Blockley Tyre Company

I formed this company because I needed tyres to fit a Grand Prix (26M) Maserati that was in the process of restoration, and this was the only way of obtaining the highest quality period looking suitable tyres for the job. I wanted a genuine high speed road tyre suitable for competition purposes, so I could drive to the event legally, using the correct wheel sizes and rim widths. For about a decade I had made approaches to Dunlop to produce such a tyre, both directly and as a Director of the Vintage Sports Car Club Limited and finally through people associated with Dunlop, but to no avail. But in all this I did establish that they no longer had any of the drawings, archive or old moulds to look at. I was informed that Dunlop's lack of interest was because they could not envisage the tyre I had in mind increasing the volume of their sales i.e. they would only be sold at the expense of either their road tyre, or their race tyre. My own view, as an end user of their products is that their road tyres, with the pseudo 1950's B5 tread pattern (although no worse than many other makes), were unsuitable while their race tyres were also unsuitable due to their large cross section and recommended rim widths, which are out of character with the cars themselves. And although not road legal many people were using them after they had removed the 'not suitable for highway use' from them ..... Blockley tyres have set the new benchmark, which other manufacturers have now tried to emulate by copying and trying whatever it takes to shut the Blockley tyre project down, which is why we ask customers to.