Raised White Letters or Not?

What's your preference? Blackwalls or raised white letters. I know it's personal preference, but I'm torn right down the middle, and I can't afford to mount the tires twice! Pictures would help!!

I like white letters IF it's an American brand tire. Foreign tires with something like 'Kumatzoo Nushatzi 2000' on 'em just don't look right on a muscle car,

steel wheels/blackwalls
full wheel covers/whitewalls
any other wheel/white letters

What wheels are you using ?

White letter tires!

Rallyes as shown in the second pic. John. The ones in that pic are the repop Goodyears bias belted.They gotta go!

Depends on the wheels. I run them all ways. White letters out on Rallye wheels and Road Wheels, black walls on Cragars and on steelies with dog dish on cars and on my truck wheels. White walls out on New Yorker with Rallye wheels.

This is pretty much my thoughts. BUT can have exceptions depending on color.

Forgot to add, no white letters on luxury cars. White letters on a New Yorker or Imperial (or Lincoln or Cadillac, for that matter) look hideous.

Tire / wheel choice can completely change the looks and demeanor for the car.

Case in point.


I'll add. To ME personally. Body color steel wheels and beenie hubcaps are Blah on most cars


I am giving thoughts to change mine out with either some old school Cragers or maybe polished Torque Thrusts. BUT storage for the spare tires/wheels is a deterrent for me.

I do like me some redlines on certain cars/wheels.

white letter on that car

The 3 photos above each make a different statement - well done on illustrating that.
I prefer the redlines/Magnums, but the whitewall/covers say "bone-stock original", and the letters/Magnums indicate there may be something extra underhood.

I generally run blackwalls, as to my eye they don't detract from the car's styling or complicate the overall image.
But if someone made redlines in sizes I want for less than a mortgage payment, I'd do that on my RRs, which both wear Magnums.

It all has to do with context, right ?

Depends on the tire and wheels I have both.

Go with the combo platter... Painted/Dog dish with White letter...

My vote is RWL!

Or blackwalls on the passenger's side and raised white letters on the driver's side..............................JUST KIDDING

Why not? You can only see one side at a time...

Darn Jeff that's one sharp T/A!

Road wheels - white letters, on common name brand tires. (Good Year, B F Goodrich). If not a name brand tire, black walls.

I run black wall tires on my 49 Dodge truck and other older hot rods because the white letters pinpoints an era of history. White lettered tires screams late 60s - late 70s.

Great illustrations on different sidewalls!

I like the white letters.

White letters on painted steel wheels on 1970 and later like the factory did it looks best for me.
Black walls, or redlines, on 1969 and earlier cars.
Mag wheels it can go either way depending on the rim design, type of body style, color of the car ect.
If the car has newer billet/machined type wheels I tend to go with blackwalls.
If we are talking Keystones, Cragar SS ect. then white letters seem to belong with those older wheel designs better.

Black wall tires are my choice. Less distraction IMO.
On certain '69 back, cars, I like redlines. I had a set on my '69 300 'vert.

I like the raised white letter tires.

Really varies for me.
Factory wheels such as Rallye, Magnum 500 and road wheels, I typically prefer white letters, especially On Polyglas tires.
Torque thrust, black
Cragars raised white or black, really depends on the color of the car.
Keystone Klassics - Black, the white letter distracts from the wheels.

I do like white outlined letters on tires, but you don’t see them very often anymore. They will work with most aftermarket wheels and colors, more of an accent since they aren’t as bold as a full white letter.

RWL all the way

Agree, agree, and agree.

3 for 3, Mister, well done!

i'm just a blackwall kind'a guy...........

Either one…..

Very funny!

I run white letters in front and rear in show / cruise night mode … black walls in the rear ( M/T drag radials ) in race mode

What's wrong with them ? I run the repop redlines on body color steelies with dog dish on the Dart .

Like driving on black ice. All of the time!

To this day the Formua 1 Superstock bias ply tires brings back memories of sexy cars and a healthy car hobby in full swing. Even if a youngster's car had a low performing V8- the addition of Formua 1 tires on some Cragar SSTs or slotted mags or American Racing Outlaws were the things a young man dreamt of! Even when the N 50x15s stuck out too far due to back space ignorance- it still was a thing of beauty.

Well the good thing is you lived in NH so you know how to handle it . Sounds like you need some Quicktime pros on that thing , or let up on the throttle once in a while ...

F.A.S.T. guys are looking for those tires so if they aren't too old sell them

I’m a fan of the white letters…but mostly on older vehicles.

the exception to my blackwall preference is the formula 1 Super Stock tire !
i was the first one in this area to purchase a set when the local mom & pop tire store started selling them.
F-60 front, L-60 rear. keystone 5 spokes, 6" front. 10"rear.

Kool old school pic!

Black for me...I hate cleaning white letters

Jury is still out for me....kinda like the bigger BW tires on steelies but I still the 14" magnums with white letters out. Just in case

The problem today is that every white letter tire is way too expensive for the quality of the tire. So, I've become the blackwall type.

White letter tires are part of the whole vibe. Would you have went black wall in 1970? I didnt think so. Would folks run retreads as well?

Tough call for me and my '69 GTX. I like the raised white letters on it now but a pain to keep them white.

Beautiful GTX!

Bug and Tar remover works great for this, and it will even remove the brown tint that slowly grows on some brands of tires like BFG's.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/MAC1116

Great cars guys!Still like white letter tires the best.

A12, thanks for the comparison shot. It's very helpful!

To me the tires look wider with the raised white letters????

thanks !
car is the same, minus the tire/wheel combo and the fog/driving lights attached to the front bumper.

One thing IMO that is cool about RWL is when the car is moving but the driver rarely gets to see their car moving and the tires having a sort of strobe white wall look. If you colored the RWL's RED it would probably look pretty cool too with a strobe red line effect.

RWL! Like to see some bling when it comes to rims also.

Depends

Dont forget all the older stores having lots of front store area glass to idle past for some mirror shots.... cant think im the only one who did that. Heck I still do. Was also good for checking tail/brake lights.

Redlines or RWL but never blackwalls

I just drive old cars with a high sidewall tire of course

Carsten

Blackwalls for me. Coat them with Murphys oil soap.

The debate is over. As you can see I went w/ RWL showing. I think I'll be happy w/ the decision.

Oh I still do that too!

Me too

NOT ME,...........that's way too easy , I do it while doing at least 50 mph with tinted windows on the building and video it

I like white letters myself.