Mike8204

I purchased a low milage 82 Corvette 2 years ago. It has 45,000 km and I'm wondering if I should replace the Eagle GTs which have low tread but excellent looking otherwise.

sullyman56

Replace those tires before you drive it. Tires degrade over time not just from use. They may look fine, but it would be very risky to drive on them.

revitup

Before you drive another mile.

Wrecked82

Take the wheels off the car and drive to a tire shop in another car, even if it takes two trips. Or, idle there and have AAA on your phone for a tow just in case. No way I would drive on 36 year old tires, no matter how good they visually look. Discount Tire and others will not touch a tire over 5 years old.

revitup

Driving on those tires you're risking damage to your vehicle and injury to yourself. More importantly you're a risk to everyone around you. I hate to imagine the personal injury lawsuit.

Nowhere Man

they do reproduce those tires now. make sure they either are original or reoro. if original they do have value as people who want maximum NCRS points can and will use them

Mike8204

This car is very untouched and in extremely fine condition. Would reproduction tires hurt the score in its Survivor assessment?

Nowhere Man

Survivor is a Blomington standard. how ever if you want the NCRS Bowtie award you want the most original parts on the car as possible.

Scottd

The below picture: tires were 10 years old, still had the factory nubbies on them. The blowout took out my rear qtr and cost me a few hundred in towing and body repair.

Replace them.

Engage

Don't panic if your just driving around town they should be ok.
If you do highway driving it may be a good idea to replace them.
Take one off to a tire shop and have them take it off the rim and inspect the inner liner
Your biggest fear is lack of traction and cornering with old and balding tires
When I bought my 81 it had 49000 kms on the original eagle gt tires.I drove it home 250 miles on them.

golfboy

You were very lucky! I would not drive around the block with tires that old on the car. Why people drive on old tires and risk injuring themselves or others, not to mention the damage to their car is beyond me when a new set of tires can be had for $500 to $800. I think they are being penny wise and pound foolish. But to each their own.

revitup

No, actually your biggest fear should be liability for the property damage, injury or death that could result from what any half-rate lawyer would present as your negligence for driving a car equipped with defective equipment.

caskiguy

Easy Mike

If you are concerned with judging, keep your original tires and wheels for the judging field. Purchase four new wheels and a new tires for use when driving the car.

7T1vette

Replace them ONLY if you don't want to have an instantaneous tire failure with following significant damage to the body panels around that wheel.

They are OLD and they can fail at any time. There is no way of knowing what damage is INTERNAL to the tire material.

As mentioned above, if you intend to get the car judged (NCRS, etc), keep the wheels and tires for mounting when you get to the meet.

Of course, if you don't intend to actually drive the car (except at low speed at a car meet), or you intend to trailer the car everywhere, just leave it 'as-is'.

C7-Beast

I put about 200 miles on my 80 after buying it. Tires looked brand new. Still had the little nubs on them. They were 15 years old so I just replaced them. A tire blowout is not something I would chance.