Glad I'm still alive.

[Dr.AK]

Like I said, I'm VERY glad I'm still alive and I thank my friend Haiko for having reacted so fast.

Story:

We were going to a VW Show today with me riding passenger in Haiko's GTI.

Autobahn, left lane, around 170-180 km/h / 105 - 111 mph. A Z3 tailgating us. Suddenly the rear of the GTI starts to slide, Haiko shouts "What the hell?!" and tries to hold the car steady. I look in the passenger side mirror and see the passenger side rear tire flapping alongside the wheel and the shocked face of the Z3 driver as he steps on the brakes like there's no tomorrow, and if Haiko hadn't managed to get the car stabilized and onto the shoulder of the Autobahn, there might have not been another day for any of us.

Inspected the tire, whole inner sidewall ripped apart. Tires were bought new this April, correctly inflated and nothing was rubbing. We guess it must be a failure in the material of the tire or something.

All I can say is that I am very glad Haiko managed to get us out of there alive. Had he not stabilized the car, we would have crashed either into the guardrail with other cars crashing into us or crashed into one of the other traveling cars and maybe even more...


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[Stephen]

Ouch. glad noone was hurt

[D-rock]

WOW! Could that happen cause of to much stretch ?

[Dr.AK]

WOW! Could that happen cause of to much stretch ?

Only if you run not enough tire pressure, but not because of too much stretch, when running not enough tire pressure this can happen to any tire. When running too much stretch it's more likely to pop off the bead of the tire, even though that is unlikely as well, but I've heard of it happen to some guys over on wheel-whores.

In this case it was clearly a tire failure cause by a failure in the material of the tire itself.
There was no stretch to speak of (205/40 on a 7x17 or something like that), the tire was correctly inflated and nothign was rubbing.

[AccordKnight]

Dam man glad to hear you guys made it out ok, thats pretty crazy that happened and especially on the autobahn that would defently freak me out.

[BADwayz]

Ive had that happen to me at 50 mph and was scary, cant imagine faster. Glad your ok

[D-rock]

Only if you run not enough tire pressure, but not because of too much stretch, when running not enough tire pressure this can happen to any tire. When running too much stretch it's more likely to pop off the bead of the tire, even though that is unlikely as well, but I've heard of it happen to some guys over on wheel-whores.

In this case it was clearly a tire failure cause by a failure in the material of the tire itself.
There was no stretch to speak of (205/40 on a 7x17 or something like that), the tire was correctly inflated and nothign was rubbing.

Cool thanks for the help!

[SeanDub]

Crazy, glad you're ok

[Jay Z.]

Crazy, glad you're ok

+2 werd.

[mpower5266]

Wow thats crazy man. Glad everyone came out ok.

[gumballer_80]

As said; glad nobody was hurt...
Also glad no cars were hurt seriously ;)

[Reichy]

far out mate! pretty crazy stuff
Glad your ok.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Man that would be scary as fuck.

[hover]

Glad you guys are ok.

I had the same thing happen to me down at Volkfest a few years ago. 225/40/18 on a 8" wheel on my A4. I was trying to catch up to the rest of the crew and was booking it at right about 120, when the back left tire exploded, leaving only the sidewalls there. The thing shot up and over a semi that was behind me. I had recently passed him, and hit one of those expansion joints on concrete interstates mid corner. As soon as I did that, the tire just gave it up. We heard a BOOM, and instantly were like // this, pointed at the inside lane, seemingly in a full on unexpected high speed drift, but with less control. One of my best friend's girls was riding with me and screaming "OH SHIT, OH SHIT, OH SHIT" at the top of her high pitched piercing lungs. I pulled it out of the sideways action, and pulled over to the side of the road, where the trucker managed to pull over behind me. His comments: "DAMN BOY, I THOUGHT YOU WAS GONNA DIE! HELL, I THOUGHT WE WAS ALL GONNA DIE! You all right? That was some damn good drivin' son. Hot Damn, I thought we was all gonna die. Whew. Oh shit. Well, hell boy, you need anything? I got plenty a tools back in the truck." Told him no, changed the tire, and put shaken Sara back in the car before we continued at a much more subdued place to meet everyone back at the hotel.

It can seriously freak you out, and I'm glad your boy had some good reflexes and skills.

-Chad

[Byron]

Wow, something like this just happened to me today, but to a much lesser extent. My passenger side tie-rod somehow came unbolted on me on the highway around 80mph. I actually didn't notice until I too my exit without slowing down and the car went straight. I managed to slow down enough to make the corner, but it still scared me quite a bit. The wheel was somehow staying straight on the highway.

Glad you made it out safe as well.

[B Rod]

Wow, something like this just happened to me today, but to a much lesser extent. My passenger side tie-rod somehow came unbolted on me on the highway around 80mph. I actually didn't notice until I too my exit without slowing down and the car went straight. I managed to slow down enough to make the corner, but it still scared me quite a bit. The wheel was somehow staying straight on the highway.

Glad you made it out safe as well.

Centrifugal force was your friend and enemy on that one...haha.

[Neb]

was the tire rated to handle those speeds? or was it a lower grade tire?

Glad to hear you made it out alive.

[Dr.AK]

was the tire rated to handle those speeds? or was it a lower grade tire?

Glad to hear you made it out alive.

Yeah, it was rated for those speeds, actually was rated for WAY higher speeds.

thanks guys... still scary to think about it.:confused

[Tuck&Poke]

WOW! Could that happen cause of to much stretch ?

in my multiple sets of tires and high speed driving ive never had a tire blow out, and i run some pretty extreme stretch. I've even driven at 80mph with the tires at 0psi and nothing happened. That bead isnt coming off