“the shift to radial belted vs. bias ply tires.”
I was one of those “blown away”. I’ll never forget my first drive on radials. Weren’t the first ones from Michlin?
Wasn’t the major obstacle to perfecting them to produce a flexible-enough sidewall?
Remember Goodyear’s “Wide Ovals”, pushed compete with the radials, but those Wide Ovals wore out really quickly, compared to the radials’ 50 or 60 thousand?
The Leader was Michelin, and they still make arguably the best tires around. Dunlop and Pirelli were early to the game, too. The new kid on the block was Bridgestone, a great tire. It was really a kick to have people come by the shop the day after we installed a set of radials for them and see them genuinely giddy about their new tires. “What did you DO to my car?!!!”. Tons of fun. We tried a few bargain brands (Orban and Riken), with poor results, seeing alot of separated belts. Likely the result of underinflaction, but still an issue. I loved selling (as a 17 year old!) the top-flight radials, as I knew a.) the customer would go nuts over them, and b.) they were a great value. Again, tons of fun.