The 'E' Type Forum

For some time now I have been trying to get to the bottom of which radial tyres were fitted to a series 1 E-type, and I have had a little come back from Jaguars Classic department with the hope there is more to come. Here's what I got so far:

"Hi, ref our discussion yesterday, I tried to check with our archive team but they are temporarily closed for business due to a refurbishment program. However, I did manage to pick through a very good ' E Type guide book last night and found the following paragraph:

Jaguar E Type Series 1 - 3.8 litre - Wheel and Tyre Equipment:
Dunlop Road Speed RS5 tyres were fitted, size 6.40-15. Cars for the USA commonly had white sidewalls, originally with a wide band, later with a narrow band. Dunlop RS5 Road Racing Tyre were available, sized 6.00-15 or 6.50-15 for the wider rim rear wheels. Jaguar Cars would fit other tyres on request, including radial tyres such as Michelin X. By May 1963, both Pirelli Cintura HS and Dunlop SP.41 HR 185-15 were stated to be available. If SP.41 tyres were fitted, maximum speed should be restricted to 125mph (200 kph)."

I read a little more into it, in that where; it says "such as Michelin X" it doesn't mean that the Michelin X was the only radial tyre they fitted and the Cinturato CA67 185VR15 http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page/se ... urato.html that Pirelli are making today was available at that point since the mid '50s. so I would suggest that the Cinturato would fit into the category of "other tyres". But the good news is that it does say that Jaguar did offer the Cinturato as an option from 1963. So the only genuine period radial tyre that is currently made was, fortunately, also an OE option.

Dougal
https://www.cinturato.net/e-type-jaguar-tires

Dougal

I find it interesting as an exact comparison that I used to run an OTS back in 1979 that came with a new set of Pirrelli Cints whern I bought it. I had the opportunity to try the same car fitted with a set of RS5's and it was a night and day difference in feel and in the RS5's favour - I never went back! And look forward to their hoped for reintroduction - hopefully to same specification...

There seems to be a lot about tyres but what size were the original wheels on the 3.8 cars, 5" or 6" width? Seems wire wheels are available in both widths.
If I was to fit 6" would they foul anything on a standard set up?

Would the Blockley tyres be suitable for either width wheel?

Regards, George

Original wheels for Series 1 and 2 were 5X15" Dunlops, curly hub for Series 1 and "Easy Clean" for Series 2. Series 3's came with 6X15". Yes, you can fit 6" wheels to a Series 1 or 2; I just completed the job myself. There is no fouling on the wings or suspension as long as you stay with the 185 width tire. With the 6" wheel, you have he option of going to a larger profile tire. 205's can usually be fit with no problems, but 215's may require the removal of the rear bump stops. The 215's are fiddly to remove from the hub in the case of a flat. The 215's and to a degree, the 205's cause a degradation in the handling. It seems the engineers at Jaguar have the suspension tuned and optimized for 185's. David Jones has done considerable research on the subject and perhaps he will chime in.

richard btype wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 15, 2016 3:31 pm

Dougal

I find it interesting as an exact comparison that I used to run an OTS back in 1979 that came with a new set of Pirrelli Cints whern I bought it. I had the opportunity to try the same car fitted with a set of RS5's and it was a night and day difference in feel and in the RS5's favour - I never went back! And look forward to their hoped for reintroduction - hopefully to same specification...

That is an interesting point, that i think should not be ignored because this is down to personal taste as to the feel of the car.
the Dunlop RS5 would be beautifully progressive,
and the ride would be lovely and soft and smooth.

but to describe the same features using different words we would say:
the crossply has dramatically less grip particularly in the corners where the carcass flexes and lifts some of the tread off the road as it corners.
and the cars ride is spongey and wallows all over the road at cruising speeds at fast cruising speeds because of it's carcass.

cross ply's last possibly half as long as radials. It isn't for no reason that the whole of the car manufacturing world moved over to radials. (probably US , then UK being the last).

In fact Jaguar themselves moved over to all radials with the series 2 e-type, and radials were an option from close to the start of the e-type. they probably would have been earlier, if Dunlop had been able to make a radial as good as the Cinturato. Or the Cinturato had been cheaper.

I think for most people a period radial makes an e-type and other cars from the period more suited to modern roads.

However i too absolutely love driving on crossply. My Dad has a Dolomite Sprint and i had a set of crazy wide tarmac Rally radials https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/vintag ... tyres.html on it, because it is pretty heavily modified and it was just a sprint car. the grip was astounding.

I then raced it at Portimao last year where the control tyre was Dunlop Racing L section. it was worlds apart. it was unbelievably a different car. it was so much nicer to drive. it was so progressive and chuckable and you could just control how far the back end stepped out easily and predictably with the throttle pedal.

However the lap times on the sticky radials were much better,and i know i was nowhere near good enough to get the best out of them, because the handling was dramatically different.

However road use period radial. Of which i hold that the Pirelli and Michelin would be my choice.