Coker Tire has a brand new catalog for 2010 and, it’s pretty awesome if we do say so ourselves. A heavily chopped and channeled Model A sedan landed on the cover, and it has the right look with a set of big-n-little Firestone wide whites. The red wires are easy on the eyes, too! If you haven’t already picked up a copy, make sure you do, because there’s lots of new photos, new products and all sorts of cool stuff inside. You’ll also find all of the sizes, specs and prices on the new Excelsior Stahl Sport Radial, and plenty more in the full color 72-page catalog. The catalogs are free, so don’t be bashful–grab a few for your buddies, too.

John and Paulette Lozier from Gorham, New Hampshire.

We have guests in and out of the showroom all the time, but two folks walked in this week that have a significant relation to the 1909 Lozier, one of the rarest and most valuable artifacts at the Coker facility. John and Paulette Lozier are the grandchildren of Henry Lozier, founder of the Lozier Motor Company, and came down from Gorham, New Hampshire. They knew Corky owned a Lozier, but didn’t expect it to be the first thing they saw when they walked through the door. Naturally, they were excited and were pleased to see the car in such fine shape.

The premier indoor car show of the year is undoubtedly the Grand National Roadster Show, held in Pomona, California. Hundreds of immaculate hot rods and customs fill the Pomona Fairplex. America’s Most Beautiful Roadster is crowned at GNRS but there are other prestigious awards to be had. Countless entries roll on Coker tires, so it’s great to be so widely represented at such an incredible event.

For loyal Coker Tire customer Bo Huff, this year’s GNRS proved to be a great one, as he returned to Utah with a trophy for Best Radical Truck Custom. His ‘57 Ford Ranchero is nothing short of amazing with its reworked top, Air Ride suspension and of course, wide white radials and custom steel wheels from Coker Tire. Rounded corners, deeply tunneled headlights and tons of other body modifications are covered in a slick coating of black with white scallops. Bo’s son Junior masked off the flames and then pinstriped the car from front to back.

A killer interior by Megan Prater and Doug Thorson fits the bill, and its complemented by a narrowed ‘59 Impala dash, fit with Haneline gauges. The engine is a Ford 292ci Y-block which breathes through a pair of lake pipes. We liked his Ranchero so much, we thought it would be a good idea to show it to you guys, too. Yet another happy customer with a very cool car.

Jim Hildebrand’s wife Connie had a plan. Not quite a ninja-stealth plan, but a good plan to surprise her sweetie with an early Valentine’s Day present. She’d plotted to have the Ringgold Middle School Chorus, under the direction of  Jané Ellis and David Kammerdiener, deliver a singing-love-gram to Jim at work. Im pretty sure everyone one in the company sniffed it out but Jim. It didn’t help that they were a half hour late, risking exposing the master plot to embarass/surprise Jim. He even came down to investigate at one point, convinced he’d seen his wife’s car in the lot from his window(we convinced him otherwise and sent him on his way). Connie hid in the bushes until they arrived and set up the angelic chevron to deliver the show to a surprised Jim. They sounded great and half the company sneaked down to spy on them(good luck keeping a secret in this joint!).

Happy Valentines Day to Jim and Connie and all of you too! (more…)

The Coker Tire museum continues to grow, and we don’t plan to slow down any time soon. Why would we stop when it’s so much fun to dig up these pieces of automotive history? New additions are quite common, and this very rare Pierce motorcycle is one of the most recent artifacts to enter the facility. And when we say rare, we mean it. There aren’t many of these Pierce motorcycles left, and the interesting design is definitely worth a quick history lesson.

You may have heard of the Pierce Great Arrow Motor Car Company, founded by George Pierce, but lots of folks don’t know that he also founded the Pierce Cycle Company. George’s son, Percy played a large role in the motorcycle business and developed a unique motorcycle. With a steep price tag, compared to other cycles of the time, Pierce didn’t sell many units, which is one of the factors in the cycle company’s bankruptcy in 1914.

The new addition to the Coker museum is a 1910 Pierce Four, which features an inline T-head four cylinder engine coming in at 696cc. It produced 7 horsepower and sends power to the rear wheel with a multi-disc clutch system and a two-speed transmission. The most interesting aspect to the Pierce motorcycle is its frame, which is made of 18-gauge steel and measures 3.5 inches in diameter. The Keystone system was applied in the design, which means the engine acts as part of the frame structure. The frame tubes are copper plated on the inside to prevent corrosion, as the tubes actually double as the gas and oil tanks. The top tube holds seven quarts of gasoline and the down tube holds five pints of oil. Is that cool or what?

Class is over, so get back to work on your project car or motorcycle. Spring time is just around the corner, so you don’t want to miss out on any opportunities to get out and drive!

If you’ve been around the Tennessee Valley for long, you know the weather can be anything but predictable. Last Friday, we were hit hard with snow and the folks with window offices or cubicles had the luxury of watching the snow accumulate on the cars, roads and grass surrounding the Coker Tire headquarters in Chattanooga.

The phones don’t stop ringing just because there’s snow on the ground, so the Coker employees were in for the long haul. When it was time to head home on Friday, short drives turned into hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic, but everyone made it home safely. The snow is gone, but we’re still here answering questions, selling tires and having fun!