[Tigers] Tiger's Tires

[Tom Witt]

In 1998 I was given a Datsun 510.  Being an Autocross car the previous owner pulled the dash and tossed it. Thankfully he retained the VIN plate. The car had been off the road since 1982.  In 2002 I attempted to register the car (California). Because there was some doubt the DMV would even accept the replacement dash (required for the VIN display), I drove the car to the DMV on the existing 20+ year old tires.  Thankfully it was only 1/2 mile away.  The tires were  C–50-13’s and if anyone is familiar with Caldwell tire in Pasadena, CA they were re-caps at that. Needless to say the compound was as hard as any forklift tire and grip was absolutely limited. So, no I would not consider the tires usable for anything other than short distance, one time transport at a slow speed.

Thankfully I made it to the DMV and back (VIN accepted BTW) and I promptly replace the tires with 215-50-13 Sumitumo HTR 200’s. Unfortunately after putting but a few thousand miles on the tires the car has been on Non-Op status since 2008 (Ex-Autocross cars don’t make good daily drivers). Three quarters of the tread still remains on these 17 year old tires and I see it as “collateral damage” to the wallet.

From: Rob Hogan via Tigers 
Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2019 12:52 PM
To: Tiger's List 
Subject: [Tigers] Tiger's Tires

I'm one of those drivers that doesn't put more than a few hundred miles on my MR2 Spyder or will put on the Tiger each year.  I wonder if people with several infrequent use cars change all of their cars' tires every 10 years or less.  Realizing the danger of running old tires particularly at highway speed, are 36 year old BFG TA tires even useable at speeds under 45 MPH?  I should have used the 235/50xR13's more before the Tiger's long layup.

     Virus-free. www.avg.com  



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