I drove my 140 DHC as my only transportation for over a year in 1968-69. Being a poor college student I had to make do. Fortunately Dad was in the tire recapping biz so tires at least were no problem. Anyone else drive over 100 mph in a Jag wearing recaps? Anyway, back to the random info. Early 1960’s Buick wheels will fit a 140, obviously one with discs.
At one time, recaps were legal to use in SCCA: my 'rent’s used then on the Silverstone, because the rubber compound was stickier.
Retreads, OTOH, have always been banned from most sanctioning bodies. One can see why, along any given stretch of highway. I call those things, “road alligators.”
Every now and then Dad would run a batch of “sticky” recaps. A famous local drag racer loved them because they would really grip. Unfortunately a pair would only last 1 or 2 runs on the 1/4 mile strip. He would also make a batch using high quality rubber normally reserved for large trucks. They didn’t grip well but they would last a long time.
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What you call retreads we call regrooved tires. Generally in the biz recap and retread are the same here.
Back in the day, there was a difference: regrooved tires, as they are today, were a band of rbber bonded to the outer periphery of the tire.
A recap was a C-shaped (in cross section) “cap,” bonded from sidewall to sidewall, and were less prone to throwing a tread.
There was a local firm, Phillips and Anderson, that provided recaps to the racing folks. I had the job, as a squirt, to ‘re-white and -blue’ the letters on the sides of the Goodyear “Blue Streaks.”
Caldwell tire in or near Pasadena/LA…did many ofl the SCCA racers’ tires…Goodyear Blue Streak recaps with a very sticky for the day…rubber…very common in the 60s…never did see one fail. Nick
Likewise was poor starving college student from '66-'67…
I had recaps on a POS Opal Rekord that on one Texas summer day (100 degrees) decided to “throw” the treads off ALL FIVE TYRES over a fifty mile stretch… sold the Opal and bought my XK120DHC at the same instant!! I did do a three hour “One Hundred Mile-Per-Hour Average” from Houston to Ft. Worth back in '68 in my 120 (my daily driver at the time)… The ONLY tyres I could get for the Jag at the time were 600x16 Six Ply (Pick-up) Truck Tyres… Talk about a rough ride!!
Charles.
Charles,
I have missed your input, great to know you are still with us.
John