New tyres for my W111 250SE

I recently drove down to Canberra in my 1965 250SE. This was the first time I had taken the car on a longish trip in a couple of years. The main reason for that was the running issue had been experiencing with the car over the last few years. I finally solved this issue last year by fitting a new electronic distributor.

On the way down I noticed how bad the ride was. The car was quite bouncy and not very enjoyable to drive. While the car didn’t do any long trips, I was using it quite a bit on […]

Choosing tyres for my 15×7 AMG Penta wheels

My new 15″ AMG Penta wheels did not come with tyres. Choosing a set turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought.

The big downside of the 15s over the 16s is the tyre availability. The table below outlines possible sizes I could have considered. They are all compared to the overall circumference of the original wheel/tyre combination.

Tyre SizeRevs per KMDifference 205/70 R14496Standard 205/65 R15492+0.8% 205/60 R15508- 2.4% 215/65 R15482+ 2.8% 215/60 R15498- 0.4% 225/60 R15489+ 1.2% 225/55 R15506- 2.4% 235/55 R15498- 0.4%

The easiest and most obvious choice would have been one of the 205 […]

End of financial year tyre sales

At least in Australia, by far the best month of the year to buy tyres is June. Both the tyre retailers and manufacturers offer attractive end of financial year sales. Most people don’t realize, but tread wear is not the only reason to replace tyres. As the rubber ages, it hardens. Once the tyres harden the handling, particularly in the wet is compromised.

When I first purchased by 250SE I nearly spun it in the rain on an innocuous corner. The tread in the tyres looked fine, and I had thought no more of it. But on closer inspection they […]

New tyres for the 250SE and the DS

Every classic car community has an issue that polarizes opinion and spawns countless threads on Internet discussion boards.

For the Citroen DS, that issue is what is the right tyre for the DS? Michelin were the owners of Citroen during the entire production run of the DS. During that time they pioneered the radial tyre, which was introduced in 1949. The Radial was obviously standard fitment to the DS on release in 1955. In 1965, Michelin introduced the XAS, which was the first asymmetrical radial tyre. The premise was that the inside of the tyre needs to work differently to […]