Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Diablo Tire

[Dennis Liu (bigheaddennis]

Wow.  Impressive pics.  Glad you survived with no further damage.  What
brand/model are the replacement tires?

Vty,

--Dennis 

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Perry [mailto:charles [at] carolina-sound.com] 
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 6:40 PM
To: BigHeadDennis [at] gmail.com; jdavidF1 [at] gmail.com
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: Diablo Tire

As usual, Dennis was right. I finally had time to take the wheel off the car
today.

The camber wear issue wasn't it. It was actually remarkably even for a car
of this type.

However, there was a big honking hole in the middle of the tire (and Dennis
had postulated the presence of road debris/puncture, rather than a
spontaneous sidewall disintegration). It's reasonably clear from the hole
that there was something rather large stuck in the tire - probably a bolt of
some sort. When the tire blew, there were two loud noises separated by a few
seconds. I think they corresponded to the bolt puncturing the innermost
belt/rubber, followed by the bolt being ejected from the tire and hitting
the fender liner (or vice versa). As you can see from the other enclosed
pic, there is a light scar on the fender liner that's in the right place for
whatever came out of the tire to impact it.

I've ordered a complete set of four tires, as you are unfortunately
recommended to do with a Diablo to protect the VT four-wheel drive system.
But my confidence is restored in Pirelli, and the 'old rubber'
controversy loses one data point.

-- charles