[Staowners] Radial Tyres.

[martin andrews]

Like Clint, I have driven Sunbeam Talbots all my driving life,and used my Mk 2a exclusively as an everyday driver, including business mileage, from the early 1970's until 1985.I drove on Radials exclusively from 1973 onwards and the performance obtained was far in excess of cross ply tyres. The Cross plies are great in the dry,but under performance motoring wore out at an alaming rate. The Radials are simply so much safer in the wet, and, under braking,- the latter a very important aspect much overlooked!. Also for the perfomance they impart, their wear rate makes them far more cost effective. The downside is the heavy  steering effort required at low speeds, but as has been mentioned you do need to run at higher tyre pressures compared to the factory recommended settings for the old cross plies.Also you do need to carry an efficient foot pump since the spare wheel usually is a tight fit in the spare wheel bay,even deflated.
So,... this begs the question, how the hell did Stirling Moss and the rest of the Works Team ever keep these cars on the snowy, icy roads on the Monte, etc. consistently, to achieve their results??? They certainly were not on Avon HM Tourist tyres,which have been, about, the only available Cross Plies in the UK, for years!   If you look on certain rally archive pictures you can see an interesting tread pattern on tyres,but what they were and how good they would be up against todays Radials, is an interesting question!
Martin Andrews. (UK)
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