Barrie,
Well, here's a story:
A few years ago I bought a '74 Jaguar XJ6. After a few months (new engine) I
drove it
from Salt Lake City Utah to Reno Nevada to take my daughter and one of her
teammates to a gymnastics competition. The tires looked new. Good tread, no
weather
checks... I figured everything was fine, and I really liked those tires. I
learned later that
my car had been sitting on a lot in Santa Rosa, Calif. for some 7 years before
I bought
her, so the tires were at least that old...
The fist tire started to disintegrate about 200 miles into the trip, and blew
out 30 miles
later. The spare (which I suspect was one of the cars originals) lasted almost
long
enough to get to the next town, but I ended up stranded in the middle of the
desert.
This was in the middle of the night, naturally... after an hour and a half of
waving and
screaming we flagged down a trucker who gave us all a lift into the next town.
Huge
towing bill (cash only), a motel for the night, and a new pair of tires on
front the next
day, one of the old set as a spare, and we were back on the road, without
incident...
until the return trip to Salt Lake.
About 130 miles out of Reno (I realized by then that I really knew better than
to try to
drive this far on old tires at freeway speeds, or should have), a third tire
blew out, so on
went the spare, which was one of the four that the car had been driving on
prior, and I
proceeded with no spare for the rest of the trip.
So I'm cruising along at 75 MPH, completely in love with my car and thinking
that the
trip had been a good one in spite of the tire failures (the girls had done well
at the meet,
and after all it wasn't the cars fault that it had old rotten tires). We're
almost home... I
can see the lights of Salt Lake City in the distance ahead, about 75 miles to
go, when
the engine fan threw a blade, which cut the radiator hose right in half and
almost came
through the bonnet. But that's another story... After we finally got home, I
noticed that
another of the old tires had started to separate, so it wouldn't have lasted
much longer.
So, do I run on old tires? Never again!
Granted, my XJ6 wieghs 4500 pounds, and your MGB is a full ton lighter, and the
Jag's
205-15's are not that much bigger than your 185-14's, so the demands on the
Jag's
tires are greater than for the tires on your MGB... but on the other hand, I'll
bet that my
Jag is a whole lot more stable during a blow-out at freeway speed than our
MGB's...
You decide.
Marvin
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