Tires: do tires degrade with time?, Old Tires

Question
I am looking at buying original OEM tires for My 1995 corvette ZR-1. The tires are 15yrs old. The questions is are they safe for me to put on my car. I drive about 2000 miles a year and only in good weather.

thanks
Mike

Answer
Mike,

Yes, tires degrade over time, and I would not recommend using these tires for anything other than static display - and there is a risk even then.

The lone exception would be if these tires were stored under extraordinary conditions - such as sealed in a plastic bag full of nitrogen at 40°F.