Tim Baxter
Tim Baxter Online Editor
8/8/08 7:36 a.m.

So the results are now posted. I don't think I'd trust my classic to such old tires.

Stay tuned Monday for the next question.

André Rousseau
André Rousseau Reader
8/8/08 5:40 p.m.

Eeek.

I bet a lot of people on older rubber just want to get their value out of them so they run them long as possible.

?

mattmacklind
mattmacklind SuperDork
8/8/08 5:46 p.m.

Decent tires are too inexpensive not to keep a decent set on board. Even my porpoise handling but incredibly braking battleaxe Benz has a decent set of tires. Kumhos (sp?) are next in line, though, when I finally switch them out, probably in 2010 or so, right before the apocalypse.

André Rousseau
André Rousseau Reader
8/8/08 6:52 p.m.

Yeah the GT6 runs on a set of KUMHO ECSTA Supra 712 195/50/15.

And I put a set of the KUMHO ECSTA SPT (KU31) 215/45/17 on my daily driver Mazda.

Been happy with both tires.

A.

wlkelley3
wlkelley3 Reader
8/8/08 10:56 p.m.

Yeah, I admit my classics are sitting on old tires. My 63 Midget still has bias-ply tires on it but it ain't run in years and partially dissassembled. It is my next project. So I say it doesn't count...yet. The 70 Opel GT has 12 year old tires with only about 3000 miles on them but it's not quite road worthy yet (carb choke issues). But both will have new tires on them when they are road worthy. Only issue is finding decent 13" tires for both of them.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
8/10/08 3:09 p.m.

Yeah, I was also surprised to see so many people rolling on old rubber. When I bought my Mini, the tires still sported the cross-hatching from the molds. They looked brand-new.

The build dates told another story. I ordered up some fresh tires and am glad that I did. Two of the tires were rotting from the inside out. One bead had partially separated from the carcass. Looks like fix-a-flat may have accelerated those problems, but either way a blow-out would have been less than ideal.

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