What's your favourite old school tyre from the past

[Gandahar]

When Doug Mclure was still on that island with dinosaurs and your tyres had a tread pattern that was designed on a ZX Spectrum and the chemical compound was something starting with R for rubber and ending in u, also for rubber. The ubber bit.

Here's mine ... The Yokohama A520. Such an epic tyre. Just built by some crazy Japs for circuit use, massive massive grip on a warm to hot dry day and absolutely no grip at all anywhere else. Forget all that and look at that sexy tread pattern though,



The great thing about the A520 was that those funky diagonal slashes actually wore away more than any other tread. Magic? Yes, programmed in to give you a track day tyre within one year of buying them. 20 years back! How cool is that. You ended up with extra large outer blocks for the cost of a remould Pirelli P6 for no extra cost.

Such fantastic tyres. They were funky, they were grippy, they were also terrible and spanked you hard if you dared drive them in sub optimum conditions.

Apparently there is a video of Donald Trump claiming he drove a Mk2 MR2 turbo on snow with them.

Even more ridiculously they got fitted to the Brabus Smart

http://www.y-yokohama.com/release/?id=1379&lan...

Really really short wheelbase, really extreme tyre, hmmm, yes please.

What's your favourite old tyre?

Edited by Gandahar on Friday 13th January 23:23

[hashtag]

A Yokohama A008 if i recall looked cool on the XR3i

Where have the years gone lol

[Mound Dawg]

Gandahar said:

Apparently there is a video of Donald Trump claiming he drove a Mk2 MR2 turbo on snow with them.

And of course The Donald was telling the truth. He always does.

Anyhow, a bit disappointed, those aren't really old school are they? I was expecting the General Grabber or Kelly Charger to get a name check when I saw the thread title.

I've got underpants that pre-date those Yokos.

[Trabi601]

A539s are where it's at.

I could wear fronts out in 3k miles on an Alfa 33 16v.

[Joe5y]

Does the P600's fitted to my Dads XR3i count?

[Toltec]

Used to run those on my Celica, never knew they were meant to be a circuit tyre, that would explain why they never lasted more than 8500 miles...

Worked reasonably well in the wet I thought.

[NJH]

hashtag said:

A Yokohama A008 if i recall looked cool on the XR3i

Where have the years gone lol

This.

Uber cool and mega grippy on the mini back in the day. Properly dangerous in the wet though from memory.

[MJK 24]

Goodyear Eagle NCT2.

[Gary C]

Mr2 roadsters Yokohama's advan tyres, so soft they left marbles down the side of the car

[Kawasicki]

MJK 24 said:

Goodyear Eagle NCT2.

I was just going to add that. I met the lead developer of that tyre about 5 years ago. He was thrilled to hear that it is remembered as a great tyre. I did tell him the steering was only average though, couldn't let his head get too big! This tyre gave a giant jump in wet road grip and predictability, the limit was just so broad and friendly.

[Megaflow]

MJK 24 said:

Goodyear Eagle NCT2.

I used to be quite partial to those.

The A520 I thought was distinctly average.

[Kawasicki]

Megaflow said:

I used to be quite partial to those.

The A520 I thought was distinctly average.

good steering, good dry grip and ok wet grip. Pretty unremarkable, I agree.

[Escort3500]

The original Pirelli Cinturato on 6Jx 13 steel rims my dad had on his '65 Lotus Cortina

[s m]

Bridgestone S-02
Yoko AVS Sport
Yokohama A008

[castex]

[Sebring440]

Escort3500 said:

The original Pirelli Cinturato on 6Jx 13 steel rims my dad had on his '65 Lotus Cortina

Hey, good call!

What was it that you really liked about this tyre in your opinion? Was it the terrific dry road grip (but awful in the wet), or the fact that tread wear seemed a thing of the past?

How do you remember that tyre in comparison with the modern stuff?

[ChemicalChaos]

The best retro tyre that springs to mind is the old Pirelli asymmetric garden roller fitted to Countachs





On the off-road front, who remembers the old BFGoodrich Trac Edge? (this now lives on as a remould by Insa Turbo)

[derin100]

Michelin TRX:




An appalling tyre by any modern standards...shockingly expensive today for old rubbish...and only because they fit my all-time favourite BMW wheels:

[paulwirral]

Michelin xzx I think it was called , great in the dry summer months and drove me up the steepest snow covered hills in my youth . I remember driving past my cousin on full lock up claypath in Durham city and speaking to him out if the window at a walking pace , it never crossed either of our minds I wouldn't make it but nor did he for a moment consider asking me to stop and give him a lift . 175 - 70 - 13s on a mark 3 2.0ltr cortina , 4 forward gears ffs

[dfen5]

Dunlop denovo.
4x4 has to be BF Goodrich Trac Edge and Michelin XCL