Flat Tire... (#%$@*^&!!!!!)
 

:evil:

Anyway... I took a half day to do some annoying errands and on my way back to work at noon I was doing 90+ on the highway and the car felt solid.

I get off the highway to the street where my buildidng is (which is under construction and is a total mess) and drive into my building and park, and as I leave the car I see my right rear tire (255/35 ZR18 RE040) is totally flat. Put the donut on, the culprit seems to be a very narrow slice about 3/4 of a inch long. I don't know how deep the slice is though.

I hope it can be patched. I only have about 10K miles on these tires and they have at least half the tread left. I'm also not in the mood to spend $500 bucks on two rear tires.

Great! :roll:

Autobahn in Natick can't do it. They are booked. Any other suggestions, lemming? I'll check the tirerack for names.

I've kind of soured on Autobahn anyway. I really don't like chip's attitude.

Even if you patch that sucker, you'll lose your speed rating.

Time to buck up for two new tires.

Somehow, I don't get the impression that mbr crosses 100 all that often. On the other hand, I don't know that I would want to rely on a patch at an autocross track either. I know I wouldn't at a driving school. Something to think about.

Well,

I looked up tirerack's recommended installers and found a place near me (Framingham) called Eurotech Automotive or something like that. He (Bill) seems to deal mostly with Porsches (he had a custom 993 TT cabrio with a rollbar in a bay and a couple of race-ready 911's there too). Anyhow, he patched it, and balanced it and asked for $20 cash. A total steal.

I am not happy about having a patch, but I don't track the car and very rarely touch 100mph briefly on a highway. The cut was razor-thin and about 1/2 inch long on the inside (where it counts). He did say, expectedly, that if the tire is not holding pressure, I'll need to replace it. In the meantime, for $20, I'm not with a donut.

Due to wedding-related issues, I will not be able to do an AutoX until at least September. So I will make the determination on whether it is safe to run AutoX on that tire. I'd be more concerned with a front tire though.

If the tire is bad, it will manifest itself as a slow leak. It wont blow up on me during normal driving.

hi guys. just got home. a little late to the game here.

bill pfister is awesome. he actually preps track cars. i like his shop a lot.

glad he took care of you. he and another porkchop shop in framingham is where i would have told you to go anyway.

sorry i wasn't around today but you handled, didn't you, tough guy?

I guess I did. :D

:cool:

OT: While on the subject, since I did notice that he dealt with a lot of P-cars and track-oriented customers, I asked him about 993's and he said they were very reliable and easy to work. So then I asked him if they were expensive to own and he said not really. Now, he could have meant "not really" relative to other 911's, or simply because that means business to him. I told him I really liked them and he said "you should get one, you wont be dissapointed." I saw a mint black on black '97 993 C2 on the Dupont Registry for 40K... :drool: (but I've never driven one).

Re: Flat Tire... (#%$@*^&!!!!!)
 

You must be mistaken. Per BMW's highly paid M engineers, no one gets flat tires anymore.

it's all relative. the engine sound from a properly sorted 993 is intoxicating. there is just a profound dearth of torque. one does not appreciate the beauty of VVT/vanos until you drive an older car with a peaky powerplant.

even the 3.8 litre M96 powerplant that came on the 993RS cars is underwhelming. 2 valve design and 320hp or so, but still under 300ft#'s or torque. and that engine conversion costs about $13,000 for a nice job well done.

can you imagine that? you're basically struggling to deal with 350Z cars at the track, basically.

anyway, glad you got your tire taken care of; i like bill a lot and if i go porkchopping again, he's a great resource to know.