whitewalls

The SEMA Show is an annual spectacle of all things automotive, as the world's top auto manufacturers (both OEM and aftermarket) overtake the Las Vegas Convention Center for a week. And while the SEMA Show features hundreds of cars, trucks and other performance vehicles, it added another level of excellence by starting the SEMA Battle of the Builders. This competition is available for any display vehicle as the SEMA Show, and all participants are narrowed down to the Top 40, then the Top 12 by a selection of judges. Then, the Top 12 builders vote among themselves to determine the Top 3. The winner of the SEMA Battle of the Builders is crowned during the SEMA Ignited event on Friday evening, after the show closes. The SEMA Ignited event is open to the public, allowing car enthusiasts of all ages to check out the awesome vehicles. This year, the SEMA Battle of the Builders event came down to three awesome hot rods, all of which roll on Coker Tire products. Continue reading to check them out!

(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

It could be said that national car events are declining in popularity, but that's only the case if you're looking at stale event formats that have done the same thing at the same place for dozens of years. A fresh outlook on the national car event subject is the Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals, held at historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This event just finished its third year in operation, and it is without a doubt the fastest growing car event in our market. When the idea was first brought up by Chris Sondles, he had high hopes and a great team behind him. Since that first event, the Tri-Five Nationals has continued to grow, with participants from every state in our great country, as well as participants from 14 other countries! This year's total number of cars was 2,717, which is remarkable when you consider that we're talking about Chevrolet passenger cars built in 1955, 1956 and 1957. This three-year run is undoubtedly a popular platform to build upon, and anyone

It was another great year at the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. We always go into this show, knowing that it kicks off our busy late summer and fall season, and what a great way to do it! The Kentucky Exposition Center is HUGE and it offers plenty of room for more than 10,000 hot rods, classic trucks and muscle cars to invade the property, and it also provides plenty of space for companies to display their latest and greatest products inside the vendor building. We had our new Firestone Wide Oval Radial tire on display, along with all of our regular favorites for the street rod market. And since we had so much room in our booth, we included a couple of killer hot rods. One is a light green 1932 Ford roadster, built by Johnson's Hot Rod Shop in Gadsden, Alabama and the other is a Washington Blue 1932 Ford roadster, built by Adams Hot Rod Shop in Calhoun, Georgia. These southern hot rods have distinct styling similarities and differences, but drew a lot of attention over

We have finally reached the finish line of the 2017 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty, in Traverse City, Michigan. This 9-day, 2,300-mile journey has been full of ups and downs, but one team that had an unbeatable consistency was Jody Knowles and Beth Gentry. They are always competitive in the Expert division, but they stepped it up a notch this year. With a winning score of 44.55 seconds, this team is taking home more than $50,000 in cash and prizes! By the way, the Knowles/Gentry won the race on a set of our BFGoodrich Silvertown wide whitewall radial tires and Hot Rod Steel wheels! In fact, 9 of the Top 10 teams were rolling on Coker Tire products!

McKee Foods is best known for its Little Debbie snack cakes, and it's truly a pleasure to share real estate here in the Tennessee Valley with such an excellent company. They are located just up the road from us in Collegedale, Tennessee, and we recently struck a deal with them to display a very special car in our museum. It is a 1928 Whippet 6, a low-priced sedan that was manufactured by Willys-Overland for only a few years. Although it is quite rare to see a Whippet these days, they were not all that desirable in comparison to the Ford Model A of the same era. McKee Foods founder, O.D. McKee bought a 1928 Whippet sedan in 1931 to serve as a delivery vehicle for his bakery. He removed the rear seat and sold 5-cent snack cakes out of the back of the sedan. Fast forward nearly 30 years and McKee Foods is approaching its major turning point, when O.D. McKee's son, Ellsworth, created the "family pack" of Little Debbie snack cakes. As the company continued to succeed and grow, O.D. wanted to

Every year at the SEMA Show, we have a long list of companies to meet and greet. Some have a small presence at the show, while others bring a fleet of vehicles, multiple booths and dozens of employees. Our friends at Omix-ADA pull out all the stops and we're always excited to see what they bring out for the SEMA Show. Their display in the upper level of the South Hall is always impressive, and they typically include a few vintage Jeeps in the mix. This year, we stopped by and talked with Dave Logan, and he gave us the rundown on the awesome Jeeps in the Omix-ADA booth.

