Tires? (U.S.)

stevevanderveer

stevevanderveer

Member
My current tires (Michelin X 175/85 all seasons) are 23 yrs old and hardly worn - but are showing micro-cracks...... They've seemed OK thru the years, but I'd like to try to upgrade now..... Any suggestions??? Thanks to you all.......
 
23 years old? Eeek, that's about 15 years older than I'd want on a car! I've used Vredenstien Classic Sprints on my car. They look pretty period, handle well, and not too loud either.
 
Thanks friend.... I believe tires degrade at vastly different rates depending on circumstance.... mine have led a very easy life and have always been garaged - rarely exposed to sunlight......
 
My michelins had done around 15,000 km over 10yrs. They basically "went off"
I put some Korean' brand on at half the price and transformed the car. 195/70/14
Over that time on the michies ,the car was tucked away under covers. Like yours .
Dump them
 
Michelins have a reputation for degrading quicker than a lot of tyres I've noticed. The Vreds are a good compromise if you don't want to shell out for modern Pirelli centrinos (spelling is probably wrong on my part). The Pirelli tyres were original fitted equipment for the P6 and are now available new again at a cost. I got my Vreds from tire-easy.com they were cheaper than tire rack and even replaced them with free shipping when I accidentally ordered the wrong size.
 
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The Sprint Classic (185 R14H) is really the best solution at the moment for those who want to keep the classic style.
If you can´t get them (US ?), a cheap but not too bad alternative is the Nankang 185/80 R14 H. If you are not fixed to the original size (175/85 is not the original size, isn´t it ??) I would go the way of GRTV8 and look for affordable series 70 tyres.
 
The set of Magstar wheels I bought had those Nankang tyres on them, they were about five years old. I used them for four summers, until I could afford new tyres, then changed over to the Vredesteins. I couldn't say how much of a factor the age of the tyres were, but the new Sprint Classics were a huge improvement! The Nankangs might have been cheap, but they were definitely nasty! No traction in the wet, longer distance needed to brake to a halt.
 
Find some silicon compound tires and never worry about age related performance again.
 
Never heard about that ? Do you mean Silica ? It´s one of the additives. No tyre will last "for ever", as soon as the softeners (like the oil and other stuff) are gone.
 
I received my new nankang 195/75 r14 last week. They are only a little wider than the 185/80 r14 vredestein i had on.
I don't like the profile of the vredesteins, it's blocky design looks like offroad tyres.
 
TyroleanRover said:
I received my new nankang 195/75 r14 last week. They are only a little wider than the 185/80 r14 vredestein i had on.
I don't like the profile of the vredesteins, it's blocky design looks like offroad tyres.
Click to expand...
I have to echo MrTask's view of Nankang tyres. We had them on my wife's Saab 900 turbo convertible a few years ago. So bad in the wet that we swapped them for Conitinentals in that case. Felt great in the dry, absolutely murderous in the wet.
 
Unfortunatly i had no choice... the vredesteins are older ones, and Nankang is the only manufacturer of 195/75 R14 available in Austria.
Good to know they are bad in wet conditions...
 
Whilst my preference was to stay with Pirelli because of the fabulous service they gave when I lobbed into their Milan HO with an out of round CN72 in 1971, have not been able to get them in our size for 10 years in Oz so last set were Michelins, but they no longer make the size.
Last year I got a couple of Bridgestone B249 in 185/75 14 R 89 H for the front and am extremely happy with them.
 
Nice to have so many responses and there has been a lot of great info...... thanks all of you you again.... I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on a set of Hanook 195/75 H rated 14's..... That size will definitely fit on the standard steel rims, yes??...
 
Standard V8 rim size is 5.5J and the max recommended tyre width for this size is 195, so it´s ok, if you do not have to take the original width (185) as we have to do in Germany to keep the "legal" status of the car.
 
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