Just for clarity I wanted to state that the current “Coker” Phoenix tires are not belted like the original Firestone tires were. They are a conventional radial tire so in terms of construction there is no special advantage to them. I am curious if any of us with loose feeling or squealing tires have tried raising the tire pressures up a bit to say 36 psi or so?
Not quite, Patrick. It's all about sidewall stiffness.
I originally had Pirelli, "cheap tires" on my car and I did not like the handling; made me feel disconnected from the car. When I took the newly acquired reproduction Cokers to my service place, they indeed observed that the sidewalls were
significantly stiffer than the Pirellis, with the latter being a totally conventional tire. I believe it is the sidewall stiffness (a metric not generally measured) that led to my satisfaction with them. But yes, they are a true 100% radial, not a half-radial.
I now have old Cokers, and they'll have to be replaced...but during their lifetime they've been great for me. Expensive, yes. But great too. I have not experienced squealing so can't speak to the higher pressures solving a problem.