Mike in CA

Use the passenger seat. This is one of my track tires.....and I have sport buckets which are less roomy than the standard seats. In fact, with the shaped CF backs (not to mention my harness bar) I don't think I could get a tire past the seats into the back anyway.

Solution to your problem scenario: rearrange luggage, GF moves to back seat with suitcase on her lap (hopefully she's petite), tire goes in front, earplugs go in to block out sound of GF complaining in back seat about why you don't have a proper car with a trunk....

alexb76

Mike, are you suggesting him to CARRY a tire/wheel spare in his passenger seat for the WHOLE DUARTION of his *long road trip*, JUST IN CASE, he gets a flat?!

That's just being waaaay too cautious! The tire repair kit is perfectly adecuate for that RARE case you *might* get a flat!

or... you're being sarcastic (per ur second sentence!)?

billh1963

I carry this!


http://www.walmart.com/ip/Slime-Flat...r-Kit/14254126

Mike in CA

Alex, I think you misunderstood. NC 997's scenario was that he puts on his donut spare and then doesn't know what to do with the flat tire. I suggested that he put it in the front seat with the implicit understanding that it's temporary until he can find a tire repair place/dealer. I certainly wouldn't advise someone that they should carry around a full size spare tire in the passenger seat just in case they get a flat!

I think the tire repair goo is a reasonable every-day solution although for a really long road trip I might feel more comfortable with a spare.

Macster

Consider flat tire preventation.

Be sure before you go all tires are free of any thing in them. I have the local dealer give my car a road worthy inspection and this involves among other things lifting the car up and checking each tire any signs of something in the rubber. Also, if the tires are nearly worn out the techs advise me to replace the tires. I sometimes agree, and I sometimes do not agree. (More on this below.)

The risk is and this is really true of rear tires, is nearly worn out rear tires are more likely to pick up something. The front tires kick the nails up, the rear tires pick the nails up.

Oh, replace the tires ... A year ago last Nov I had the car inspected and the tech advised me the rear tires were down to the wear bars and he suggested I have them replaced. I thanked him for his info but declined.

A few hundred miles later, on 99 highway under hard braking the rear of the car felt squirelly. A check of tire pressures found the passenger side rear tire down about 6psi. Long story short I could not get the tire fixed at the Fresno Porsche dealer, and no indy tire store would touch the tire.

I ended up driving all the way home, and then some, to spend the night in Walnut Creek to have new tires fitted at the Walnut Creek Porsche dealer the next AM. On a Saturday! The dealer though didn't have the right tires in stock but some phone calls turned up some tires at the Sacramento dealer. (I have quite a few Porsche dealer service department phone numbers in my cell phone's phone directory, just in case.)

After a careful drive up to Sacramento in a heavy rain and with a slow leaking rear tire a few hours later, in the early afternoon, had me heading out again with 4 new Bridgestone tires.

Not only did I run into heavy rain leaving the Sacramento area, but a few days later on I-40 in the middle of NM (between Clines Corners and Santa Rosa) I got into a heavy snow storm.

With the new tires (well, by that time they had about 1000 miles on them) me and the Turbo managed to get through about 40 miles of pretty heavy snow with up to 3 or 4 inches in places without any problems. I would have hated to go through there with the nearly bald tires even if they had never been within a hundred miles of a nail.

My point is that if the tires are near the wear bars, you might be a bit proactive and have them replaced. Not only does this reduce the risk the tires will suffer a puncture, if you encounter bad weather you will do so with new tires.

Sincerely,

Macster.

simsgw

Why? You don't like the one Porsche provides?

Gary

simsgw

I've been trying to think. I remember one instance in Greece when a truck forced me off the road onto blasting debris from construction. Sharp-edged rocks cut up the sidewalls of both left tires. Another time during a night run, between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara, someone had dropped their exhaust pipes in the fast lane () and with the old incandescent headlights I didn't see those black pipes soon enough to completely avoid contact. Well, probably in a Porsche, but not in that Camaro. Muscle cars are fun, but sudden lane changes at 85 are not their forté.

Nothing else comes to mind... no, wait. Cindy lost one too. While commuting in a Legend to a client 100 miles away I was putting 1000 miles a week on it and going through tires like a track fanatic, so I tried a set of Winstons. A week after the install, the right front exploded off the rim without warning. In that case, I suspect it picked up debris on my previous day's commute and had slow-leaked its way to a serious under-pressure. The last straw was her 75 mph run from the freeway to our house. Well, halfway here before it blew.

None of those three would have been helped by a goop kit. Every other tire problem was caught when the tire began to lose pressure and could have limped home with the stuff we carry in a dot two.

So that's about 1.5 million miles of driving a couple of dozen cars since the fifties and four tires that compelled a proper spare (or a tow). None of those were modern tires. The first episode would have crippled anything short of a tracked vehicle, but the other two would be very unlikely with modern tires, and Cindy's excitement was a quarter century ago. Not to mention that a Porsche would have let me avoid the middle incident altogether.

On the high side, using modern tires, I would go with one tire every half million miles as a likely rate of failure-that-needs-a-tow. Uh... people keep their Porsches a long time I know, but we may be onto something here. What is the distance across a typical gap between cell towers?

Gary, who got his money back on all four Winstons and returned to Michelin

alexb76

Same question I had... the one supplied is perfectly fine for quick, emergency repair!

uzj100

OK, you repair this RARE case with the OEM goop and compressor. Anyway you look at it, a flat in these cars is going to take a lot of fun out of your day.

alexb76

Guys, ofcourse it won't work on ALL cases! IT IS FOR EMERGENCY, and in 18 yrs of driving I've had only 3 flats! So, I think it's a pretty good bet that for the rare case of a flat, and the rarer case of damage to sidewalls that can't be fixed by goop, it's a pretty good compromise! What else do u wanna do on a sports car? carry the spare weight with you ALL THE TIME, in case you get a puncture on your sidewall?!

Btw, mine was not as far to the side, but pretty close to your and the goop sealed it perfect!

alexb76

Good stories! I've had 3 flats over the last 18yrs of driving, I think mostly on modern tires, maybe first flat was on an older tire that was not tubeless (can't remember, was 16-17).

alexb76

Oh ok, got it!

PS. I envy those seats... if I come down to CA, watchout, you may find seats removed when you wake up in the morning! ... well, if they were black/Alcantara, so you're safe with Cocoa seats!

billh1963

This kit offers more tire repair options.