[Healeys] Healey, and other sports car tyres

[Peter Hunt]

Hi,

Whilst searching for a new set of tyres for my endurance ' 62 BT7 Healey, I
came across the following website which offers a lot of interesting and useful
data on tyres, especially for sports cars worldwide.

www.longstonetyres.co.uk

For our Around the World trip on 2000, I fitted Michelin XCA Plus 185R15C 8
ply tyres set at 45 psi (3.06 bar). These tyres are usually used on light
commercial vans.

The reason for choosing these was to get the best ground clearance, a rigid
sidewall and the best mileage. Currently they have done 35, 000 miles without
a puncture and are good for another 5,000 miles but will be changed shortly as
they are past their use by date. The one big downside of these hard compound
Michelin's is that they do not grip very well in the wet and are even more
useless in muddy conditions as I found out on a timed section out of Dawson
City. My navigator (wife) nearly instigated divorce proceedings as we were
going sideways at rally speed for a lot of the time - gets the adrenaline
going though!

My choice has been narrowed down to either the Vredestein 185/70 HR15 Classic
tyre or the Michelin 180HR15 XAS. The Michelin will, however, give me another
1" (2.54 cms) in overall diameter which could be critical if we go off on
another endurance rally - the full length Duralamin skid pan takes up 1" below
the chassis rails.

The tyres are mounted on 5J Austin A90 steel wheels which are of a slightly
heavier duty steel than the 4.5J. The 4.5" wheels are not however wide enough
for 185 tyres.

Regards,

Peter Hunt
' 62 BT7