Caughtacab911

Last night I was driving home from a nice dinner out with my wife. It had been pouring rain most of the day so we opted to leave the P-car home and take my wagon. Good thing. As we pulled away from a light on a double-lane state highway I hit a massive pothole that was filled with rain, making it invisible. We were only going about 30 mph but the second I hit it I knew the front tire was cooked - it was already making that telltale flapping sound. I drove another 200 yards and pulled over into a well-lit parking lot. That's when I was glad the MB had a full-size spare tire and an easy to use 1-piece jack. 20 minutes later I had changed it and we were on our way (I could have called the Mercedes road assist people, but I didn't want to wait). Interestingly, a local cop stopped to check on us and said several other cars had had blowouts from the same hole. Since it's a state highway they could only put in a call to the state and wait for a crew to fix it.

More bad news: this morning when I went out to take a picture of the tire, I saw that the right rear has a nasty bubble from the same pothole. So two lost tires in one night. They're 17-in PS2s that had only 5K miles on them

Gene
_________________________________________________
05 911 C2S cabriolet, arctic silver/black
01 MB E320 4Matic wagon, midnight blue/beige
08 Audi A3 3.2, S-Line black/black = wife's

Deansdream

Reason I won't take the P car into NY. No, not 'cause it'll get trashed or stolen. Too many danged potholes on the 'Jersey side. Lost a tire 2x, and I'm not trying for a 3rd.

jpcourt

Have the wheel looked at too, I did this with my 550I and the wheel looked ok but was way out of round... wheel shop put on there wheel machine and got it perfect.

Coochas

Bad news Gene!
I was just in N Andover yesterday picking up my 986 from my secret testing grounds (my mom's house). Where is this black hole of a pothole?

Caughtacab911

Dave - we were on Rt 114 in Danvers right by (ironically) Ira Porsche. There's a railroad overpass just before the McDonalds as you head west. The crater - I mean pothole - was right by that railroad bridge, far right lane. That's what I get for driving keeping right and not passing people at that moment.

Gene

Coochas

Thanks Gene....I'll steer clear!

todd.

"our residents spend $718 million each year on car repairs because of the sorry condition of many other roadways" February 20, 2009, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.

The roads in Massachusetts are dangerous, to the point where the State should be liable as they are aware and negligent for allowing it. That along with the ridiculous unlawful excise tax were the two most reasons I almost packed my stuff back up after moving here and headed back to OC, California.
Massachusetts is a tough place to enjoy a nice car, so tough it's really not worth the risk.
You Massachusetts guys should spend some time in California to see how roads should be. On Thursday I actually had to slow down on RT. 3 as my C2S CAB was practically getting airborne the highway was so bad, and RT. 3 is one of the better highways out here. Driving in town is like navigating a mine field, constantly having to look out for potholes and trying to time avoidance of them with oncoming traffic, often times losing.

Nugget

I can sympathize. I recently moved from Austin to Houston and I'm about ready to sell my Porsche and buy a Honda Fit out of frustration over the roads here. My car has aged more and developed more rattles and squeaks in the past two months of central Houston driving than it did in all my track time and two years of driving in Austin. It's really demoralizing.

CBejbl

Sucks. Sorry about the blow out. Roads in RI are extremely dangerous as well. Drive behind me and it looks like I'm running a slalom.

Sadiq

state should pay... hope you got the officer's name and badge # since he can corroborate a pattern of "should have known" by the state.

axhoaxho

Potholes can be fatal...

One of my clients, who was a healthy seventy years old man, drove his Mustang Convertible on freeway. His car hit a huge pothole and lost control. The car flipped upside down, and he had a tennis-ball size hole in his skull.

After hours of open head surgery and months in the hospital, the doctor sent him home...

Last week, he died during his sleep at home. He left his wife (they've been married for fifty some years) and a business with tens of employees.

Folks, drive carefully nowadays. One would think that with so much tax we pay to our Government, at least our road surface would not be maintained like 3rd world and try to kill us

Regards,

nyca

Road maintenance is the first thing that gets "cut" because of state budget issues. Mind you, its not that they reduce staffing levels amongst DOT road crews, they just seem to use cutbacks in road maintenance to punish citizens for not paying more in taxes.

todd.

Not a recent problem in Massachusetts, it's been bad for the 3 years I've been here. Friends tell me the roads have always been horrible here.

Coochas

Yep,...I grew up here. The roads are always bad and you have to constantly be on guard for holes. Knock on wood but no Porsche flats in over 3 years. Then again, my old Audi TT averaged a flat in Boston about every 6 months. Go figure.

GreggT

Roads are getting worse.....taking all the fun out of these cars.

Here in Wisconsin, the governor raids the trasportation fund for everything but keeping up the roads & highways....they are worse every year.

Here in Madison, the general strategy of city & county is .....people will drive less if we just make it more difficult for them (ie build no more roads, and let the ones we have, fall apart).

Top priority however is.....well maintained bike paths and spend millions on 'studying' light rail.