[200q20v] heavens to mergatroid, blowout at 90

[Phil Rose]

At 8:51 AM -0400 4/18/01, David Schaible wrote:
>i always wondered what would happen if you had a blowout at high speed and
>yesterday i had my big chance to find out...i was going a little faster
>than the flow of traffic (90mph) up a hill on I84 in NY and felt a
>vibration like a wheel out of balance and less than two seconds later i was
>driving on my rim.  it was the rear drivers side wheel.  basically it was
>no issue, i just slowed down and got over the 3 lanes onto the shoulder,
>three cheers for quattro technology....i think it might have been different
>if it was a front tire....oh yeah, don't forget to check your spare tire
>pressure occasionally

Glad to hear the experience didn't get too messy. Was the wheel damaged?

The last dramatic "blowout" I recall having was wayyyy back in my 
teenage years when the standard issue was tube-type tires. I was 
driving (my beloved 1950 chevy) in town at only about 35 mph when a 
sudden, deafening "BANG!!" was enough to to get even my teenager 
pulse rate of to jump a bit. [no smart remarks about teenagers and 
sudden bangs, please]

Nowadays, tubeless tire failures thankfully tend to not have 
consequences as dramatic and threatening as in days of yore 
(Explorers with Firestone tires excepted). Today's quiet, but sudden 
failures remain hazardous and potentially deadly, but the term 
"blowout" seems not as appropriate as it once was to describe the 
event.

Phil
-- 

Phil Rose
Rochester, NY
mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net