Juha G

I just plugged my tire (after removing the damn screw that ruined my last session at Sebring).

While I was doing that, I thought to my self, what if the plug comes off. Well, the hole is so small that if it would come off by no means would I get in danger with the car. The tire is not gonna blow up for god sake. It will just leak the air out and that won't happen in a blink of an eye either. It will take some time for the pressure to escape trough that tiny hole.
I think I'd be able to notice that I'm loosing pressure in the rear tire before I actually loose all of it...?

just my .02$

penguinking

meh... i was down at roebling one weekend and me and this bmw were going at it back and forth, and then during the last few laps of the session i started to drop off and my car got squiggly. i thought nothing more of it than tires getting a little hot. then i came in and looked and saw that half of one of my rear tires was corded. i'd view that as a bigger issue than a small leak in a tire.

Noel

I picked up a nail in my tire when at Watkins Glen in June. I'm not sure if it was on the way back or if I actually ran it with a nail while on the track.

I ran Lime Rock last month with a Patched Kumho MX (Street tire) without issue. It was plugged and patched. In my case the hole was pretty much in the center of the tire. I've been dabating about whether to get a new tire, but seeing as the leak was a slow one (Took about five days to go flat) and its location on the tire, I elected to run it.

James-man

Although no one will actually recommend doing these things.

Do as I say, not as I do.

George3

Yes know... I'm kinda thinkin' that way, too.
I think my life is worth more than a $350 tire.

So, is this tire:
a) trash-bound, or
b) donate it to the track as a tire-brick-in-the-wall, or
c) Can I use it as a street tire ??

mrbill_fl

fwiw: I picked up a screw while driving at a Sebring DE a while back... came thru T17, like normal, turned in at T1, and started to loose it, but luckly caught it just before the wall...(fast hands!)

The tire was almost completely flat by time I stopped, 200yds down track. I was shocked how quickly the tire lost air.... (tire was not patched/plugged)..tire was a RtRear..

if you're racing, then the opportunity cost of any failure is steep.
--it just costs too much to get to the starting grid, imho.

but for a DE or street driving I'd consider a patch.

OTOH, that plug is sorta close to the shoulder...

George3

I was looking at that. It is near the edge of the tread. Hmmm.

Mark Dreyer

I have a tire road hazard warranty. I've replaced several tires under this warranty. I was asking the service manager at the dealer how the warranty company can make money on these policies since they had already paid out to me multiples of what I paid for the warranty. I was told that on P-cars it's typically a loss for them because Porsche won't approve repairing the tires that are rated for high speed track use. The company makes their money on the tires found on other marques where they typicaly will repair rather than replace the tires.

penguinking

so you're saying that the victoracer's on my car that got punctured when a box of nails fell off a truck i was following.... get replaced for free under said warranty? please, tell me more

James-man

Amazing how those nails wore all of the tread off all 4 tires.

Juha G

What is even more amazing is how this same thing (a nail in all four tires) keeps happening every 5000 miles or 4 DE weekends, which ever comes first.

Mark Dreyer

I've had probably 4 of 5 tires replace free because of nails with that tire warranty. We were out of our house for 2 years because of Hurricane Charley. There were lots of roofs being replaced in central Florida then and it seemed like I was always picking up a roofing nail in one of my tires.