hillclimbracers.com

It is now clear that the MSUK wont respond / take action without a body of letters stating that there is a problem with the regulations regarding ‘E’ marked tyres and that the tyre lists needs a full review.

So, I have produced a template letter that, if your affected by the situation and feel that you would support a review, then you could use to send in to the MSUK.

The template when completed by yourself should be emailed to:
speed@motorsportuk.org
sustainability@motorsportuk.org
tim@britishhillclimb.co.uk

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Review of ‘E’ marked tyres and the lack of options for road going car classes

(your name here) - Licence number (your licence number here)

There are road going tyres that can be sold in the UK market that are road legal ‘E’ marked, but not MSUK list 1A/B compliant.

These tyres would pass an MOT inspection and be in compliance with UK road traffic legislation – but not the MSUK rules, so a competitor would have to change tyres at the track from those that they drove to the track on.

This not only restricts competitors but also adds increased costs to competition.

Clearly this is contrary to the MSUK vision and goals in respect to driving down grass roots motorsport costs and encourage new competitors to the sport.

Whilst the MSUK have recently issued a consultation that all competitors can fit pre 1990 tyres to any road going car from the start of 2027, it would be so much simpler if all road going classes can run any road legal tyre - as in any ‘E’ marked tyre.
This would remove the requirement for 1 A/B tyre lists.

List 1C could be retained for any tyre that has stamped on the sidewall “for motorsport competition only”.

This letter is provided to add support to a whole scale review of the tyre lists for road going classes being undertaken by the MSUK.

Regards (your name here)

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I would encourage you to send in a letter, without your support nothing is going to change.

If you decide to send in a letter, then just please indicate that you have on this forum with a simple .. letter sent … message

Thank in anticipation.

Maybe a wee bit of a typo in the draft. The 'pre-1990' limitation relating to selected List 1B tyres is about the vehicle rather than the tyres isn't it?

"EU Regulation 1222/2009 for tyre labelling exempts tyres designed for use on cars first registered before the 1st October 1990, therefore a number of tyres remaining on list 1b will only be valid for cars registered before this date , those tyres are appropriately annotated below."

And in a conversation with a knowledgable scrutineer recently, it appeared that the proposal under discussion had been 'anything with a E mark, barring any appearing List 1C', and this seemed like a useful clarification to me (albeit that it catches the Kumhos I love).

In all events, many thanks for this update, and for your draft. With my own adjustments reflecting these comments, you can treat it as 'sent'.

Cheers, Colin

Hi Colin .. firstly many thanks for sending in submitting a letter..

re the pre 1990 rule .. its actually not the date of registration of the car.. its the date that the model of the car was first registered, e.g. i have a westfield megabusa - first registered in 2000 .. but i CAN run the pre 1990 tyres, as its the type of car (as in a westfield) that was available before 1990 ... i have confirmation from Michael Duncan head of the technical department of MSUK to that effect... its all a bit confusing i agree ...

so cars like westfields / caterhams could previously benefit from being able to use them.. but cars like the Mac#1 Worxr couldn't ..

Aha! Double, double cross etc. Good to know.

I'm running historics anyway - early 60's. And what a pain that is for an ever-diminishing list of tyres. I can claim a 'historic exemption', but see individuals just taking the piss. And the idea that tyres are OK one year but not the next is an expensive habit.

Long live 'E-marked' (but not List C) as the answer. And thanks.

Cheers, Colin

update as of 28th Aug 2026...
firstly many thanks for all the persons who have supported / viewed this thread .. there have been over 90,000 views of the thread so far.. wow .. i never imagined that there would have been so much interest ...

Whilst i appreciate that not everybody will be supportive of the intent of the campaign, but to have that level of interest means that i must have struck a note with some of you....

today i was made aware that at least some of you will have received an email along the line of the following ..

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Thank you for your email of 10th August.

Your correspondence, together with others received will be considered by the Sprint and Hill Climb Sub-Committee when they next meet, together with advice from the Tyre Panel.

Thank you for taking the time to raise your concerns with us.

Kind Regards
Andrea

MSUK
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so lets hope that the MSUK consider the points we have made and support the move to get all road legal 'e' class tyres available for all road going cars ...

update as of 28th sept ...

no real news in all honesty , but i believe that the topic was discussed at the "tyre panel" meeting earlier this month, and that it is continuing to be discussed in the msuk speed and hill climb committee...

I also believe that the speed and hill climb committee are aware that Nova - who are sponsoring the Caterham Motorsport championship (MSUK underwitten) - have the Nova ZZS as the control tyre in the road going classes .. the Nova zzs being a list 1c tyre .. this in my humble opinion makes a whole mockery of the msuk regs for hill climbs and sprints and road going cars being limited to list 1a/b tyres.. ..

i still hold my simple opinion that any road going (mot'd) car should be able to run any road going 'e' marked tyre ..

With the speed that MSUK react to grass roots issues, I dont hold out any hope that there will be an immediate change to the regs .. however, we need to keep the pressure on to keep the discussion alive and prompt a change...

This post has now over 153,000 views .. so there must be an issue that you all feel the msuk need to acknowledge ...