P6 Denovo Hidden in Ebay

I have a set of these.. currently using them on one of my wrecks - you don't have to worry about the tyres going flat when leaving it parked on grass for a few months at a time :)

I looked into having the tyres replaced a few years ago, but a guy who remembered fitting them originally said that they're next to impossible to do anything with. I'd never drive with them on the road, despite them being in good condition.
 
Are the tyres themselves not divided internally into sections, these section in turn full of some kind of sealing compound, so that when the tyre is punctured, the compound automatically seals up the hole in the tyre and to some degree acts as a barrier between the rim of the tyre and the harsh surface of the road, preventing possible damage to the tyre or wheel rim? Its only really a temporary measure, think they're good for about 100miles. I used to have something very similar on my downhill bike years ago.
 
Are these worth getting...? I wonder what it's like driving a Denovo P6...? Has anybody out there driven a P6 on Denovo's, does it handle differently at all...?!
 
I think for the novelty they may be quite a laugh, but in a more practical sense you're going to struggle to find tyres for them, I asked a local garage near Edinburgh that used to deal with p6's a fair bit and they just looked at me like I'd been frozen in time.

I think Chris was saying at the start of this post that there are two sets on ebay at current, that perhaps you can make 1 good set of tyres out of. Other than that I imagine you'll be setting yourself up for alot of work finding replacement tyres. The hubcaps, however, are pretty nice. If I hadn't just finished my rostyles, I'd probably bid on them for the hubcaps.
 
Those hubcaps won't fit the standard steel wheels. As for using the Denovos, you would have to bear in mind that they're probably 30 years old at least by now, and would be just as likely to fail in use as any other tyre of that age, the only advantage being that they are designed to fail in use, providing they still work as they should. Finding new (recently made) would be impossible I would think, so you're limiting yourself to using old tyres for ever. ISTR they had problems with the treads shredding of the carcasses at one time as well. I remember them available on P6's, Mini Clubmans, and wedge Princesses as well, (I think) but not much else.
 
I bought the second set that was on ebay, that Chris brought to everyones attention....yes for the noventy value only ...before you ask. Three of the four tyres are in appearance still good enough to use but I wouldn't trust them, because they are indeed over 30 years old.

So what I did was cut the worse one open for our NEC clubstand display. The purpose being, to show what they are like inside. However I opened it up, only to find that the canisters that should have been inside, had been removed and judging by all the sticky stuff on the inside the tyre, it obviously had a puncture at some time. The tyres are Metric by the way, hence the odd ball size. The rims actually split to get the tyres on and are bolted together like old-time commercial wheels. The tyres themselves have a reinforced side wall and the bead is a lot thicker than normal tyres and is trapped in place when you bolt them up. The one thing which is evident as soon as you go near them is the weight. They must be nearly twice as heavy as a normal wheel and tyre. The wheel trim doesn't fit a normal wheel either because of the oddball size and neither does the wheel nuts, they are odd as well.
For those who don't know about the P6's fitted with Denovo wheels, they had a different boot floor because there was no spare wheel when you had Denovos fitted, you only had the four on the car and a carpeted boot.

I am going to take the others apart soon to see if any of them still have the sealing system still in place, if they do I will publish pictures.
 
MarkGray said:
For those who don't know about the P6's fitted with Denovo wheels, they had a different boot floor because there was no spare wheel when you had Denovos fitted, you only had the four on the car and a carpeted boot.
Click to expand...

As the cars came off the line and were then specced with the Denovos, IIRC the boot floor is the same, but the small well in the bottom that a normal spare rested in has a shaped filler to level the floor up, which is made out of the same material as the one fitted in the passenger footwell. The filler could also be used if you used the Continental spare kit on the boot.
I can't ever remember seeing a totally flat floor, so I'd be interested to see one.
 
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