Malcolm,
I finally got around to attending to my racing tires and the accumulation of
track sealer (tar) that they picked up off the track at Thunderhill in
October. It seems that the worst brand of tire to have done this at that race
meeting was the B.F. Goodrich Comp TA R1 like you and I both have. I think
that my tires (the later variety) were the very worst of any I saw having
picked up nearly 1/4" of tar off the track. When I went out Sunday morning
for test and tune (first group & cold track and tires) my car was all over the
place and very scarey. The accumulation of tar on my tires looked like cheap
recaps and didn't seem to wear off like it did for some of the others.
Yesterday I tried your method of mineral spirits and a scraper. I spent over
an hour on one tire and ended up with a very great mess and not much progress
to show for it. I am blessed that my racing tires and wheels also fit my road
going MGBGT. I put the racing tires and wheels on the GT to see if I could
drive the tar off the tires. I put about 50 freeway miles on the tires at
about 70 mph or greater. I think that removed about 90% of the accumulated
tar. I going to have another go at it and try another 50 miles, next dry day
we get.
I'm CCing this to the list to get some reaction from others who may be
having/or have had this problem in past.
Rod Schweiger
'64 MGB Sebring Replica #119
|