Longstone Classic Tyres

I just thought I would knock up a quick blog based on an article about the Pinin Farina Jaguar XK120 tyres. A standard XK120 would have left the factory with a Dunlop RS5 Cross Ply unless you specified something else, that was Jags go to tyre. But throughout most of the ‘50s the Cinturato was the go to tyre if you wanted more performance out of your car. The Author of this article would know that because we have fitted Cinturato tyres on his XK, and he loved them.

Countach Tyres

Excitingly we have received some test tyres for the rerelease of the 345/35R15 Cinturato P7 from PIRELLI. It seemed that the best thing to do was pop down and see Harry Metcalf at Harry’s Garage so that he could test the tyres for us and here is the reply we have had from Harry.

Hi Dougal
Following on from our conversation on Friday, I managed to do a fair bit more driving in the Countach over the weekend and very pleased to report the new P7 tyres performed superbly and much above expectation! Key attributes I've noticed with the P7 compared to the P-Zero are as follows:

• Less tramlining. I used to find my Countach was sensitive to road camber but that's been much reduced, if not eliminated, with the P7.
• Better ride. Bit of a surprise and not sure why the ride should have improved. Tyres pressures were set lower on the P7, so maybe that's the reason.
• The big surprise for me is at fast road speeds the grip is still there, which I didn't expect to be the case. The even better news is driver feedback is much improved.
• They just feel right on the Countach when, previously, the P-Zero needed miles to bed in and even then displayed some negative characteristics, as detailed above. I think the reduced tread depth might be part of why this is the case.

The only possible negative I can think of is the P-Zero is arguably visually more impressive than the P7 but then if an owner cares more about driving dynamics than looks, they will go for the P7 every time.

Thanks again for allowing me to provide feedback and great that Pirelli have obviously worked hard to produce a cracking tyre for Countach and other classic supercar owners.

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