Morris Minor Owners Club

I'll be driving a 2dr 948 all through this winter.

How are Minors in the frost and snow? Are the skinny tyres a help? I suspect much better than the silly wide modern ones.

I recently had a set of 'all season' tyres on a Renault and I've had full winter tyres on a 911 and I like the advantages.

I don't see any 145/14 winter tyres available?

Plenty in 13 " - maybe get a set of 13" wheels for winter use.

A bit more googling and I've answered my own question.

I'm guessing you've found the 145x14 Bridgestones - a few people have bought them recently and they are a bit cheaper than the normal 'summer' tyres from Bridgestone I think.

http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop. ... hen=Ordern

I've used a Minor in snow and ice for many years and have always fitted some sort of "Winter" or "Mud & Snow" tyre to the rear. This, along with a bit of weight in the boot makes the car very good in snow - much better than most would imagine. The Minor doesn't have too much power and the skinny tyres and much better ground clearance than most modern small cars help a good deal. My old Goodyears (probably 20years old at least) were cracking on the sidewalls a bit and last winter I bought a pair of the Bridgestone tyres in the link above. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your viewpoint) we didn't have any snow so I can't comment about that but the tyres seem fine on wet grass, mud and in normal driving and I've left them on the car for now.
Very happy with them.

It's never crossed my mind to change tyres for the winter!

Still waiting for summer!!!
GPO vans were fitted with town and country tyres on the rear

les wrote:It's never crossed my mind to change tyres for the winter!

Me neither on any cars ever !!!

Depends where you live I suppose. I used to use winter tyres and even snow chains when commuting to college across the Pennines, but that was a year or two back now
More recently I've had a pair of Michelin winter tyres (155s) on my convertible which have been pretty much invincible in snow (though I suspect they are well obsolete now). At the same time I had use of a saloon which had normal 145 Bridgestones on and that was hopeless in snow, though I guess a bit of weight in the boot would have helped.

Last couple of years there's only been the odd day of snow and its hardly been worth having a Land Rover for, never mind special tyres on the Minor...

All season tyres are a good compromise and can be used all year round, this is what many of my colleagues in Germany where winter tyres are mandatory do.

Winter tyres have a tread compound that performs better in cooler conditions (less than 7C), eg. the braking distance is much reduced. They aren't just for use in snow!
John