Workshop Tour: Antique Tyres

Antique Tyres is a family business run by people who are passionate about vintage and classic cars and bikes.

“Dad bought the business in 1977, 18 months after it had been established by Ian Cartwright” says 39 year old Ben McKinnon who now operates Antique Tyres. Ben’s father Alan first incorporated the tyre operation for vintage cars into his automotive repair business at the time, Alan McKinnon Motors in Thornbury, Victoria.

The period-style tyres for classic vehicles soon took over and since 1983 Antique Tyres have been operating from their current address of 134 McEwan Rd, West Heidelberg, Victoria.

What prompted Ben to change careers was the need to rebuild the business after the shop burnt down on 4th July 1998. Ben says that date is seared into his brain and he’s not likely to ever forget it. The stock in the shop was destroyed but two things helped them survive. Firstly, Ben says “we run a truck up and down to Queensland so we had stock in the truck and in Queensland to keep us going”.

Even more significantly “Coker Tire (in the USA) put a container on a ship within a week; we’ve been dealing with them since about ’78. They said ‘we’ll send you a 40-footer (shipping container full of fresh tyres) and you pay for it when you can’.” That amazing gesture is also something Ben has never forgotten.

It is this level of loyalty and support that has solidified a strong bond between Antique Tyres and Corky Coker of the Coker Tire company, and this has encouraged them to work together more closely in the years that followed to develop and manufacture period-correct products specifically for the Australian marketplace.

As an example of this, BF Goodrich radials for American muscle cars were already being made under licence but two particular sizes that Aussie customers wanted were missing from the range; the 245/50/14 and 265/50/14. “These sizes weren’t popular elsewhere in the world so we worked with Coker Tire in the US to supply these sizes for the Australian market, and in the same period style with a reproduction BF Goodrich radial” Ben explains.

Ben says that they went through the same process when reproducing the Redlines for the early ’70s Falcons, Monaros, and more specifically for the little LC and LJ Toranas with a 13in size since they are the only muscle-era car in the world that used a red band style tyre on a wheel that small.

In addition to expanding the tyre range into period-style hot rods and Aussie muscle cars, Antique Tyres began to carry a range of classic wheels from about 2003 onwards. In about 2007 they also began to cater for vintage and classic motorcycles, and like they had done with the car tyres they helped develop the range for Australian-specific demands since Japan has been dictating this area of the market place primarily through sheer demand.

The mainstay for Antique Tyres is supplying for vehicles that were around before the muscle car era. Ben divulged that one of the most popular tyres in their range are the bias plys for hot rods. The reason for this, Ben explained, is because “period correctness, in terms of the technology, would have been a bias ply tyre since radials were only just becoming available” when hot rods were having their heyday.

The McKinnons have a passion for this market and it also shows in the vehicles that they own. As mentioned Alan and Noeline were away doing a classic rally,specifically in a brown 1925 Alvis (a UK marque). They also own this polished aluminium example which they had restored before taking it to the UK for an event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Alvis Owners Club. It won Best Pre-War in the Concourse and now that it's back in Australia it also gets driven in classic rallies.

Alan and Noelene also own two MGs and they are both red. The one seen on the hoist is a 1966 MGB and Alan bought it off a customer about 25 years ago. It gets used locally because it’s just a nice Sunday driver. The other is a 1957 MGA (next to the Alvis above and the VW below) that Alan bought in 1992 before it was put through a body-off restoration.

As for the shop’s 1966 XP Falcon ute, Noelene found that a few years ago being sold from a deceased estate. It actually remains an unrestored original car apart from some exterior restyling in the form of shop-specific signwriting, blue wheels and whitewall tyres.

The black ’32 Ford hot rod is Ben’s and it was bought as a genuine Ford chassis and built up from there. It has a Flathead V8 and a lot of the time it lives in the truck that is used as a mobile trade stand so it gets taken around the country and put on display to show the tyre and wheel combination. Ben then also uses it to cruise between the event venue and his accommodation.

Ben’s silver and cream Volkswagen Beetle was bought as a project and finished in 2006 after about five years of restoration work. This car does its share of long-distance journeys having been around Classic Targa Tasmania with Ben’s wife and kids joining him twice so far, and it has been driven from Melbourne to Sydney two or three times as well.

And finally there is Ben’s black Model A with red wheels. Corky Coker of the Coker Tire company found it in a barn whilst making his reality TV show Backroad Gold. It has been cleaned up, undergone some maintenance to keep it running and roadworthy, had its wheels repainted and been given a fresh set of Excelsior tyres. It is also getting rear seatbelts so Ben and his wife can use it to do Classic Targa Tasmania with the kids again.

In addition to the above you can also read a complete story on the history of Antique Tyres in issue 41 of Performance Garage magazine, available now as a bonus with other titles like Street Commodores and Street Fords, or digitally via Zinio.

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