<VV> Re: Michelins and swing axles folklore

[djtcz@comcast.net]

-------------- Original message -------------- 

> Message: 1 
> Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:34:36 -0500 
> To: virtualvairs@corvair.org 
> From: "James Davis" 
> Subject: Re: Re: Michelins on brand new '64? 
> 
> My wife had Michelin X on her 62 Monza convert when I married her in  1964. They were 6.40x13's with Michelin radial tubes I also had 
> Michelin X's (5.20 x 12) with tubes on my Fiat 600D at the time. When we 
> bought the 65 Corsa in March of 65, we had the dealer put Michelins on the 
> car. Galles Chevy took the 2 ply Firestones in trade and charged us $81.50 
> additional to purchase, mount, and balance the tires This time they were 
> 7.25x13 tubeless. 
> Jim Davis 
>
Before I got my drivers license me and my car buddies would con the one driver into going looking at sports car dealers and bother the sales guys and customers with our questions and expert opnions.
I remember a  boisterous Porsche salesman talking to us about driving his (swing axle) 356 fast.  I asked what he thought about Michelin tires.  He suddenly got very quiet, and may even have gone a little pale.  He said something about steel belted radials not providing much warning, and hugged himself as if cold, and muttered something about decreasing radius corners..
A few years later I put a camber compensator on my (very used) posi-traction 63 Spyder the first week I got it because I got it good and sideways in 45 mph traffic on a Flint Michigan peripheral highway. It was the first time I yanked the steering wheel like I had done all the time when driving my clapped out MGA on junkyard Michelins.  The bias plies got replaced with (fabric belted) Dunlop SP41 radials (one pair per week 'cause that's all I could afford) shortly thereafter. Then it was a marvelously predictable car that could be driven deep into corners on trailing throttle and just kind of hunkered down when given lots of gas when pointed nearly straight.  Scared myself by scaring the buzzards out of the trees driving along the twisty coastal California the summer of 1969.