Discussion
Have a look at my other fave site www.austinsevenfriends.com there is a thread on this very subject running now 'Blockly Tyres'. One of the contributers runs his Bentley racer on them and rates them quite highly.
The new C type will wear Blockley's as will the D type next time around. I've heard nothing but praise from such differing people as Bentley, Lotus and Lister owners. The most important thing as far as they are all concerned is that the tyres last 50% longer than Dunlops (that ain't difficult) but more to the point don't go "off" and hard when they cool down after a race. It seems that once people have tried them they don't look elsewhere. I had a chat with Julian Majoub and he is wonderfully enthusiastic about things.
a8hex said:
The guy from Longstone tyres wasn't too complimentary about them. Then I realised he doesn't sell them. Anyway he thought I should fit radials.
The bloke who looks after my XK150 raves about Blockleys. When I next have to buy a set of tyres, they'd been my intended purchase.
May I be permitted to make a further point please? It depends on the usage of the car really. Chris Keith-Lucas races his XK120 on Vredesteins and swears by them but personally I prefer the feel of crossplies rather than radials. I've found (luckily not to my cost yet) that when the crossplies break they do so progressively and the car is controllable and easy to catch. However, radials, by their very nature, flex then let go with a big bang. I have the E type on radials at the moment but that is for longevity since it is now the tourer and is rarely driven hard any more but in the days when I was doing Prescott and circuits she wore crossplies. Semicircle demands a positive attitude of both driver and car!The bloke who looks after my XK150 raves about Blockleys. When I next have to buy a set of tyres, they'd been my intended purchase.
The final point is the weight of the steering. It requires real muscle to park an XK on radials but on crossplies much lighter. Anyway, the car was designed when radials weren't about! Oh, and a lot of people still swear by Avon Turbospeed crossplies.
Edited by lowdrag on Monday 18th February 12:20
I have Avon CR6ZZ's on my Healey, a lot of Healey drivers use them. They are radial, but have very stiff side walls. They give very good grip wet and dry and let go quite smoothly. They also do two compounds, the hardest is not really hard and is ideal for road rally use, soft is wet only. Have decided to fit these to my Mk2. They also look very old fashioned.
Well MWS have a special on 16x6" Blockleys at the moment and since my fronts were not looking too good I popped down yesterday to have a pair of these fitted, then we looked at the back ones... hmmm. they weren't looking as good as I'd have liked either, at least the one that had been out on the track wasn't too good. I'd been having problems with one of the wheels squeaking and had swapped it for the spare, that tyre looked fine - but since it's a VR rated Avon cross ply it must be at least 15 years old. Anyway, so I ended up replacing the rears. Then they popped the "good" tyre over onto what is now the spare wheel. As soon as he popped it on the balancing machine it became pretty obvious why it was giving me grief, it must have been about 3/4" out of true... Oh well it's only money, MWS is a wheel shop, so I ended up buying a new spare wheel and there didn't seem too much point at this stage popping the old tyre onto a new wheel. So I came out of there much poorer than I expected with 1 new wheel and 5 new Blockley tyres.
So far I've only driven them home from Langley to Binfield, but wow, what a revelation. The steering is still light, pointy and really responsive but they don't hunt around the road like the Avons and don't tramline anything like they did either. So so far I'm happy with the change.
If you are still looking at some Blockleys and you are a member of the XK club then the current saving is well worth having. It's listed in the XK Gazzette.
PS. Are you bringing the XK140 to XK60? If so I'll be at Goodwood on the Friday and Saturday.
So far I've only driven them home from Langley to Binfield, but wow, what a revelation. The steering is still light, pointy and really responsive but they don't hunt around the road like the Avons and don't tramline anything like they did either. So so far I'm happy with the change.
If you are still looking at some Blockleys and you are a member of the XK club then the current saving is well worth having. It's listed in the XK Gazzette.
PS. Are you bringing the XK140 to XK60? If so I'll be at Goodwood on the Friday and Saturday.
Edited by a8hex on Tuesday 29th July 22:31
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