Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) A cautionary tale

The IAM phrase is to "make good progress"!!!

Especially on mystry tours from Prescott!
I have only lost the back once & that was on black ice last year going to Stony Stratford for the new years day meeting. Fortunately I just ran off the road onto a the grass verge so no damage. Hope you car is repaired soon.

Glad no-one was hurt and hope the Mog is repaired quickly.

Roundabouts (usually) = diesel spills.

I have always found my 4/4 very predictable in the wet (on Continentals); but addd diesel to the mix and on any tyre (IMHO) you can lose grip instantly.

Yes had a wake up twitch this morning : damp road, slight curve, uphill, bootful to overtake a Hyundi something, over the white line and away goes the rear. Off the power, oppo lock, straighten then another bootful (had to get past the Hyundai, you understand). Continentals, good tread.

Cheers

Jeremy

This post has prompted me to replace my old (but tread fine) tyres. All arranged for tomorrow.

I'll replace the original Avons on my Roadster with Winter tyres.

Is that for all year use? I've done that on the Skoda and it does make a difference.

Sorry to hear about your accident IcePack but pleased no one was hurt. Thank you for posting it’s a sobering reminder.

When I purchased my car it was six years old with the original Continentals. The tyres looked perfect with no sign of any wear but looking back they were dangerous. It was my first Morgan so I thought perhaps they all handle like this. May be the lack of stiction was a characteristic, after all it is a very light car. I’m not a particularly racy driver but even the front would lock up under moderate breaking in the dry. I lived with them for a while. Eventually I scrapped what seemed at the time like a decent set of tyres and used the handling as an excuse to buy a nice set of Vredesteins. What a difference the car is transformed, particularly breaking with confidence. I suspect the original tyres were dangerous way before this. So beware of old tyres creeping up on you.

Good advice. I recently talked a friend who has a 4/4 into changing the tyres that were on his car from 1999. They looked good despite the many kilometres he had done but at 14 years old they were dangerous. He is very pleased with his new tyres.

On the diesel spill topic, one day last year we approached the A47 / A1 roundabouts on the A47 travelling towards Peterborough. On the 2nd roundabout, there was no grip at all. If I had not been crawling along I would have come a cropper. The car in question was not a Morgan - I was in our Disco-3 with a large Rice trailer and our two horses on the back. SHMBO barely spotted the slide (the air goes blue if our horses get a rough ride!) but I was very lucky - the crawling pace had been dictated by a "moment" on the approach. The tyres on the car and trailer were both recent sets with good tread (Mud & Snow on the Disco). Things got worse until we passed an articulated lorry parked up on the verge. It was a refrigerated trailer and the fuel tank for the diesel powered chiller system had split. He had deposited about 30 gallons of diesel on the road.

Yes, I've got Conti winter M&S on the BMW 320 4-Matic and the grip is impressive. Looking on the makers website and talking to tyre specialists my feeling is that:

1. Winter tyres are far better when the road temperature is below 7C
2 Normal tyres are better when the road temperature is above 20C

That leaves the 7 to 20 Window where there is little difference and as far as I can see there are only about 45 days a year when road - not air - temperature is over 20C.

Second reason is that they are better in the wet irrespective of road temperature

Third reason is the tread pattern is more "retro" and would look great on the Morgan.

My only problem is that the Avons on the car have about 15,000 miles left on them... But I may bite the bullet.