Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

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retroman81
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Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by retroman81 »

I'm seeing a few cars about with stretched tyres, mainly German makes, not sure why people do it, maybe I'm just old school and prefer to see a fat tyre bulging over the rim!

Clocked this Merc the other day, it must be safe to do this but I still wouldn't be too confident chucking a car into a corner with this set up.

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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by pbar »

It looks like something's gone wrong. It's not for me.
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Peter-S »

I'm inclined to agree but then I'm getting old too. Kerbing must be a real issue.
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by damajin »

It's actually really not that safe either.

Because of the way you have to mount the tyre to get it to seat the second bead, there is a real chance that hitting a pothole could cause one of the beads to pop off losing all pressure immediately and leaving the tyre flapping about between the rims of the wheel. A lot of tyre shops won't fit stretch for this reason.

In my mind it's very similar to the crazy camber that some people are putting onto their cars, I'm sure it started off as a sensible mod, but then a few rounds of people trying to one-up each other results in something that looks like this:
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Each to their own I guess, but I prefer more of a sleek sleeper look than the gaudy OTT stuff personally.
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by stevemarl »

damajin wrote:I'm sure it started off as a sensible mod, but then a few rounds of people trying to one-up each other results in something that looks like this
Katie Price sprang to mind....
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Andrew 2.8i »

Hi,
Please tell me that the Celica photo is a photoshop job.......

It just looks like the suspension has collapsed.

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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Andrew 2.8i »

Oh, and in response to the thread title, I am sure that I don't like the look of stretched tyres.

It just looks like the owner has tried to save money by buying narrower rubber because they couldn't afford the correct size.

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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by stevemarl »

It reminds me of the late 70s when it was `cool` to jack the rear of your Mk2 Cortina/Escort up, often with a red illuminated diff. Looked woefully unstable - but that`s fashion for you. (anybody remember these abominations??)
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Andrew 2.8i »

stevemarl wrote:(anybody remember these abominations??)
Hi Steve,

Like these?
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Andrew 2.8i »

Hi,
For the record, these cars were the height of fashion in their time, but as Steve points out, fashions change. They would have been fantastic in their day, though.

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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Hot_Protein »

I have lots of 70's custom car magazines with stuff like that in it. Louvres, metal flake paint, horrid airbrush work of spaceships and such. Furry dice anyone?
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by stevemarl »

peers.dupp wrote:They would have been fantastic in their day, though.
I would`ve said "THOUGHT to be fantastic in their day"... :lol: But yes, exactly, fashions DO change, in the day they really were the canine`s gonads or whatever! (never understood that phrase either - always get a very unsavoury image - but that`s another story!)
Thanks for those pics Andrew, Ages since I`ve seen anything like that.
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Andrew 2.8i »

Hot_Protein wrote:Furry dice anyone?
I wonder if anybody will have some in their car at the Weston meet. :whistle:

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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Andrew 2.8i »

stevemarl wrote:[Thanks for those pics Andrew, Ages since I`ve seen anything like that.
Those pics are from this forum. I hope the owner doesn't mind me using them to illustrate what you were saying.

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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by stevemarl »

Off topic, but looking at those pics, few cars and all the houses have gardens; I bet if you went back now the street would be crammed with cars & all the gardens now drives. Very interesting.
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by -JC- »

A bit of stretch can look quite good imo, but not as much as those pics. And that amount of camber on the celica just looks silly, I really don't get that. It is a crappy FWD though so guess they don't do a lot anyway!
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by retroman81 »

I think the South London boys started the slight tyre stretch trend on their mk1 Escorts back in the day.

A lad I used to work with paid a small fortune for some 2nd hand pretty rare highly polished BBS spilt rims and then put the smallest width diameter tyres on he could get away with, as far as I remember he was trying to fit 185's onto 8" rims, as already mentioned most tyre fitters wouldn't touch them! In no time at all he managed to kerb one, the damage wasn't that bad but unfortunately he'd been raving on his forum about how brilliant these wheels are, so he had to order a new outer rim from Germany and get the wheel rebuilt before going to a show the next weekend!

Back to the old school cars, I've just dug this photo out which I think was taken in the early 90's :D

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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Hot_Protein »

That's awesome.
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by Terra-Kotta »

The terra had stretch and banded steels. No problems
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Re: Not sure I like the look of stretched tyres.

Post by rich_jc »

Not a fan here. Reminds me of VW's with 12 inch wheels and, force rusted bonnets and a gaggle of offensive stickers in the rear (blacked out) screen.

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