By Dave Renner

I was reading an article today about driving seldom used classic cars with out-of-date tires. The writer was bemoaning the expense of fitting new tires when the ones on the car still looked good. It reminded me of a frightening experience I had some years ago that made me a believer in up-to-date rolling stock.

One summer, I drove a church van loaded with summer camp kids on the way home from a fun week. The van had "good looking" tires, according to the person charged with maintaining it. When a tire blew at highway speed I was just lucky to bring it to a safe halt with no injuries to the 14 people on board. Another old tire shredded a few miles down the road as we limped home at considerably reduced speed. Again no injuries occurred, but I have been a zealot about tires ever since.

It is one thing to endanger yourself, but quite another to endanger others. We replaced decent looking tires on our MGA when we purchased it last year because the codes said the ones on the front were from 1987 and the ones on the back from 1982. Not taking any chances, thank you. Sometimes you don’t get a second chance to be safe.

Dave & Linda Renner’s MGA with new tires