Jay Leno needs about 1200 tires
I have owned my 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 for about 20 years, and until recently, it still had the tires on it from when I bought it. I have done just about everything to the car except change the tires because, hey, they looked fine. So, not long ago, my friend Dave Killackey and I went out in the 600. We were going down the 210 freeway here in LA and I ran it up to 80 and—BAM!! An explosion like a shotgun shell.
The car started veering all around. “What the…!” I said to Dave, and I managed to get it over to the side and we got out to take a look. One of the front tires had disintegrated, and all the wire from the radial was hanging out in shreds. Thankfully, the spare, jack, and tools were all in the trunk, so we jacked it up and changed the tire.
Then a thought occurred to me, and I said to Dave, “You know, we should turn around and go home because this is probably going to happen again.” We got about another 5 miles up the road and—BAM!! Another tire exploded on the other side, just blew right off the rim. After we pulled over, you couldn’t even pick up the remnants of the tire because the wires would cut your hand, and I realized in that moment that I had reached the absolute ultimate shelf life of those old radials. So we had to flatbed the Benz back to the garage, and I ran out and bought four new tires.
All of us who collect cars have vehicles we can’t or don’t drive every day, so consequently their tires age out before they wear out. I looked around the garage the other day and realized that I need about 1200 tires. Even stuff in here like the 2005 Ford GT has tires that are “brand new,” but obviously they’re not. So lately I’ve been going through and changing tires.
Boy, have tires gotten seriously expensive. So have McDonald’s hamburgers, but unlike hamburgers, tires are essential to your safety. And when you’re dealing with older cars that have tubes, there’s another risk factor because you can’t see the tubes to know if they’re going bad. In the old days, it was easy to get good tubes, but now a lot of tubes come from China or India; the slightest scuff inside the tire wears right through them, and it’s dangerous.
Buying tires is like buying shoes: It’s not the time to be cheap. I used to go buy—you know—shoes. Didn’t know what they were, didn’t care. But I was doing two back-to-back 90-minute shows in Vegas, and at the end of three hours on stage, my feet were killing me. Then someone at The Tonight Show gave me a pair of Ferragamos, which were $300 when normal shoes were $60. And years later, I still have that same pair. I get them resoled every so often, they’re comfortable, I wear them all day, and my feet don’t hurt.
It’s the same thing with tires. I’m always amazed when I meet people who are driving some sort of supercar that they’ve put cut-rate tires on. I think, “What are you doing, besides putting a cheap clutch on the car?”
I generally like Michelins, in part because I know they’re round. Which sounds odd, because you assume a new tire will be round. But when you buy some of these retro tires for old cars, they’re really for trophy cars that don’t move much, and often they’re not quite round, so they have to be shaved. When I bought my 1932 Packard from Phil Hill, it had a shimmy, and we tried all kinds of things and couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Finally we found a guy with a tire shaver, and he took a pound of rubber off each tire. After that, it rolled perfectly. There’s nothing wrong with the car—the front end was fine.
I have to admit that the Benz wasn’t my first reminder that tires age even while you sleep. One day, I was driving down the center aisle here at the garage and I heard a really loud BANG! I about jumped out of my skin. I looked around to see where it came from, and my ’66 Hemi Coronet was moving. Why would a car be moving—well, sinking, really—on its own? And it was also going SSSSSSS! The tire blew just sitting there, and it was like a gunshot. All right, I thought, we have to get four new tires there. Well, that was 10 years ago, so now those tires are also old!
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We purchased a beautiful 1964 Corvette coupe. I was looking at the tires and researched the date code, they were 20 years old. They looked fine but 20 year old tires? No way was I going to risk life and limb with those tires. It is simply not worth the risk. Just because they look good doesn’t mean they are. Great article and many good comments.
On my 1950 Ford, 2 dr. custom deluxe, I wanted to keep the old bias tires on for looks, but decided to go with Michelins from the great service I’ve had with many of my “Larger” Ford, Mercury’s, and Lincolns. First thing I noticed was how easy it steered, weather moving or still. I time, while cleaning it, I wanted to move it a little, to clean the white walls, behind the fender skirts, and pushed it by hand and couldn’t believe how easy it rolled, there by getting a noticeable increase in MPG’s. Owned 3 service stations and mounted, shaved, and balanced many, many tires. Go Michelin !!!
On my 1950 Ford, 2 dr. custom deluxe, All original except Dual glass packs and fender skirts, I needed tires, I’ve had many years of great service with Michelin, so decided to give them a try. As an owner, operator of 3 service stations, I’ve installed, balanced, shaved, and aligned many tires on many cars, trucks, and buses. First thing I noticed, with no PS, it steered so much easier, weather sitting or rolling. While cleaning the white walls, I needed to roll it ahead some, so with out starting it up, I just pushed it ahead and to my surprise, it rolled so much easier then the old Bias tires that were on it before. This increase my MPG’s noticeably and I drove it many trips from Fl. to Pa., W.Va. Great tires by Michelin, !!!
To put this in scale: let’s say the average price of the tires he buys is only $200. So Leno is looking at spending $240,000 on tires. Minimum. That’s for 300 cars. That’s a lot of labor-time for installation, too. I’m sure his cars (and motorcycles) also get serviced for new fluids and filters on a regular basis. His cost of vehicle acquisition is just the beginning of his collection expenses.
Don’t think I’m faulting him over this! He’s worked very hard over his life, has been extremely well-compensated for that, and his collection is preserving a big chunk of motor-vehicle history. Moreover, I think as we all know, he’s not so much a collector as a motorhead’s motorhead, perhaps the ultimate enthusiast. It’d be nice if there were a way to turn his collection (including the memorabilia) into a museum open to the public.