With about 40 miles of walking under our belts, we started the final day of the 2016 SEMA Show with a trip to the upper level of the South Hall to meet with our friends at Omix-ADA. We'll do a full post on their awesome collection of Jeeps...for now, we're going to do a quick recap of favorites rides of the day, and then jump right into the SEMA Cruise and of course, the SEMA Ignited event. This is the third year of SEMA Ignited, and it just keeps getting better and better. The event is held across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center, and wow...what a show! The SEMA Cruise offered an awesome parade, which resulted in one of the coolest car shows you could ever see. Hot rods, muscle cars, crazy imports, off road vehicles, and more swarmed the SEMA Ignited event, as we enjoyed the nitro dragster "cacklefest", wild action on the drifting course, and plenty of action in the show area. Take a look at our highlights from the final day of the SEMA Show, and keep checking back to see

Bryan Fuller is a well known hot rodder and motorcycle builder. He's been on TV, he's built a lot of killer vehicles and he always has a presence at the SEMA Show. This year, he has a few vehicles on display, and one of them struck a chord with us. It's a 1934 Ford sedan delivery, and it's in the OTC Tools booth in the North Hall. Right around the mid 1930's OTC (originally known as Owatonna Tool Company) sold direct to customers, using sedan delivery vehicles with custom display boards to showcase their products. The company grew, and eventually grew out of this grass roots sales approach, but it never forgot the humble beginnings, even after being added into the Bosch brands fold in 2012. To commemorate the company's history, OTC commissioned Bryan Fuller to build a 1934 Ford sedan delivery to replicate some of those early delivery vehicles.

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!

The Goodguys Nashville Nationals is gaining a lot of notoriety in the hot rod and custom world. It's in a central location, and it's hard to beat Nashville, Tennessee as a host city--tons of cool stuff to see, and there is plenty of room at Nissan Stadium. We jumped at the chance to get an inside look at the event, even though we were not set up as a vendor. Coker Tire sponsors the "Best Wide Whites" award, and we've been involved with Goodguys as sponsors for many years, so it's always good to see the event first hand and see how many folks are using our products. We certainly got our answer, regarding the amount of Coker Tire users, and we're going to share a small sampling of them here. There were high end show cars wearing our tires, including the winner of the Goodguys Hot Rod of the Year award. [products] By the way, the association changed its Hot Rod of the Year competition to the Goodguys

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"]

The SEMA Show is a sea of glitz and glamour, from high end sports cars to outrageous custom builds, but sometimes it takes a little rust and patina to stand out in the crowd. That's the approach that Bryan Dagel took with the Rat Rod Magazine "Tour Rat" build. Every year, Rat Rod Magazine hosts a long distance tour, and Bryan builds a new car each year. This year, the plan was to go with a traditional hot rod look, instead of the wacky, over-the-top rat rods that you may remember. We love it--the '35 Chevy sedan body has just the right amount of patina and the stance is spot on! Power comes from a small block Chevy, and Bryan put it to good use, driving the car all the way to the SEMA Show from Minnesota. And then he drove it back, even after a tire-melting burnout at the SEMA Ignited event!

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.

Wow, what a day! We started early with the annual SEMA Prayer Breakfast, in which our own Corky Coker was the special speaker. He shared a great message of his career path and his walk with God. After breakfast, we high-tailed it to a press conference on Wade Kawasaki's 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge, which rolls on a set of our Firestone Wide Oval raised white letter tires. We made our way around the North Hall and Central Hall to meet up with some of our sponsored builders. We checked in with 40Cal Customs at the Red Kap booth to see how the "Red Kap Rocket" build was going, and stopped for a quick chat. It was a super busy day, which culminated at the Hot Rod Industry Alliance (HRIA) Awards Reception and a few hours of photo and video editing to condense all this cool stuff into something you can enjoy! We'll be brining you feature articles, as well as feature videos of our sponsored builders, so stay tuned to the blog and our other social media outlets for closer looks at some of the coolest cars, trucks and motorcycles at SEMA 2015!

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!

Regardless of your climate, the late fall and winter season is typically a slow time for your collector vehicle. During winter months, most collector vehicles sit in a garage--this down time is sometimes used for repairs, maintenance or upgrades, while many cars sit dormant for the winter months. This downtime can wreak havoc on an old car if you're not prepared. Tires play a big part in successfully storing a collector vehicle, so listen up and protect your car from old man winter!

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!

A Cadillac, especially a beautiful black 1947 sedan, deserves a good set of whitewall tires. But not just any whitewall tires will fit the bill--this one is rolling on a set of our brand new American Classic bias look radials, sized at 8.20-15. These tires have the right look for a period correct restoration, hot rod or custom, as the narrow tread profile and piecrust shoulder offer the vintage appearance of a bias ply tire. Combine this with radial construction and you have the best of both worlds. These tires are available in nine sizes, in whitewall and blackwall configurations. Get yours now!

Since the NSRA Street Rod Nationals is so huge, we figured it would be best to split it up into a few recaps of our favorite cars and trucks on hand. "The Nats" has been held at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville for quite some time and it's an excellent venue for such a huge event. We walked the aisles of one portion of the car show today, and picked a few of our favorites to share with you guys. It's an awesome show, and you can look forward to more good stuff tomorrow. Be sure to watch our Instagram and Facebook feeds, as we'll be blasting photos on there as well.

