The Austin Car

Some people go to great lengths to keep their classic cars as they were built, even to the extent of driving on the original tyres This is not a good idea as the rubber in tyres degrades with age and old tyres can fail.

There is no specific evidence that says that car tyres over xx years old need replacing, although most tyres manufacturers now recommend that you shouldn’t use tyres if they are more than ten years old.

Tyres should last between 20,000 and 30,000 miles depending on usage. The front tyres on modern front wheel drive cars may only last 20,000 as they bear the wear of both being driven and power steering. On rear wheel drive cars, like most classics, the rear tyres tend to wear out quicker but may still be good for 25,000 miles and the front tyres should cover 30,000 miles. I have known some last for 40,000 miles.

We have ten classic cars which we hire out so know about both buying and using old cars and have specific experience of two problems with old tyres.

In 1990 I bought a Jaguar E-Type which obviously hadn’t had much use for many years (probably at least 15). The tyres looked good, with about 6mm of tread and in theory should have lasted for another 15 to 20,000 miles. The E-Type came with a full year’s MOT and I only covered 2-3,000 miles in the first year. When the following year’s MOT came around, while the MOT tester didn’t fail the car, he did advise that I should replace all the tyres. They still had about 5mm of tread, but at the base of the tread there were cracks in the rubber, probably right down to the carcase. There was the possibility that the tread could have come away from the casing. Without further ado I invested in a set of 5 new tyres.

My second experience was slightly different. In 2003 I bought an MG RV8 which had been exported to Japan in 1993 and like many RV8s had been re-imported to Britain. Like most Japanese imports it was fairly low mileage about 19,000 kms (11,000 miles) and still on its original tyres with ample tread and only 10 years old. Having had problems previously, I checked the tyres carefully and there were no cracks at the base of the tread. All looked fine so I carried on using them.

As far as I was aware I had no problems with the car although I always thought that the steering was a bit heavy, but then it had no power assistance and the ride was harsher than on our MGB Roadster. I put these down to the added weight of the 3.9 litre Rover V8 engine and the necessarily beefed up suspension.

When tyre wear dictated that I bought a new set of tyres, the car was completely transformed. The ride was much more comfortable, softer, more compliant and not harsh over cats-eyes. The steering was considerably lighter although nothing else had changed and I ran the tyres at the same pressures.

After checking with a few other MG RV8 owners, particularly of imported cars, I found out that this was a known problem. It was believed that the tyres hardened over the years in the Japanese heat affecting both their flexibility and their grip. So different age of tyres (only 10 years old instead of 15 year) and a different problem.

I have recently seen a car advertised on the web, made in 1982 with only 7,500 miles on the clock. The seller makes a great point of its originality including the fact that it still has its original Goodyear NCT tyres (now 27 years old). Whoever buys this car, the first thing he should do is to change the tyres. Maybe the seller would stand more of a chance if he sold it with a brand new set of tyres.

As we move into 2009 it is now easy to check on the age of tyres as the date of manufacture can be found on the sidewall by examining the characters following the symbol “DOT”. For tyres manufactured after the year 1999, the last four numbers identify the year and week of manufacture. The first two of these four numbers identify the week of manufacture (which range from “01″ to “52″). The last two numbers identify the year of manufacture (e.g., a tyre with the information “DOT XXXXXX2605″ was manufactured in the 26th week of 2005).

Many classic car owners only cover 2 to 3,000 miles per year (many less) so their tyres could well last more than 10 years, at which point they ought to think of changing them anyway, irrespective of how much tread is left.

Now when I buy a car to add to The Open Road’s car hire fleet, if there is any doubt as to the age or condition of the tyres, I will replace the whole set.

So if you have either a classic car, or any low mileage sports car, that is more than ten years old, check the date of manufacture on the tyres. If they were made in 1999, or before this numbering convention was adopted, then you really should consider investing in a complete new set of tyres.

