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The Company North Hants Tyres was founded in 1948 when my father realised that there was a market for tyres and second hand spare items that were hard to obtain in the post-war Britain. The small front room business slowly expanded until it encompassed the entire rear garden, a modern tyre remoulding plant being built there in 1952. North Hants Tyres became the largest remoulding factory in the south of England, even exporting abroad.
My father's passion for vintage vehicles gave
us the idea for a new and challenging line of tyres. As from January 1991 my father retired and we decided to specialise purely for the American, Classic and Vintage car enthusiast, and extensively widened our range of American accessories and service parts to cover the specialist niche market.
In January 2000 to mark the new millennium we had another dramatic change We moved our whole business to our newly enlarged shop and stores, now everything was all under one roof with one convenient telephone number. Customers can now order any item from our extensive range of tyres, wheels and accessories and can usually guarantee next working day delivery.
2005. A year when the " Excelsior " name broke into the Vintage Racing tyre scene 4 sizes in the Triple Stud H rate and 29 sizes in the Comp V pattern tyre.
North Hants Tyres are still a family run company with 4 family members and 3 members of staff, most of which have been with the company for many years. All the staff at North Hants Tyres appreciate your interest in our company, whether it be an order or just technical advice. John Pettifor.
(Junior)
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Twenty-two
successful years later with the advent of motorways and more powerful cars, meant
that by now the relatively low speed rated remoulds were much less in demand.
North Hants Tyre has always carried a full range of modern new tyres for all
vehicles - everything from a wheelbarrow to a earthmover tyre - these were the
bread and butter for the business and carried on when the remoulding plant was
eventually dismantled and sold.
Forty years ago, old cars were cheap to buy and new spares were readily
available, but the old stock tyres to fit these vehicles were often too perished
to be used. So we looked to the USA, the Americans were already ten years ahead
of us in the restoration of the vintage vehicles and we established a link with
Coker Tire Company in Chattanooga Tennessee. Together, over the past years we have
developed many of the old size tyres, including the 450x18 and 450x19 Commander
(now Excelsior) and 475/500x18 B.F.Goodrich.
In 1998 we were appointed
European distributor for Diamond Back radial classics, wide white wall
radial had just been developed that could withstand the extreme
flexibility of a radial without splitting or turning brown in colour. Other products
included in the range were a Redline, Goldline and a Blueline tyre. We
were now able to offer a complete radial product list from 155/80R13 to
235/60R16 from stock, and with the option of special build tyres in
18" - 24" for customers with modern vehicles wishing to gain the retro
look.
That
same year we added our own private brand of Antique tyres "Excelsior".
Initially 16 sizes ranging from 500/520x14 suitable for Morris Minor
1000, up to 500/525x21 for Lagonda's and Bentley. Later the same year we introduced the
"Excelsior" Beaded Edge (clincher Rim) range and it's the No 1 tyre for
early Vehicles. North Hants Tyres and our partners continue to develop
more sizes to the range, currently " Excelsior " is the largest private
brand tyre in the world for the Antique Classic market.
As well as looking after our
Antique tyre customers we were also appointed UK distributors for
American Racing and Colorado Custom wheels, and the biggest achievement
for us of 2005 was to be appointed exclusive factory distributors for
the B.F.Goodrich Radial T/A. B.F.Goodrich is synonymous with muscle car
tyres of the 60's and 70's.
2005.
As we had steadily out
grown our Avondale Road warehouse we were forced to look for a new
freehold property. This was not possible in our home town, so we moved
locally to a new 25'000 sq ft warehouse in Aldershot. We now
have space to increase our stocks and offer stock items on a next day
delivery.