[Staowners] Spare wheel compartment mk3 Saloon

[George Simpson - Forums]

The standard 550 x 16 Michelin X goes into the spare wheel compartment 
with no problem (presumably the Alpine and Mk 3 are the same).  I fitted 
5 new tyres last year just before the September Alpine Adventure and 
they transformed the car's feel. I did not find the steering becoming 
any heavier and the tracking in bends caught me out a few times at the 
beginning. With cross ply tyres, you tend to allow for the car to move 
away from the apex of a bend but with the X's I found I was nearly 
running over the apex - no movement!!!

At the risk of boring everyone, we had a long discussion about the taxi 
tyre in Oct 2006 - the Forum archives are always available to us. I have 
copied/pasted the comment below of Longstones (who, admittedly, have 
their own axe to grind) and which might be of concern to a potential 
taxi tyre purchaser.

George
Cognac

I wrote to Longstone Tyre and said that as many of the STAR members used 
retreaded taxi tyres, what did the taxi tyre tread looked like and why 
should I pay double for the Michelin X ... the reply was as follows:

Most of the tyre carcases you see on the road side that have been left 
due to a blow out are remoulded tyres.In the past the Taxi tyres have 
been the only radial tyre of nearly the right size for this car and 
people will have taken off old crossply tyres that were perhaps 
perished, past their best and would have wandered around the road and 
the comparison of a radial would have seemed good compared to an old 
crossply.
The side wall of a Taxi tyre has the wrong writing on it but that is for 
a good reason; the build of a taxi tyre is designed for doing 3 point 
turns and mounting corners. Grip is not an issue with a taxi tyre they 
want longevity and carcase strength, completely the opposite to what 
your car needs. Fitting tyres with overly strong carcases to classic 
cars is bad for the car, the tyre side wall is the first line of defence 
from ruts and vibration from the road. The width and heaviness of 
steering from the heavy taxi tyres will also wear your steering components.
You will also notice the X is 15mm thinner than the Taxi  tyre. The 
Michelin X is a tyre designed by Michelin in period to take the place of 
cross ply tyres of the day and massively improve the grip and tyre 
longevity on cars like yours. They look right, handle right and they are 
right. The price is also good for a tyre size as unusual as 550HR16. 
There is no doubt that it is the tyre to fit. Your car will still be 
driving better than anybody else's car fitted with the taxi tyres long 
after you have forgotten the credit card bill.



Don Vosper wrote:
> Hello,
> Thanks for the replies regarding the tyres and suppliers.
> It appears I'm not alone in being unable to get an inflated taxi 
> radial into the spare wheel conmpartment. I also carry a pump.
> Is the problem the same with the Michelin X?
> Don
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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