Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Firestone presents the Green Monster, at the Daytona 500, 1966

5 comments:

  1. I grew up in next town over from Arfons.....My wife used to work for his brother Walt (half brother) testing tires !....Legendary family from Akron Ohio !

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    1. whoa... don't go away without telling me more! Your wife tested tires for Walt Arfons? What the... how? When? What was that all about? She has a story right there, and ought to know that it's likely she could get a feature in Hot Rod or some similar magazine, especially if she has a photo or two to go with it!

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  2. She worked for them in 1973.....no pics....sorry

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    1. hey that's fine, it was 44 years ago! Can you relay what she did to test the tires? How she was hired by the land speed record Arfons? What occurred to make her aware they were hiring for that? Wow, so many questions about how anyone got that job, and what they did day to day in testing LSR tires! Please, elaborate!

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  3. 1973 was before I met her. She answered a want ad in the Akron Beacon Journal ...Tire testing position...valid drivers license required.
    Walt Arfons was contracted by the D.O.T to test all manners of tires for them...This contract was his bread and butter job to finance racing.
    She drove on I 77 , from Akron to I 70 daily to measure tread wear.
    Occasional (jack-rabbit starts) ie. burnouts were done too ! She had sand bags added to bring her weight up to the other test drivers. The tires wear dismounted and measured for tread wear and durability...So it was this was how the Arfons family financed some of the L.S.R. attempts !

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