MGB tyres

[mgtony]

Who's running what tyres on their B? Currently got 165's on which although have plenty of tread, are getting a bit old.
185/70's seem to be the current equivelent, I did have 185/65's on my last car which run ok.
Any preference on makes? They're going on minilite style alloys, not too bothered about traditional tread pattern. Avons and Uniroyals seem to get good ratings.

[na]

well Tony you can afford to splash out on what you saved on the exhaust

14" tyres I hope

I was with some friends this weekend that bought a BGT with 15" wheels and slightly wider tyres about a year ago and they find the steering a bit heavy (the smaller steering wheel doesn't help) the rear tyres also look awfully close to the arches

some links to help with sizing tyres
http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/visual-tyre-size-...

more info:
http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html

I'm very happy with the Yokohama A-drive tyres on my Midget
http://www2.yokohama-online.com/gb/tyre-products.p...

[mgtony]

I've just worked out the date of manufacture for the existing tyres
This has now become a priority.

The reviews of the these Uniroyals come in pretty well:

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Uniroyal/RainExp...

Should I go for the slightly smaller profile of 65 rather than the 70's?

[alfa pint]

yokohama A drive, 185/70 x 14s on mine. Pretty cheap online, very very effective in the wet and decent in the dry. Came highly recommended. I'd buy them again. I have massive confidence in the wet and dry now, whereas I used to st myself on a wet roundabout before.

Also had continental eco-contacts on previously, which were a decent tyre in the dry, not so good in the wet.

Worst tyres have been the budget ones e.g. ceat. My dad always raved about semperits, but I find them treacherous in the damp. Wasn't a fan of the michelin energy ones that came with my first B some years ago.

[na]

mgtony said:

I've just worked out the date of manufacture for the existing tyres
This has now become a priority.

as I put on another thread 'whatever tyres or sizes you put on you're gonna wish you'd done it much, much sooner, just after taking ownership of the car really, if I'm wrong please let me know

you kids just never listen to your elders that have been there, done it and outgrown the T-shirt

mgtony said:

Should I go for the slightly smaller profile of 65 rather than the 70's?

no, absolutely no good reason to do so (check the tyre calculater)

185/70/14 were the alternative for 165/80/14 in the '70s (subject to checking for rubbing on each model or individual car)

tyre walls are harder now so dropping the ratio too much and you'll notice in a less pleasant ride

as I've only recently (re?)learnt, with the newer tyres you can increase the tyre pressure a few psi above what was in the owners Handbook for tyres from 40 years ago, this also helps a little bit with the ride and handling

[mgtony]

Can't seem to find A-drives in 185/70's ??

http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/ts/Manufacturers/Tyr...

Blackcircle have the 185/65's for

£43.56

http://www.blackcircles.com/order/tyres/search

Should I go for these?

Edited by mgtony on Monday 11th July 20:15

[alfa pint]

mgtony said:

Can't seem to find A-drives in 185/70's ??

http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/ts/Manufacturers/Tyr...

Blackcircle have the 185/65's for

£43.56

http://www.blackcircles.com/order/tyres/search

Should I go for these?

Edited by mgtony on Monday 11th July 20:15

Bizarre! I only bought mine from black circle about 6 weeks ago.

Here's camskill's list

http://www.camskill.co.uk/m4b0s388p0/Car_Tyres_-_M...

Out of that lot, I'd be looking at the vredesteins or the continentals, although I did hear some good stuff about avons in the past, but I doubt it's the same tyre now.

ETA I've just done the search on black circles and those Bridgestones sound the biz. Pricey at £75, but it's wet grip you're after.

As Nige says, you don't need or want to go down to a 65% profile. A good 185/70 is more than good enough for a B until you start playing with V8s / zetec conversions.

Edited by alfa pint on Tuesday 12th July 09:33

[mgtony]

Thanks for the advice, Avons seem to get mixed reviews. Not sure whether to order them in or head to the tyre place at the weekend and see what they've got.

[na]

we have an excellent performance tyre place in Northampton (that also deals with vans, repmobiles and get-me-the-cheapest-you-have owners)

I suggest you got to a high performance tyre specialist place, rather than the ordinary tyre places, as they should know the difference in which tyres are suited to heavy modern saloons and those for entertaining driving in a lighter classic GT

personally I always prefer wet weather grip over dry weather grip and have before changed new sets of tyres at less than 1,000 miles to achieve this - more accident potential during wet weather

185/70 on 5" wheels are big enough IMO much over that and to me the steering feel is too spoilt especially if the steering wheel has been changed to a smaller one - there must be a lot of fat MG drivers out there, glad I'm not one of them

If you want to fully enjoy the roads a BGT is suited to then ulta wide and low tyres and cars are to be avoided

ETA: you can only really take notice of tyre reviews from B users as a tyre that's fantastic on a fat heavy german car probably wont suit the MGs

Edited by na on Tuesday 12th July 12:00

[LFB531]

My GT sits on 175/70 x 14 Goodyears, also on Minilites (5.5). This was the size on the car when I bought it and I think they look fine in the arches and for a 40 year old car, it handles as well as I would expect it to. Sticks well enough in the wet but I can kick out the back if I want to, certainly not felt the need to get more rubber on the road.

Just an opinion!

[Dougal Cawley]

Has anyone tried the original MGB tyres http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page/mgb 165HR14 Pirelli Cinturato CA67. the car will handle much better than fitting fatter 185/70R14. 185/65R14 would be much too small in diameter and spoil the gearing as well as handling.

[midgeman]

As seen on TV! I might well try some of these once the car is back on the road..

