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Blackwall Tire
Most tires use rubber blended with carbon black, which makes the tread more durable and improves traction.
In the 1950's, some tire companies started using "gum" rubber (without the carbon black) for the sidewalls, in the interest of improved flexibility and lowered rolling resistance. Later, "skinwall" tires became popular, tires with nearly naked cloth sidewalls, with just a bit of rubber to hold the cords together. For many years, tan sidewalls, whether gum or skin, were a sign of high-performance tires, and blackwalls were a sign of cheapness.
In the early 1990s, there was a styling fad for tires which were basically skinwalls, but looked like the old blackwalls. Although the marketing departments of tire companies tried to make this out as some kind of advantage, it is fundamentally a styling issue, as with whitewalls.
