Jun 23, 2026 · 26 min · 13 segments
This is the story of how a 1979 AMC AMX won its class at the 1979 24 Hours of the Nurburgring. Not only that, how it was done with two hastily built cars, a group of six drivers that included a…
Brian LohnesHost
That, along with the film of the whole program made by BFGoodrich called The Ultimate Challenge.
So our story really has to start in the early 1970s with the BFGoodrich Tire Company and the release of their new high-performance radial that they would call the Radial TA.
This tire would go on to become one of the most iconic names in all of American automotive history, and it's still in production today.
Now, back then, BFG wanted to make an impact and illustrate just how good these babies worked.
So they, along with their advertising agency, hatched a daring plan to promote them.
They'd actually race these street tires on a full blown road racing car against open competition and a field wearing slicks.
The legendary BFG Firebird Tirebird was created, and while it was certainly a struggle, and certainly the BFGs were not nearly as good as a slick on a one-to-one comparison test, The very trick Firebird, which had amazingly subtle and inventive suspension engineering upgrades by Herb Adams of Pontiac and others developed by Jerry Titus before his passing, really made this car work very well.
Through the 1971 season, the car had two pole positions, one win, two seconds, three thirds, and landed second in the points of the SCCA Northeast Division in the A-Sedan category.
This was also the first car to win or even lead races at this level on a legitimate radial tire rather than the ubiquitous bias ply racing slicks everybody else was using.
Some say they did okay, but most everybody else says the results were less than stellar.
A tire good enough for a race car should surely be good enough for your street car.
That, along with the film of the whole program made by BFGoodrich called The Ultimate Challenge.
So our story really has to start in the early 1970s with the BFGoodrich Tire Company and the release of their new high-performance radial that they would call the Radial TA.
This tire would go on to become one of the most iconic names in all of American automotive history, and it's still in production today.
Now, back then, BFG wanted to make an impact and illustrate just how good these babies worked.
So they, along with their advertising agency, hatched a daring plan to promote them.
They'd actually race these street tires on a full blown road racing car against open competition and a field wearing slicks.
The legendary BFG Firebird Tirebird was created, and while it was certainly a struggle, and certainly the BFGs were not nearly as good as a slick on a one-to-one comparison test, The very trick Firebird, which had amazingly subtle and inventive suspension engineering upgrades by Herb Adams of Pontiac and others developed by Jerry Titus before his passing, really made this car work very well.
Through the 1971 season, the car had two pole positions, one win, two seconds, three thirds, and landed second in the points of the SCCA Northeast Division in the A-Sedan category.
This was also the first car to win or even lead races at this level on a legitimate radial tire rather than the ubiquitous bias ply racing slicks everybody else was using.
Some say they did okay, but most everybody else says the results were less than stellar.
A tire good enough for a race car should surely be good enough for your street car.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.