10” Tyres for Hillclimbs

[Oneball]

I’m going to enter my race car in this year’s Classic Hillclimb Championship, it’ll be running on 10” wheels with no arches and Cooper S brakes all round.

Avon’s seem to be the tyre of choice but at £188 are too expensive. I’m considering Yokohama A032R, does anyone have experience of running them? Are there any clearance issues? Do they stick out on an unarched car?

Thanks

Tim

[Lakeland997]

It depends on the wheels.
You seem to be able to get away with 165 tyres on Rosepetal 4.75” wheels (see Ray Cunningham’s very fast historic rally car on which he runs both Yokohama and Avons) but most 5” wheels I’ve seen put them slightly outside the arches on the front.

[Lakeland997]

With regard to tyre performance, I’m sure others will chip in with wiser words but the Yokohama’s are a soft compound that grips quite well in the dry but less so in the wet.
The tyre walls are very flexible so pressures need to be quite high to gain stability.

Avons are great for grip either wet or dry. I’ve only just started trying them but everyone I speak to praises them.
The tyre walls are very stiff so pressures can be lower.
On the downside, they are noticeably heavier than the Yokos.
On price, TyreLeader sell the Avons for around £150 and bear in mind that you will wear out the Yokos at least twice as fast.

[Oneball]

Thanks, I’ll be using 4.5” Cooper S offset Minilites, they’re pretty much on a par with Rosepetals as far as dimensions go.

[wantafaster1]

To echo Andy's point, I've tried yokodramas on 4.5 inch rims and the car feels awful.
Complete lack of stability when in top gear.

Avons are precise to drive with. Pity there doesn't seem to be anything to bridge the gap.

[Oneball]

Thanks all, I wouldn’t be thinking about it if the price difference wasn’t so great. May have to go with Yokos just based on price, the championship is on handicap so overall performance isn’t entirely relevant.

[billycooper]

After taking to Mark in great depth ! , also Nick W and Andy (lakeland997) i've decided to buy the Avons and got them at £150 each, if you look at the pics of my car on yokos at Blyton compared to the other 3 cars, the movement on my yokos is massive compared, i also teared a set of half decent yokos to bits on the front the car we were using and that only has 75 ish at the wheels

[Oneball]

Thanks Steve and all, I've got a set of Yokos coming, I know it's probably the wrong thing to do and Avons are "only" £300 more but it's been an expensive couple of months and I've had to have four new wheels to put the tyres on too! Just need Mini Spares IT woes to end so I can get the engine back together in time for June.

[Mini-geek]

It all depends what the regulations allow,

[Oneball]

It all depends what the regulations allow,

Has to be road legal

[GeorgeA]

32R's are still a good choice of tyre and you will have fun with them they will not last as long as the Avons but are still capable of winning.

At harewood hillclimb 32R's are able to do a 69 up the hill in a 1A Mini (Road going) which is a winning time unless the suzuki swift is there
But 32R's tyres did beat the Suzuki in the wet & another mini running Avons
(Different driver & mini might have gone up faster with 32R's no idea i'm just commenting on what i've seen happen first hand)

[Oneball]

Thanks George

[billycooper]

so my Avons have arrived, and thanks to Andy I got them for £150 each, from Tyre Leader, they came in 2 batches on 2 different days (yes I thought one lot had been lost) but found some tracking and all good, not very well wrapped, but they are fine, it seems they have come from abroad, no extra carriage mind, but on checking today they have gone up to £165 and the yokos are now £75 each, all very strange !

they do seem heavier than yokos (off the car) mind

[mk1]

Hi Steve,

Which Andy are you getting Avons for £165 a piece from????? That's 5 for the price of 4 compared to what I pay!

They are massively heavy, its the biggest downside of the Avons. But the grip & longevity more than makes up for it.

[billycooper]

Hi Steve,

Which Andy are you getting Avons for £165 a piece from????? That's 5 for the price of 4 compared to what I pay!

They are massively heavy, its the biggest downside of the Avons. But the grip & longevity more than makes up for it.

Andy (Lakeland997) mentioned Tyre Leader here on this thread, so i checked it out and bought some

[billycooper]

With regard to tyre performance, I’m sure others will chip in with wiser words but the Yokohama’s are a soft compound that grips quite well in the dry but less so in the wet.
The tyre walls are very flexible so pressures need to be quite high to gain stability.

Avons are great for grip either wet or dry. I’ve only just started trying them but everyone I speak to praises them.
The tyre walls are very stiff so pressures can be lower.
On the downside, they are noticeably heavier than the Yokos.
On price, TyreLeader sell the Avons for around £150 and bear in mind that you will wear out the Yokos at least twice as fast.

[billycooper]

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres-165-70-10-72-H/

[Lakeland997]

so my Avons have arrived, and thanks to Andy I got them for £150 each, from Tyre Leader, they came in 2 batches on 2 different days (yes I thought one lot had been lost) but found some tracking and all good, not very well wrapped, but they are fine, it seems they have come from abroad, no extra carriage mind, but on checking today they have gone up to £165 and the yokos are now £75 each, all very strange !

they do seem heavier than yokos (off the car) mind

I had similar wobbles about TyreLeader at first but I've used them a few times now with no issues.
The tyres are delivered from the Continent somewhere.
Prices do vary quite a bit (exchange rates?) but worth watching for the Avons.

Andy

[GraemeC]

BMTR are a shade over £150 each with a single £30 delivery charge per order.
BMTR are the main U.K. agent and that price has been held consist for the last two years.

[Nick W]

Got mine from BMTR for £128+vat delivered last month.
the tread on the o/s/f has strangely raised between the grooves??.is this unusual? had some stick at blyton, will chuck it on the back for harewood.