collector Car Appreciation Day, car guys (and gals) rejoiced. We love having an excuse to drive an old car to work and an excuse to hang out with like-minded folks who also want to celebrate. Friday, July 10th, 2015 was the day, and the place was our headquarters here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We invited our local friends for a free hot dog lunch, and encouraged everyone to get out and drive their collector car. Many Coker Tire and Honest Charley employees drove their collector cars, and we had numerous guests stop by in old cars during lunch time. We even had a special visitor from Texas with an wildly customized Cadillac, which rolls on a set of our new American Classic bias look radial whitewalls and Cadillac wire wheels. Corky and Theresa Coker also stopped by to join the fun and welcome the participants and on-lookers to Coker Tire. A big thank you goes out to Jason White and Aaron Wolfe for cooking the hot dogs, and the rest of the Coker Tire Marketing staff and Facilities staff for helping put it together. It was a great time and we hope everyone enjoyed our celebration of National Collector Car Appreciation Day!

They always say that 'close' only counts in horsehoes and hand grenades, but when you're talking about spending millions in new car development and tooling up for production, close really doesn't count. Some of these great concept cars influenced the industry for years after their appearance. These cars never happened, or at least they never made it into full-scale production. When you look closer at them and consider what was going on around them at the time, you start to understand more about why they didn't make it and more interestingly, you start to see the butterfly effects of what might have happened if they did make it. Concept cars are the life blood of the industry, exercising trends, styles, engineering and even names, running from sketches all the way through to public displays. In the good ol' days, a well received car, might just hop into the fast track to production. These days the stakes are higher than ever. So too are the considerations, with safety and global applications muddying up the process. Sure, every now and then a car sneaks through, but these days the process is far more complicated and maybe in a backhanded way, less creative and exciting. Why would we suggest that today's wild 3D models of hopeful designs might be boring? Take a look at these beauties and think about all of the things that would have been changed forever had they been produced. Concept cars were never as influential as they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Enjoy Ten Cars that never happened, but totally should have.

We spent another day on our feet at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. We walked the aisles, spoke with customers, and enjoyed the networking opportunities that only the SEMA Show can provide. We continue to find vehicles with Coker Tire products in use, so we snapped a few pictures to share with you here. Tonight was the annual SEMA Awards Banquet, which is the highlight of the event, where the best of the best come together for a great dinner and a great ceremony. Check out our photo highlights from today!

Rutledge Wood is one of the most popular personalities in the car world. His career on TV started with NASCAR, and while he continues to work in that field, he also has a gig on the History Channel with a show called Top Gear. One of three hosts, Rutledge offers a distinct level of excitement and comedy to the show, and he's a real deal car guy. Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to be a part of his 1953 Plymouth Suburban station wagon build, which was scheduled to debut at the 2014 Hot Rod Power Tour. And now, it's on the car show circuit, including the SEMA Show.

It's always cool when the younger generation gets involved in the automotive world. Wyotech plays a huge role in getting kids into old cars, and it educates young folks to prepare them for real world jobs in the automotive industry. One particular project that was built at Wyotech is a beautiful Ford F-100 pickup that was featured on the "Chop, Cut, Rebuild" TV show. Built by students, the truck is detailed nicely and features lots of custom touches that make it a real show stopper. Our favorite part??? Of course, the tires....and wheels! The Wyotech F-100 rolls on a set of our 17x8-inch Artillery chrome-plated wheels, and American Classic 235/55R17 whitewall radials. This thing is awesome, so check out a few photos of it, and look forward to a video feature to hit our YouTube Channel soon!

You know it's a special day in the office when the front parking lot is filled with Chevy Corvairs! These little cars offered a lot of "firsts" for American auto manufacturing, with production starting in 1960, and lasting through 1969. Corvairs feature an aluminum, air cooled engine, which is placed in the rear of the vehicle, and it features a lightweight unibody chassis, which helped provide great fuel economy and performance. These cars are certainly not your average classic car, so having more than 20 of them stuffed into our parking lot was beyond cool! We had convertibles, coupes, station wagons, and even had a couple of Corviar trucks on hand for a tour. There was even a Corvair with a small block Chevy crammed in the back seat! The group is part of the Choo Choo Corvairs, a local club that holds an annual show at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. We're glad they decided to stop by and tour our facility...and we hope they saw that we carry a wide variety of tire to fit their distinct classics!