According to the US Census, the average American worker spends approximately 25 minutes per day commuting to work. While the number sounds reasonable in that context, multiply it out and in the course of a year, you see that you’ll have spent over 100 hours inside of your vehicle. That’s a whole lot of time. When this much time is spent crammed inside a relatively small space, people are naturally antsy for some entertainment. Thus we have seen the evolution of car stereos, cell phones, and personal entertainment systems that allow us pass the time spent in traffic a little more quickly.

The car stereo system is by far the most widespread and universal of these creature comforts designed to make the trip bearable. Here’s how the history breaks down: In 1929, the first car radios appeared on the American market, although they didn’t become popular until the 60′s. By 1970, people wanted to be able to dictate what music they listened to without having to rely on a DJ to hold their hand through the musical landscape. Thus, the 8-track was born. 1980 saw the advent of the cassette tape deck, which provided superior sound quality to the 8-track, and the cassette soon bowed to the CD in the 90′s.

In today’s digital world, however, the CD, while still in use, is taking a back seat to digitized audio content. With the popularity of downloadable and easily moved and formatted MP3 and WMA files, listeners now have nearly unlimited control over what they listen to. In addition, personal music devices such as the iPod play only digital content, meaning that music collections are increasingly stored on hard drives, rather than tapes or discs.

This creates a problem for the commuter with an older stereo system: how does one access this digital content on the road? Here are several options.

The first and probably easiest is to simply burn a CD with digital tracks formatted to play in a standard CD player. While this solution is fairly simple, many older CD players can’t read burned CDs.

Another option is to buy an FM transmitter. This is a great solution if you have a personal MP3 player, like an iPod or Rio. All you have to do is plug your player into the transmitter (which plugs into your vehicle’s cigarette lighter), and select an FM channel to transmit on (generally restricted to lower channels between 88.1 and 88.9). The transmitter puts out a low powered FM signal which is picked up by your car stereo’s radio. Some FM transmitters also allow you to attach a USB flash drive (also called a thumbdrive or pen drive) to the transmitter. The transmitter decodes the music files on the drive and allows you to play, skip, and pause your music, all while transmitting to your car radio. This is usually an inexpensive solution, although audio quality sometimes suffers due to interference. One of the big benefits to the USB flash drive models is that you can be constantly keeping your musical selection fresh without always having to burn new media CDs. If you listen to a lot of podcasts, this is especially nice.

Yet another option is to install a Bluetooth car kit, which allows you to connect your iPod to your car stereo wirelessly. While some installation is required for this solution, the sound quality is fantastic and the hassle of plugging your iPod into the stereo every time you get into your car is gone, to say nothing of the coolness factor. Scosche makes one of these kits at a relatively affordable price.

Finally, you can spring for a new head unit, which is the part of the car stereo that you generally see in the dash of the car. Many newer car stereo head units can read burned CDs. What’s more, they can also read MP3 and WMA files, which, though you’re still required to burn a data CD with your desired music files, allows you to put a much higher quantity of music on the CD. In deference to the burgeoning popularity of the personal media player, some car stereo head units also have an auxiliary jack so you can connect your iPod or other similar device to your car stereo via a cable. And a select few car stereos, like the VR3 Car Stereo CD Player, come even more options. The VR3, for which I have found no alternative, can still read MP3 and WMA files and still allows you to connect your personal media player through an auxiliary line-in jack, but it also has a USB port built into the face which leta it access audio files from a USB flash drive without sacrificing audio quality. Again, if you listen to podcasts or are constantly updating your music collection, this is the solution for you.

In the end, however, it’s nice to look back and realize that car stereo entertainment is really the everyman’s entertainment medium. You can spend as much or as little as you want to get the kind of entertainment you want. You can get free radio, inexpensive FM transmitters to let you listen to your digital content without costly technology, pricer head units, which give the discerning audio enthusiast some respite in their travels, or, for the audiophile who accepts nothing less than the best, a world class entertainment system that’s worthy of any classy whip. Happy travels!