Hawthorne tyre sizes

[PhilH]

Hi guys

After some help.

I am just about to get my 1300  Hawthorne back on the road again  and have noticed that all the tyres are breaking up due to age so will need to  be replaced. This gives me an opportunity to maybe improve the handling etc  I have  175 /70 13 fitted on 5.5 Mangles and run them at about 16 psi .

Now the question is  should I go wider with the tyres and if so will I see much improvements in grip/handling. Just throwing this out there to get an idea of peoples actual experiences. what are people running and what are your recommendations   Kindest regards   Phil

[istreatf]

Hi Phil,
Glad to hear a Hawthorn is going to be back on the road again!
Wheels and tyres is a very subjective topic and in my view the best improvement you would get is to have a serious look at some period alloys, such as Minilites or equivalents. I put a set of 5 1/2 on my my Bulldog some years back with, if memory serves me correctly, 165’s, and the difference was dramatic. So long as you have a telescopic front damper conversion as well. Pressure is right - go any wider and drop another psi.
Check with a good tyre dealer but I think if you go any wider on current width rims I doubt you will get ant cornering improvement, and they will probably look weird.

[Nigel Haldane]

May need to check offset on wheel rim also, my car changed for the better when I fitted wheels with the correct offset