Out of Sight - Out of Mind

I was checking tire pressures on the McDonald fleet this afternoon, and decided I'd better have a look at the spare in the MGB. The car came into my life in 1997 and I haven't put but a few thousand miles on it in that time and I've never had to use the spare tire. You can imagine my shock when I noticed that the Michelin XZX tire carried a "Made in W Germany" label on it.

If memory serves, the two Germanys were reunited in 1990. That means that the big black doughnut in the boot was made prior to that. Consulting the Internet I found out that the tire date code system changed in 2001. So, decoding the manufacture date on my antique spare, I see that the code FTJ3A4MX237 translates to the 23rd week of 1987.

My spare tire is 23 years old. Ain't no amount of Armorall gonna help that one bit.

I now recall that I pulled this tire off one of the parts cars that my brother Alan and I bought when we were renovating our MGBs. I had four good tires on the ground but I had a crappy spare in the boot.

I guess nothing changed much has it?