Ferrari Mailing List: Re: More money than brains!

[Charles Perry (charles]

Speaking of which, I have another piece of advice for the List since I
seem to be becoming the resident poster child for learning things the
hard way even though I know better.

Yesterday in taking some friends out for rides, I suffered a
catastrophic rear tire failure in the Diablo. There was a loud bang, and
when we pulled over, the sidewall had almost entirely perforated. We
were EXTREMELY lucky. If it had happened 90 seconds earlier it could
easily have caused an accident that totalled the car and severely
injured us. As it was, it happened at low speed on a straight stretch
and did no damage to the car at all. 

We had checked the tire pressure before leaving the house (as I almost
always do), so the only things I can think of that would've caused such
a severe failure is age of the rubber (I believe these were the original
tires, making them 8 years old, albeit with under 10k miles on them), or
that a previous owner operated the car with low tire pressue and
weakened the sidewall before I ever got the car.

Either way, please remember to replace your tires at the recommended
time intervals and consider replacing them on any used car you buy as
you never know what the previous owner did. In my case, a set of tires
will run about $1500, but that is small insurance to protect your life
and a six-figure car.

-- charles


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                         Charles G. Perry IV
 
Carolina Sound Communications           (843) 571-4488
1941 Savage Rd., Suite 200G             (843) 571-4492 fax
Charleston, SC 29407                    www.carolina-sound.com
 
"The problem with doing things right the first time is that no
               one realizes how difficult it was."
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