The Firestone Wide Oval Radial tire is something we've been dreaming about for years. We're muscle car guys and we're tire guys, so we've always wanted to mix authentic looks with the ride, safety and tread life of a modern radial. Coker Tire is proud to announce the brand new Firestone Wide Oval Radial, a product that uses Firestone heritage and radial construction to create the ultimate muscle car tire! These tires are now available and shipping from our Chattanooga, Tennessee and City of Industry, California locations, as well as our worldwide distributors. This is an exciting new product for us and we think you'll agree that it's time to put a new set of Firestone Wide Oval Radials on your muscle car!
Along with the new product launch, we're also celebrating 50 years of the Firestone Wide Oval. As the muscle car era exploded in the mid-to-late '60s, the horsepower levels went sky high and that meant the
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!
Unlike many of the revered Concours dElegance events, Pebble Beach seems to reach deeper into mainstream media and pop culture. Regular people on the streets have heard of it. No doubt, its one of he very finest events of this kind in the world, but it more than that. The events of Monterey and Pebble Beach are household names for a reason.
While the top shelf multi-million dollar restored cars get most of the attention, its the diversity of the weeks events that truly separate it from most other events. Perhaps only the famed Goodwood Festival of Speed in UK compares to the size and scope of Monterey Week.
The event is elegantly capped with the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours dElegance, but what else goes on there? Were glad you asked. An endless stream of tasteful parties take place throughout the week. Even if you could manage tickets to all of them, the sheer volume of them would make it tough to attend
We've worked pretty hard to encourage our customers to get out and drive their collector cars, and events like the Coker Tire Tour to the Mitty provide even more inspiration. There might be an ulterior motive hidden in there (to sell more tires, or in this case Sports Car Tires). The Mitty is a road race for vintage cars, and it's held at Road Atlanta, which is a couple hours away from our headquarters here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This year, we partnered with Classic Motorsports Magazine to create a driving experience like no other--a trip through some of the most beautiful scenery and twisty back roads with a final destination of the Mitty. With more than 50 cars participating, it was a big hit, and we're hoping to do more of these driving events in the future.
The SEMA Show is the biggest automotive event of the year. It's a trade show with thousands of vendors, and thousands of awesome cars, trucks and motorcycles on display. Folks from around the world attend the event to show off new products, and increase sales for their businesses. It's a huge opportunity for everyone involved, and we're glad to have a big presence at the show. We have an indoor booth in Hot Rod Alley (booth number 22775), and we have a tractor trailer rig in the Silver Lot outside. This year, we debuted a brand new booth design, which has a vintage gas station theme.
This year's SEMA Show was huge for us. We're still on cloud nine, but we've been busy getting ready for other events, such as the Daytona Turkey Run, PRI and more, so we haven't let off the throttle just yet! At SEMA, we had lots of big news, and made lots of great connections within the industry. Our staff worked hard to make it happen, and we're proud to announce that a few members of our staff received major awards at the SEMA Show. In addition to this, our company won the SEMA Best New Product award in the Tires and Related category with our new American Classic bias profile radial tire! Check it out!
Our Executive Vice President, Mr. Wade Kawasaki wears a lot of hats. He plays a large role in our West Coast distribution, as well as a few of our sister companies, which are also operated on the West Coast. He's also a great ambassador for our company, thanks to his heavy involvement with SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association). He's been SEMA Person of the Year, and has a number of great accomplishments throughout his years in the automotive aftermarket industry. Tonight, he was included among other automotive icons, such as George Barris, Eric Grant and Joe Schubeck, by being inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame. We're glad to have him on our team, and we congratulate him for his great achievement.