[nta16]

do bear in mind when those tyres where used so were the cars, frequently, regularly not just sunny days, shows and MoT - these may be different but I remember when I've had Pirelli tyres in the past on cars in regular use the sidewalls have gone well before the tread

please note: this may not be case with these tyres, I'm only putting my general experience with Pirelli in the past on cars that were not MGBs or that model or size of tyre

be interesting to know the price

[Richie Howard]

Dougal Cawley said:

Has anyone tried the original MGB tyres http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page/mgb 165HR14 Pirelli Cinturato CA67. the car will handle much better than fitting fatter 185/70R14.

why?

i have fitted 185/70r14 conti ecocontact 2. they were about £50ea.

i went from cr4p, odd, million year old tyres, though, so i can't reallt compare them to anything grip-wise, apart from the (obvious) massive improvement over the tyres they replaced.

the reduction in noise has been the most noticeable benefit.

[terenceb]

Having used various makes over the years of ownership,I think the worst performing tyres would have been Pirelli,turn the steering wheel and wait a second or so for them to catch up with the rim. Dunlops seem to be better suited to the B chassis but the creme de la creme would be the Avon ZZ,it doesn't look much,correct size re gearing/speedo etc etc.Wet weather performance? they cannot be beaten,wear rates are exceptionally good and they dont crack their sidewalls. It might sound like I'm involved with Avon,this is not the case,just a very happy user.

[S2Mike]

I had 185/70/14 Yokohamas C drives on my B, and that was very good handling and ride quality, previous owner fitted them and used for hillclimbing competitions, which he was rather successful at.

[Dougal Cawley]

Often when i look into what tyres people have found unsatisfactory they have bought a car with a set of tyres on it without any knowlege of how old the tyres are. Then when they change to a new set of tyres with fresh rubber they give better grip. I don't know when Pirelli last made the 165HR14 Cinturato CA67, but i think it would be a good 20 or so years ago. this new batch of tyres is made with upto date compounds, so they are good. you can get a set on special offer on this page http://longstonetyres.co.uk/page/mgb there are cheaper options out there, but this is the oportunity to fit the original equipment. MG fitted the Cinturato because it was the best tyre available. i would suggest that they are still the best road use tyre, possibly along with the Michelin XAS.

Avon CR6ZZ tyres are fantastic i agree. They are a great road legal race tyre. the only problem with the CR6ZZ is that they don't make a tyre the right size. they make a 185/70R14 which is close in diameter but wider so it will effect the steering by making it heavier, and the car will be less progressive. On a perfectly smooth race track they are great but the extra wide tyres will also make the car track a little on our uneven road surfaces.

[nta16]

Dougal Cawley said:

Often when i look into what tyres people have found unsatisfactory they have bought a car with a set of tyres on it without any knowlege of how old the tyres are. Then when they change to a new set of tyres with fresh rubber they give better grip.

totally agree but normally it more a case of persuading the owners of little used classic to change from their old hard lack of use tyres because they think it's all about tread depth

I usually post a link to a site that explains how to find the DOT and sometimes put up Geoff's tale and photo of what can happen when relying on an old hard tyre that had loads of tread depth left

Dougal Cawley said:

MG fitted the Cinturato because it was the best tyre available. i would suggest that they are still the best road use tyre, possibly along with the Michelin XAS.

fine but do you have any evidence to back this up

[chormy]

Dunlop fast response or Avon AZ3 or ZZ look right and are good alround.

Goto tyreshopper.co.uk website they are the online arm of National tyres much cheaper and fitted free at there units.

[Dougal Cawley]

The http://www.youngtimertires.com/165-hr-14-pirelli-c... and the http://www.youngtimertires.com/michelin/xas.html are tyres that were developed to suit cars of this period and the cars of this period were developed to handle well on tyres such as these.

Horses for courses.

Modern tyres are arguably "better" because they are developed to take advantage of the modern technology in the cars they are designed to be fitted to, which are very different things.

According to my period 1978 fitment guides, even when MG developed the MGB V8 i believe they fitted a 175R14. bearing in mind low profile tyres , such as 185/70R14, had been around for 10 years they still chose to fit a full profile tyre. i can't imagine that MG had not done extensive testing on these tyres before sticking with the tyre that suited the car best.

I have driven a wide variety of classic cars. I have had most experience of taking cars off a variety of inappropriate rubber and fitting http://www.youngtimertires.com/michelin/xas.html , because it just turns out i have had cars that have suited the sizes that Michelin made. I can say without doubt that these asymetric XAS tyres made a dramatic improvement.

i have also been involved with the development the http://www.youngtimertires.com/185-vr-15-pirelli-c... and when they sent me the test tyres i contacted the Jaguar enthiusiast club that supplied a MK2 Jag for testing we also had a profesional test driver. i was amazed by the depth of feed back he was able to feel when testing these tyres. it made me feel like a numb driver. we tried the car on the tyres it arrived with then tried the new Cinturato's and the improvement was noticable to me, the test driver however raved about them and their direct responsive handling.

I have also sold lits of the http://www.youngtimertires.com/pirelli-cinturato.h... tyres and everyone i talk to afterwards loves them. I base my views on personal experience and customer feed back.

If you use the links on this email to do some shopping for tyres and put the term "RubberGoods" into the discounts section of the shopping cart it will calculate a good discount for you.

Question:- was this a commercial or informative post? I like to think informative as i feel i am informing readers about a bargin that is available. however i do pay the expenses of running my silly cars by flogging tyres for old cars so it is difficult for me to judge it objectivly.

Dougal

Edited by Dougal Cawley on Tuesday 5th November 16:36