Car collections are an expensive hobby. To maintain correctly costs a lot of cash. Even for the hobbyist who decides to focus on one car. The rubber parts deteriorate. OEM parts are no longer available. Stuff literally rusts and decomposes over time.
I had a car in my driveway I wanted to sell. The car a Plymouth voyager minivan was worth at most $1000 as it drove well. However the tires had dry rotted to the point where the belts were coming through. Do I invest $600 in new tires? Nope I had to find a buyer that would flat bed the car away without a test drive. It sold for $500. Funny thing is I had another potential buyer who had same vehicle he was apparently living out of, pull up and he had new tires. But his engine was spewing coolant. I could not convince him to buy my better car for $500, swap the tires and junk his.
Comment: Okay, one — tires in so many ways ain’t what they used to be; most of what goes on rims today has a life of only about five years, regardless of mileage or tread depth. The ‘rubber’ simply goes away — am I right? Cracking between tread blocks, deteioration of sidewalls, and so forth — probably begins when the thing leaves the mold. They even smell different!
And then there’s the speed — despite what’s posted on the shoulder — on the open road; it’s generally fifteen-miles per hour over what it was ‘in the day’. High speed creates heat in the carcass, and that is a prime tire-killer. If one drives that fast (averaging eighty with the old cruise control, say) to keep pace with the loons in the hulking SUV in the past lane, tire problems are going to precipiate sooner than later! Did Jay mention the speed his M-B was making when the first tire went blooey? Gotta’ wonder!
All the advice from Jay and the other contributors is quite valid, and we must simply budget accordingly, I suppose. A detonated carcass at modern speeds is no small thing, and if on the front can be a killer!
nothing like a crap rim or tire to make you think there’s something wrong with the suspension. For years i’ve been pretty adamant about changing tires when they hit 5 regardless of wear (although typically they wear out before then) So many dealers and people selling cars i’ve looked at think if a tire hasn’t been used much thinks iit’s ‘new’ or fine. A low mile jag with ‘new’ michelins as an example – when i read the side wall it showed they were TEN years old. I told the guy, these tires are done. Florida heat and all. Wouldn’t trust them beyond the trip around the block. But as Jay’s story tells, they can blow apart just sitting there. That was a surprise to me.
Wish I had his problem.
But some good advice for sure.
One of my cars is a ’97 Thunderbird Sport that I adore and has such low miles, that everything on her is still factory original, except the usual maintenance items. The Bird sees less than 1,200 miles/year…and to this day, she still looks & performs beautifully when I take her out.
In 2008, I replaced all the tires with Bridgestone Potenzas that were great for the car’s handling…truly great tires that were on the car till 2022…meaning 14 y/o tires. They never gave me a problem until the last couple years, when I noticed their loss of traction during hard launches and in tight or fast turns on dry pavement…I had to be careful or the rear-end would break loose. And if I hit a water patch during a turn, I had to slow & crawl through it or the rear-end would threaten to trade places with the front-end.
That’s when I realized how old the tires were and a couple friends in the TBird club were amazed they were still usable, but angry and warned me to change them before a tire failed due to aging out.
At the time, I was doing freeway trips across town to see an old girlfriend who orbited back into my life 20 years after we broke up…and every time, I was now becoming wary of a blowout at high speed.
But I drove this car every time to see her anyway…mostly because she hated the car because I loved it so much:
Her, annoyed: “Why do you love this car so much?”
Me: “Because I do.”
Her, more annoyed: “But she’s old and it’s not normal to love a car! I don’t love my car.”
Me: “You drive a Hyundai.”
Me, again: Why do you love your cats so much?”
Her: “Because they’re my babies and they’re living things and they love me back!”
Me: “So is my car. And woman, you’re a 54 y/o lonely & miserable cat lady, who’s jealous of a car. Knock it off.”
Anyway, it simply never occurred to me that the tires were aging out, because they still looked new and saw only 15K miles during their 14 years. Now I know better, thanks to friends and doing some reading on the topic. And even more now, thanks to this article.
So, in 2022, I bought a set of new Michelin Premier A-S tires…and 45 minutes & $800 later, I’m glad I did it, after reading Jay’s blowout stories and the stories of others here. The traction issue is gone and I can happily sling her through tight high-speed corners & turns without the rear end acting like it’s on ice.
Moral of the story:
> Replace your tires according to the manufacturer’s recommendation.
> Set an Outlook Reminder for the month & year to replace them.
> Don’t be cheap on tires. Ever.
> Don’t put up with nonsense from women who don’t understand your love of a car.
One “further mistake” at the end of para #3, was to go out and buy 4 new tires. It really should have been 5! The spare would have been just as old – or older!!
To me, it’s just part of the game. Just replaced a set of Goodrich T/A radials with 1200 miles on them. They were 12 years old. Weighing out options, new tires are cheaper than new fiberglass fenders. Figured since I’m going, might as well go all the way and also purchased new wheels. Very pleased with my choices.
I work for Goodyear. If your tires are more than 10 years old, replace them. Pick your favorite brand, but just replace them. If you don’t, you are waiting for trouble. Yes, storage conditions are a factor, but age is the biggest factor.
As part of judging, should car clubs institute tire date code checks on cars driven to shows?
+1 on Michelins. The finest, in my experience.
Worth the extra cost.
Jay, I feel your pain! I recently put tires on my 1983 Jaguar XJS. The tires looked perfect but the 2003 date codes scared me off! I have a Corvair project car with BF Goodrich Bias Belted tires, that still have blue on the raised white letters. How old do you suppose those are? 40 years?