Bruce Carter inquires about tyres:
> Help!! It has been SO LONG since I have purchased tyres for a performace
> car that I do not even know the first thing about them any longer.
Having just been through this myself, I thought I could let you know what I
found out when I went shopping for "performance" tyres for my '62 TR4. I
am by no means an expert on tyres, but I did learn some interesting things.
(BTW - I am assuming that when you mentioned MG that you have a 'B, and
that MGB's have 15" rims similar to a TR4. If this is not the case ---
nevermind!)
Anyway, I have been going through the suspension front to back, top to
bottom, rebushing and replacing everything that was worn, rusted, and bent.
I had also sent the original wire wheels down to Bruce Erfer @ British Wire
Wheel to be hot-tanked, trued, and painted. So, I had everything in top-
notch condition and was ready to find some good rubber to complete the job.
But I was faced with just the problems you mentioned - it is very difficult
to find "competition" rubber in such a small size. To top it off, I
insisted on keeping the wire wheels, which are only 4.5" wide. This
further limits the width of the tyre. You can easily find "Volkswagon"
radial tyres (165's), but I was afraid to go this (cheap) route because the
sidewalls on radials are so much softer that the original bias ply 155's,
and I figured that the car would squirm all over the road on these. This
would have been a supreme let-down after spending all the time and $$ that
I had so far on the wheels and suspension.
I'd heard that Goodyear Eagle GT+4's are a good, predictable, wet/dry tyre,
but, no dice - they aren't available any smaller than 195/60 - too wide.
So, I started calling around. I started to notice that when I mentioned I
wanted a performance type that was good in the wet as well as in the dry,
everyone started talking H & V rated tyres. I finally said "Wait a minute,
I don't necessarily want to go *fast*, I just want a good performance
tyre." Well, the explanation I got was that the tread compounds had to be
formulated differently to get the higher speed rating (less heat build up),
and that consequently these tyres usually (but not always) performed better
in the wet. This seemed to be in line with most tyre performance articles
I've seen, so I bought it.
I finally settled on a set of BFG 185/65 Comp T/A HR4's (which had also
gotten good reviews in this forum). I had to have them ordered, but at $85
each (Super Shop), they were the best price I found by far. They are
supposed to have Excellent wet & dry performance, and I feel that the wider
profile will more than compensate for the softer radial sidewalls. (Don't
know for sure yet - the car is still a couple of weekends of work away from
a test drive.)
Hope this helped somewhat.
Pat Vilbrandt John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. Everett, Washington USA
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