Confused- Another Tyre Question

And weren't we cool when we went from 70 profile to 60!
We were proper racers then! 

In the late 70's we did some service work for Toyota Team Europe and I was given a set of A2 tyres..with 50 profile!! 
Boy was I the cool dude in our village! I used them until you could see the canvas..😁

Oh yes indeed, 60 profile and an increase from 165 to 175 was more than enough for me to justify adding go faster stripes and claim I was saving up for a set of Wolfrace slot mag wheels back in the day. 50 profiles seemed the unreachable stuff of legend though.

You sound just like me back then..😁
I mean going from 165's to 175...that gave you street cred and warranted the stripes and even matt black door mirrors..

Found a pic from 1979 Barratt rally with those tyres...like rubber bands..😁😁 

I had that shape of early Celica for a brief while. Mine was an ST rather than the GT that everyone wanted, it was brown and in really rough condition as one of the rear arches had completely gone and the steering was very woolly. I patched it up and used it for a few weeks whilst i rebuilt the engine in the Mk2 Escort i had at the time and even drove it to North Wales then sold it to a mate who promptly painted it matte black and kept it for several years.

Isn’t it grand still retaining that boy racer mentality only now leavened with adjustable wisdom. Even before Spinal Tap allowed us to dial it up to eleven, I was more than happy with seven & a half to eight.
My A40 Farina looked like any other A40 Farina, but under that “sensible shoes” skin was a Frog Eyed Sprite, all 1098 of it. It didn’t corner as well, “turn in” wasn’t a thing then so how could it?
I could get off the line as well as a mate Bob’s Froggy & give it a very respectable run for the money, however I could load the 40 up for a couple of weeks, for two, under canvas in Wales, where as Bob couldn’t even bring enough beer for a weekend.
I’d have another tomorrow, I’d also have my SD1 Vitesse back in a trice also.
M

Cool! Yours had the pushrod 2TB engine which ultimately these days in the States delivers more bhp than the twin cam of the GT. Around 200bhp for s 1588 engine.
Yes the steering was a steering box unlike the wonderful rack of the Escort! 
The  Toyota was 4.1 turns lock to lock. I got lucky and got a works one through John and that was 2.5 to one.
Rot was their big problem but their mechanicals were superb for the day.

The engineering did seem streets ahead of the Mk2 Escort.
 

Notanumber wrote:

The engineering did seem streets ahead of the Mk2 Escort.

Incidentally, the twin cam engine version of your car became the Novamotor. Bored and stroked to 2.0ltr and won everything in F3 for years..no Novamotor and you didn't win.
My mate has one.

This is really digressing but it shows how parts manufacturers like to punt their wares to car makers.
My Celica had struts, hubs and calipers from an XT130 2ltr saloon, a very boring car.
The calipers were made by Sumotomo and are the exact same callipers found on the 70's Triumph 2000 where for that vehicle they were given an "M" suffix and the only difference is the caliper bolt spacing.
Try getting competition pads for a XT130..you can't..but I found a site that lists every pad for every car with evey dimension of the pads.
Your MK 2 Escort came in to play..the Group 4 version used rear pads that are identical to the XT pads but now every single manu had several competition pads available! 
I bough Ferodo DS2500's and the only difference was to drill out the pin holes from 3.5mm to 4mm.
The difference in stopping power was immense!!

Back to the MG.

I am going to find a pad from another car that will fit my TF callipers. I am not bothered about the spring, I will use other clips to stop rattle, but I will find one from a car that has competition pads readily available. 
There will be one..manu's like to have multiple applications for their products.



 

Remind me, does your TF have the sliding callipers or the AP Racing 4 pots ?

15 inch wheels so the std sliding callipers.
I have decided to go the MS route but I know from experience that great pads make a huge difference.