Preferred Tyres

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

If you do some google reading up you can find out how to decipher the date code stamps on your tyres to find out how old they actually are.

I found a Semperit from 1997 on the back of my laser green car!!

[welshpug 1,657]

eek!

[Anthony 1,003]

If I'm reading that correctly, you're saying that you've got budget tyres the best part of a decade old on the back of a GTi? Christ, I'm not surprised that the handling is "interesting" on cold, damp roads

 

I'm sure a Xsara Picasso would be alright on newer budgets, as like most newer cars they tend to have a decent amount of mechanical grip and the handling is typical safe and predictable. 205's tend not to have much in the way of mechanical grip, have much more edgy handling and balance, and can border on a liability with poor tyres.

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

Very boring but may save you one day.

 

This is the official definition:

 

A vehicle skids when one or more tyres loses normal grip on the road causing an involuntary movement of the vehicle. This happens when the grip of the tyres on the road becomes less than the forces acting on them.

 

Skids do not happen by accident, there is always a reason.

 

When a skid happens the first thing to do is remove the cause.

 

If it's too heavy acceleration, come off the gas let the car sort itself out and then onto the brakes.

 

Too much steering, ease up on the steering. Don't 'snatch' the steering back. Ease it gently.

 

Keeping a car on the road is all about balance. Lose the balance and you may lose your car or even worse yourself.

[sp_en_ny 17 1 Cars]

Budgets on the back would not have caused to fronts to plane though, yes would have come into play for the spin but by then was already too late ! I know the tyres are ten years old because of the codes on the tyres.

[Anthony 1,003]

10 year old fronts won't be much better though, even if they were once good tyres.

 

One of my current 205's had been sat around a few years when I bought it, and after putting it back together and getting it ready for MOT, I drove to the MOT station on the original tyres it had come with - I can't remember the age of them, but safe to assume that they'd have been a minimum of four or five years old. Middle of summer but a damp road and I was doing beautifully graceful four wheel drifts at the giddy speeds of.... 20mph