I was lucky enough to attend this introduction day of the Dunlop SP41 at Sandown in late 1964. We took four of our press cars to the circuit shod with their original cross-plies; a Morris Mini 850, Morris 1100, Austin-Healey Sprite and an Austin Freeway Mk II sedan. We were all allocated a car (I was in the 1100) and were allowed to do a couple of laps before morning tea. Dunlop's team changed the cars over to SP41s and away we went. I wasn't really experienced enough to tell if there was much difference, but my boss, Mike Quist, later Mazda's PR Manager, swore there was a big difference in the Mini and Sprite. I drove the Freeway back to work and it was then that I could detect a difference. Apart from the car being lower it did seem to handle a little better on familiar roads. The first Austin 1800s came through with either SP41s or Olympic GT radials as standard equipment. On a couple of cars, side walls got scraped when they were being backed off the delivery trucks. Nothing wrong with them, but they couldn't go out on a new car. My FE Holden's wheel size was the same, so it got shod with new Olympics. That was when I really noticed the difference with the car now lower by an inch or two and vastly improved all round. There was a harsher ride and apparently it helped wear the king pins, as it was never designed for this kind of tyre.