bowfer
Banned
I had some dashcam footage of nipping up and down those hills this last winter in our trusty Panda 4x4. But in a previous front wheel drive Panda, with just a light dusting, I thought I'd have to walk for it, as the car tacked from one side of the road to the other.
I think we may get up Sròn on the factory tyres, if we're careful and lucky, but I would not fancy going downhill trying to control 1.7tonnes and a deer jumps out in front, or we meet the gritter halfway down.
Interestingly the Panda was factory-fitted with Continentals. They were dreadful in comparison with virtually anything else we fitted subsequently.
Years back, I had some lovely Avon M+S tyres on the old Range Rover, Ruaridh Mhor. But I'm not sure how well Avon stack up against other options these days.
I used to be sponsored by Avon in my bike racing days, they were a great company to deal with.
Then they were bought over by an American brand, Cooper tyres I think.
And, last I heard, production of tyres in the UK had stopped altogether.
Damned shame, I’ve used their car tyres up until a few years ago purely because of past links and British manufacturing.
Their sporty tyre (called something like the ZR7) was great on my Mini Cooper.