Busted tyre ruins the day

Tuesday, 23 November 2010 | Comments (0) | Categories: Wheels/Tyres

Driving back home on the Freeway after a day at the Great Escape in Hilarys (think water slides and rides etc), I hit something hard and heavy about the size of a small novel. I just didn't have time to miss it and my front left tyre collected it on the inside, followed by a heck of a thump on the underside of the car. I thought to myself that can't be good, and low and behold a few 100 metres up the freeway the steering started to get heavy on the inside. CRAP! So I limped off the freeway and onto a side street. The tyre was going flat fast. I managed to limp it to a garage where I got about 10psi into it and limped it the further 2kms back home. The above shot is the after math.

I got under there and found that the block of whatever debris it was had hit right on the inside edge of the tyre and split the sidewall, which is understandable given the size of whatever it was and travelling at 100kph at the time. This was a pain as the tyres still had a good 30-40% tread left and I knew finding someone with a used one of the same size was going to be difficult. Buying a single new one was out of the question too as it would really upset the handling as the tyre had been upgraded to a new model since I first got them not to mention having tread differences. So I bit the bullet and bought two new tyres in the same size. The originals were Federal 595RS, the new ones are Federal 595RS-R, which is basically the semi-street/circuit tyre and a good tyre given the cost and flexibility of use. Sizing was the same at 235/40R18 and Shane at Bridgestone Tyre Centre in Bentley had them fitted onto the rims the same day I dropped them off.

Now that they're on, they feel much smoother and quieter than the originals, whether this is due to being new and a different compound, or because they don't have a few small flat spots on them I don't know. Either way I happy to have some new rubber up front with an impending session on the skid pan running motorkhana early in December. I now have 1 spare front tyre which I will keep just in case.

Cheers
Brendan