The Chevrolet Nomad Association holds a National Convention every year, and it moves around to a different city each year. We're so glad the organization chose Chattanooga, Tennessee as the home of the 2014 Nomad Convention, and we opened our doors and invited them to join us for an afternoon of fun. A wide open tour of our facility and a hot dog dinner (cooked by Coker Marketing dudes, Jason White and Aaron Wolfe) gave them plenty to talk about, and they absolutely packed Fort Street with Nomads. Every configuration, from bone stock to full custom lined the street, and we loved getting up close and personal with these classic Chevys.

In the 1950's, American auto manufacturers hit their stride with awe inspiring designs that put a stamp on what some would consider the greatest decade in automotive history. By 1955, all of the "big three" manufacturers (Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Chrysler) had redesigned the flagship models with cool, new styling that sent consumers sprinting to the dealerships across the country. For the Plymouth brand, the Belvedere was the top dog in the product line, and with miles of stainless steel trim, beautiful front and rear styling cues and a host of engine options, it's easy to see why it was so popular. We got our hands on one of these '50s classics during the filming of the Backroad Gold TV show, which airs weekly (Wednesdays at 9:30pm EST) on the Travel Channel.

Well, today is the final day that our Media team will be on hand for the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. So, we hit it hard today, and grabbed some great coverage for your enjoyment. We also had our American Classic bias look radial tire press conference this morning, so we had plenty of folks in and out of the booth. Tomorrow is the final day of SEMA 2013, and we'll likely begin thinking about SEMA 2014 on Monday. It's a huge event with all sort of great qualities, and we're glad to have been able to cover it with awesome pictures and videos.

It's always ideal when you can buy a set of tires and wheels for your collector vehicle and get the instant gratification of bolting them into place. However, it may not always work out that way, so being prepared to properly store your tires is a very important aspect of the tire's life span.

We often get opportunities to see great automobiles, but anytime a Packard pulls into the parking lot, we take notice. This one in particular caught our attention because it has a set of our tires and wheels on it! George Hubbert is the proud owner and drove it up from Duluth, Georgia to have a couple of new tires installed on the car. While he was here in Chattanooga, we took the opportunity to take pictures of his car and he even let us take it for a spin around the block.

We've said it over and over again--the right tires and wheels can take a somewhat questionable car and turn it into a real attention getter! It's a simple fact of sizing, style and stance that makes a car look great, especially in the hot rodding world. We recently had a car come in the shop that didn't quite have the right look. With about 30 minutes of work, we helped transform it into a cool, old school hot rod! [caption id="attachment_2554" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="This Model A sedan looks awesome with its new Firestones!"][/caption]

We love old cars, especially those from the '50s and '60s, when styling efforts were at an all time high. Chrysler led the pack with some of the most interesting designs in the industry, and put the automotive world on its ear when it unveiled the Chrysler 300 in 1955. The new model featured luxurious details inside and out, as well as a powerful Hemi engine. Two years later, the 300

First off, don't call it a Chrysler because it ain't one! Although these cars were manufactured by Chrysler and resembled all of the corporation's weird cars of the early '60s, this car was sold as an Imperial Crown...not a Chrysler. Anyway, these are super cool cars and they're extremely rare, so we were surprised to see Todd Dockery pull up to our shop in one of these! He needed new tires, so we were able to get him back on the road with period correct tires for his classic Chrys...err, Imperial. The interesting thing about the '63 Imperial is that hundreds of changes were made from the previous year's production, and it

Last weekend, we had a lot going on. Coker Tire was widely represented across the country, as we had a truck and trailer at the Bakersfield, California HCCA meet, as well as a big crew at the Portland, Oregon Swap Meet. Without a doubt, we supplied lots of tires for collector vehicles, but we also had some fun too! While our sales guys were hard at work, our staff photographer went up to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to the Spring Grand Rod Run. He came back with a bunch of cool pictures, so we just wanted to share them here. Check 'em out! [caption id="attachment_2450" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="This Model A is super cool! Love those Firestone cheater slicks on the back!"][/caption]