Morris Minor Owners Club

Having this saturday taken our works van for its annual mot, i was intrigued at the time the inspector gave to inspect time & again the condition of the tyres, he quoted me depth minimums & tread percentages c/w nicks scratches cuts or blemishes.

Then this morning i wake up to see Lewis Hamilton doing 200mph with the canvas showing.

Hell never get a ticket you know !

And imagine the reaction you'd get, restricting yourself to 50mph in the service bay!

Rumour has it, that tyre tread depth is going to be 3mm minimum rather than the current 1.6mm. So that's going to mean changing tyres at about 3.5mm to be safe as far as plod goes, which is about 50% of tread depth for a new tyre.

I see that Hamiltons pit crew have taken the blame for leaving him out too long on those tyres. 200MPH on canvas, no thank you

MoggyTech wrote:Rumour has it, that tyre tread depth is going to be 3mm minimum rather than the current 1.6mm. So that's going to mean changing tyres at about 3.5mm to be safe as far as plod goes, which is about 50% of tread depth for a new tyre.

That sounds like an excellent idea in this day and age of environmentalism and pretense to waste reduction...

I see that Hamiltons pit crew have taken the blame for leaving him out too long on those tyres. 200MPH on canvas, no thank you

I'm waiting for the team to somehow blame themselves for Hamilton managing to get round every corner on the track apart from the slow one on the entrance to the speed limited pits. After all, surely someone that isn't him must be to blame (even if he did accept it was his fault immediately afterwards!)...

Yes obviously if the new 3mm depth goes ahead, tyre disposal/recycling is going to be much greater. It all started after Top Gear did wet tests with 1.6mm tyres and 3mm tyres. No surprise that the 3mm tyres stopped shorter than the 1.6mm ones. So environmental issues aside, it will be a safety issue, but I bet the tyre companies are rubbing their hands together.

Hamilton definately came into the pit lane a bit hot IMHO. That gravel trap isn't deep and the front left tyre was floating in air, which would suggest the left rear blew out at just the wrong moment. It would have been nice if had wrapped up the championship, but Brazil is a cracking circuit for the final showdown. The back of the circuit is famous for drivers 'falling off', should be a cracker of a race.

Coop160412 wrote:
Then this morning i wake up to see Lewis Hamilton doing 200mph with the canvas showing.

I collect motoring literature of all types.
In one pre WWI book it tells you a little tip of putting puncture patches on the OUTSIDE of the tyre when the canvas shows to get a little more mileage out of them

Paul Humphries

paulhumphries wrote:

Coop160412 wrote:

In one pre WWI book it tells you a little tip of putting puncture patches on the OUTSIDE of the tyre when the canvas shows to get a little more mileage out of them

Paul Humphries

They did re-cut the tread in commercial tyres a few years ago, i watched the guy do it once & it was quite an art to get the pattern spot on, Not sure if they do that now.


As for Lewis Hamilton, in a race he didnt have to win, why didnt they change the tyres on the 1st pit stop ?

Lewis who? pit stop? 200mph? was this in a Morris minor?? must of had a 1300 engine and disc brakes

As for Lewis Hamilton, in a race he didnt have to win, why didnt they change the tyres on the 1st pit stop ?

absolutely - he was only racing himself! Team strategists get 0/10 points in my book for that.

They did re-cut the tread in commercial tyres a few years ago, i watched the guy do it once & it was quite an art to get the pattern spot on, Not sure if they do that now.

A friend of mine was a motorbike dispatch rider. One of his mates re-cut the centre grove in his rear tyre to get more life out of it.
Despite being one of the safest riders in the company, he didn't reach 40 (after having a rear tyre puncture on a motorway).

More tread = safer in the wet. However I think 3mm is going a bit far.

I have heard nothing of a 3mm tread depth limit - 1.6 it is and will remain as far as I know.
I too couldn't believe they didn't change Hamilton's tyres at the stop - but the reason would be that the track was drying out and the old tyres were almost slick by that time and new inter tyres would probably have just 'gone off' immediately because the track wasn't wet enough to keep them cool. They should however have reacted more quickly when his lap times started to deteriorate - and then they further compounded the issue by actually having Alonso's tyres out ready for the change! I wonder in fact if there was discusiion going on about who would come in first for new tyres - and that's why he was left out one lap too long. And yes - the poor lad just had no steering - the left rear was down and the RIGHT front was only kissing the ground.

They did re-cut the tread in commercial tyres a few years ago

Commercial tyres can be recut. I used to do it when I was in the tyre trade. not allowed from 750x16 and below, ( I think), which is 7.5 tonne trucks.