It all went very bad at 240 kph when a tyre came off !
If your into fast cars and track days and drag racing, this post may interest you, but there is a lesson I learnt, that I will never forget about tyres and fast cars and the people who fit tyres to any motor vehicles.
A few weekends ago, I was invited to go to a track with a friend who has a high powered Ford Falcon. Last of the BF 2009 models. I have driven the car before, and at high speed on the appropriate place (legal) so I was used to the car, but this day was different.
As the car was climbing out hard at just over 240 kms per hour, the rear passenger tyre left the rim.
The car span like a bottle top down the straight and I knew I was in serious trouble.
The human body isn't designed to hit walls in any vehicle at any high speed, let alone approaching 240 plus.
All the safety gear ain't going to save you.
On a one in a million miracle the car recovered, then drove straight and didn't hit a thing.
Why did the tyre come off ?
The tyre was not fitted correctly and I watched the four tyres getting put on the rims.
But in the excitement of the day, the tyre fitter made 4 mistakes in a row that could have easily killed any driver.
He didn't blow the tyres up with sufficient air pressure to get the tyres to make that really loud POP noise you hear that sits the bead of the tyre on the rim correctly. A dumb mistake.
Lesson here, if you ever buy tyres, and are allowed to watch them being fitted to the rims for any of your vehicles, make sure they get pumped to 60 plus PSI, listen for the POP and then you KNOW they are fitted correctly. Then the right PSI per manufacturers specs shld be put in. Check yourself, never trust the tyre shop. Usually guess work and lazy gets wrong pressures. That's my experience.
Another thing I learnt, is that at high speeds your tyre pressures can increase by up to about 35 percent or more.
If your tyre pressures aren't perfect, and u punch it hard to overtake at say 120 kms per hour, and say you are a bit naughty and hit 140 to 160 just for a couple of seconds, your tyres are under extreme workload.
I have always bought the best tyres for any car and always bought tyres rated for high speed, but I took a few things for granted.
Next lesson learnt, if you have a family, probably best to stay away from track days and extremely high speeds.
It's all fun til something tiny goes wrong.
My hair went grey that day and it hasn't left my mind.
Cars are fun, but the fun is dangerous even at a track and even with all the safety gear.
Going to give it a miss next time. The margin for error is just too narrow.
Check your tyre pressures lads and check the rating on the tyre.
Don't buy cheap tyres and don't let slack/lax people ever fit them.
This will keep u safe.
Even if a tyre leaves a rim at 120 klms per hour, on a great road, in a great car, it can have disastrous results.