We made a quick stop at the F-100 Supernationals in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee this past weekend to check out the show and scope out all the Coker Tire products on the grounds. Our first impression is that this show is much larger than we anticipated, with rows of vintage Ford cars and trucks throughout the new LeConte Center parking lot, as well as inside the center. A beautiful setting, and hundreds of cool vehicles made for a great day at the show, and we also combed through the swap meet to make sure we didn't miss out on any deals for our F-100 shop truck. Check out the highlights and mark this one down for your calendar next year--it's a great event!

We're constantly trying to improve our customers' experience with us, so it has been an ongoing process to develop our website into an-easy-to-use destination. We launched a brand new version of the Coker Tire homepage this morning, and we hope you enjoy it! It serves not only as a sales site, but we have made huge efforts to include educational bits and pieces throughout to help customers learn more about tires and wheels. When you get a few minutes, browse around the new homepage and get familiar with it.

When you think of Cadillac, you think of BIG, heavy, luxurious cars with massive fins. The 1959 Cadillac Coupe deVille is one of the most iconic collector vehicles in existence, and we put our hands on a great one today. Gabe Davis is the proud owner and he drove the Caddy from Buford, Georgia this morning. He admits that the old tires were literally OLD tires, possibly from the '70s, so it didn't offer the smooth ride that we normally associate with a Cadillac. Gabe wanted to upgrade to radials, while keeping the vintage style, so he came to the right place!

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]

This past week has been a crazy week for us at Coker Tire. We're winding down from our big Cruise In last weekend, while a bunch of tire sales representatives are on the road in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. We also had a major magazine company come in and do a great article, which we will announce at a later date. Along with all this, we've had a number of group tours come through, including a Triumph club, which passed through the Chattanooga, Tennessee area on Wednesday.

There's nothing like a good ole road trip with a few buddies, especially if you're behind the wheel of a vintage car! It's certainly an adventure, with the lack of technology, and the lack of horsepower, compared to our modern vehicles, but it's a lot of fun. A group of diehard Model A enthusiasts formed the "Crankin' A's of Daytona" club and they love having fun with old cars. They set out from Daytona Beach, Florida on October 16th, heading north, and they happened to stop by our place yesterday afternoon for a visit. [caption id="attachment_2243" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="The Crankin' A's of Daytona invade Coker Tire!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_2244" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Two coupes, a Tudor, a Fordor and a Delivery...these guys have some cool cars!"][/caption] Our resident tour guide extraordinaire, Raime took the group through the Coker Tire facility, showing them our lobby, machine shop, service center and museum along the way. One of the guys even bought a set of tires while he was here, so we definitely appreciate that! These guys really know how to have fun with their vintage Fords, and we love seeing these long haulers because that means they're wearing out TIRES!!! We hope they come back and visit us again, but for now, let's take a look at their cars!

As you get older, birthdays get less and less exciting, but I try to make it fun for my wife Theresa, because she puts up with so much of my car guy antics. So, I guess giving her a car for her birthday doesn't really help the cause...oh well. Last year, I got her a BMW Isetta, which is a very small car and I also bought a Mini Cooper for her. See a trend? She seems to be gathering a pretty cool collection of tiny cars, so I guess I'll just keep feeding it! [caption id="attachment_2178" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="The whole gang (besides Taylor...he's at school) with Theresa's new Bantam!"][/caption]

Talk about a great bunch of guys and gals! These folks are on a bit of a road trip and decided to drop by our place for a tour. Raime Brown did her thing, and made sure everyone had a good time and learned a little bit along the tour. We cleared the parking lot and packed the cars in there to grab a quick shot of them in front of the building...turned out pretty cool! Big thanks to the Southern Kentucky Street Rodders for visiting Chattanooga, Tennessee and for coming by our facility. Here are some of our pictures from the visit!

As you probably know by now, the Marmon Wasp replica built by Honest Charley Garage has actually been semi-complete for a year or so. However, it's never seen an ounce of paint, so it's time to get with the program and blast some yellow on this beast! Richard aka the "Car Carpenter" did an awesome job on the metal work, getting it ready for Zane to prep the panels and lay down some paint. [caption id="attachment_1381" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Zane lays down the base color, which has been professionally matched to the original Marmon Wasp."][/caption]

It's that time again! Every winter, the World of Wheels comes to Chattanooga, inside the Chattanooga Convention Center, which is right around the corner from our headquarters on Chestnut Street. It's an indoor car show that always draws a big crowd because of its attractions, and of course the great collection of cars being displayed! This year, our neighbors at Honest Charley Garage are showcasing a few buildups at the show, including the recently-finished 1952 MG TD owned by Wes Kliner.