Our Cars: 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four
29 September 2013: Tyred and emotional
I suppose I'd been asking for it. Even since I'd bought the GT-Four, I'd been telling anyone who'd listen that I was going to buy new tyres for it. After all, there was an odd mix of tyres on it - and this is a seriously quick car. What you should never to with a performance car is play fast an loose with the rubber it's wearing.
Well, what I advise people, and what I do myself are still two different things, more's the pity. Still, I've been having fun with the GT-Four - and even though I don't drive it as much as I'd like, co-owner Matthew Hayward continues to have a whale of a time in it. So much so that his average fuel consumption is 15.9mpg. I assumed he'd mixed up his miles with his kilometres (the odometer is in km), but that's patently not been the case. And speaking to other owners, this is not unusual. As I say, it's good to share!
But it was my weekend to enjoy. And to celebrate having the GT-Four to myself I decided to take it over to the Sywell Classic - Pistons and Props event, which I know involves a lovely cross-country drive. And so it proved to be. Driving back, however, did create something of a drama, when exiting a side road, there was an almighty bang, followed by a grinding noise coming from the front. I pretty much knew it was a deflation - so limped to the nearest sae place to stop, and jumped out to see the damage.
As you can see from the image above, the tyre's been devastated. It's suffered what appears to be a huge sidewall failure that may or may not have been caused by me applying perhaps a touch more power than might have been prudent on old, knackered tyres. Still, we stopped safely, and managed to squeeze on the spacesaver wheel and tyre combo. It might not look good, and won't get me very far, but it sure as hell beats a can of sealant and a compressor.
Shame it was a Sunday afternoon when it happened. Isn't that always the way? I'll keep you posted what happens with the tyres as the news comes in.
As you can see, I managed to borrow Toyota GB's amazing Corolla GT Coupe, which as we all know, is forever going to be known as the AE86. As you can read in my review, that's a fantastic little car with a driving position and dynamics to die for. But given the choice, I'll stick with my bargain GT-Four - it might not be perfect, but it's not that far off. But only when it has four round wheels on it...
« Earlier: Latest arrival: Toyota Celica GT-Four WRC Edition Later: Lesson learned - MoT passed »
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