whilst on track to day with my m8 andy (northern bloke on pf) as passenger, I came down the craner curves and just as I was about to enter the left handed kink the nearside rear tyre failed, it felt like the wheel was coming of the car at the time, i took the decision to go straight on as I believed had no chance of stopping before the gravel at the old hairpin, I hit the wet grass on the outside of craner(infield side) and the car just seemed to speed up!!! it then went sideways with all 4 wheels locked up the engine then cut out and we skidded across the grass for about 100 metes in near silience before coming to rest on the track again half way between the old hairpin and starkys bridge!! just missing a gravel trap which as we were sideways may have caused us to roll
limped back to the pits to find the tyre had blebbed across 60% of the circumfrence of the tyre, the tyres are michelin slicks but too soft a compound on the back so overheating was the cause I had another slick let go later on but got back to the pits ok, I have some on board footage of the incident from a bullet cam on the door mirror as soon as i get it i will post it up.

apart form that the day was great with just a wheel bearing and brakes needing attention before croft, rob rs2 on here and northern bloke wern't so lucky with both of their cars losing the bottom ends.

steve

 

lucky boy mate lucky you didnt hit the gravel, i remember back to keith o dor rolling over the fence there in btcc years ago

carl

 

Well pulled up bloke!

Which car was you in?

 

I was there when he rolled, was stood about 100 yrds away when he came over the fence!!

that could heve been me today!

steve

 

my (now very muddy!!) 24v xr4x4 track car

steve

 

I've been off the same although simply lost the back end.

Hitting that grass when it's wet at that speed is truly petrifying.

Bet you soiled yourself slightly!

 

so was i just came out of gents to see him flying over fence had best view poor sod died couple years later in germany hit by frank biele

 

Is the car running ok Steve ?

Is it much better now then when you had the 12valve in it ?

Steve.

 

Its a laff going down there flat out off camber and shit, till it all goes wrong!

 

not too bad then Steve,you were lucky....i know what its like doing that lol.

hard luck on the other cars with the bottom ends going.

how was Clive in his car?

 

 

i know what a waste, beila jus slammed straight into the side of him he had no chance

 

clive was running fine all day Dave, he did have brake problems at the end tho, worn them out lol

On slicks I could actually keep up with him, on road tyres I was left trailing..

steve

 

as long as his car was ok.

 

Glad you're Ok chap - like you say it's a bit scary going off there. I was passenger in a car that hit the wall on the inside of Cranar

Here's the Kieth Odor clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOYOBHL0d3M

 

thats me coming out the loo to the left of the building never seen that before

 

sounds like you had a lucky escape steve

 

I did m8, can't wait to see the video!!

steve

 

Should be called learning curves not craner curves lol Glad it all ended up ok tho

What pressures were you running in the Michelins ?

You should have felt them going off ages before they let go Steve.

 

Here is a bloke that wasn't learning!

http://www.rollonvideo.com/youtubeiz...KJt9zLfHQ.html

I went off at the top left hander on my bike and slid through the old hairpin on some wet Leicestershire grass, faster than I would of gone round it on the bike!

 

tony I got no warning at all the bleb happened in an instant, there was no deterioration at all prior,I had only done a few laps and the track was wet when I first went out the dry line had just appeared. I was running 27psi cold which is what dave at ears motorsport (who I bought my new slicks from that are on the front) recommended

both tyres that failed were on the nearside rear aswell loaded up most the way round donno..

 

Sure he didnt say 27psi HOT Steve ? As that would be more normal... certainly not 27 cold

What compound are they. All slicks will 'roll' on the edges and form marbles when they get hot, its what they do. Is that what your calling bleb ?

 

they were S2A ( I have S4A on the front) and yes I think it was hot it was last year when I got the info and can't remember(haven't checked them since
I I remeber he gave me a "ball park figure" of 25-27 psi
I will post a pic of the bleb, tomoz it is about 6 inches accross and half way round the tyres!

steve

 

No need to post a pic for me - from the description it sounds normal.

You were running over inflated by the sound of it.

The 2's are obviously the softer of the two, and wont like running hot. But with a damp track in the morning and only a few laps in ? im surprised they let go

The 4's on the back would have been more forgiving.

 

Tony, Dave did tell me that the it would be better to put the 4's on the back, but I figured that the front nearside would get lots of abuse so left the 4's on there so they didn't get to hot, a lesson learned...

going to order 2 brand new 4's today..

steve

 

That's mad! Proper racing though!

 

come on,lets see it.

 

Thats where that Nova flipped lat year at RSOC. Went in the gravel sideways and just dug in and went straight over! Sod that!

 

Right, here we go - Steve you need to sort that wheel bearing knock have you heard it on this

Anyway, the audio's a bit noisy as the camera was strapped outside on the door mirror. After we go off if you listen carefully you can hear is laughing followed by me shouting stop and Steve replying that he can't as we head back towards the track. There wasn't too much urgency in the shouts which tells us that we much be daft as it could have been nasty but fortunately it wasn't

Steve, the reason it went sideways was the hill - you watch as it follows the contours and lucky we missed that gravel trap

(sorry about the border my software has died and I had to use a trial version on the other PC that won't allow me to resize the frame)

 

That was well held

 

dave cos4x4

Steve still looker shook up hours later


He is very Gung Ho on track mind ,as he was in the escort at the ring last year

I had a nice steady jaunt around as per usual ,3 dodgy moments all day ,one in the wet when i ended up a little sideways after the Old Hairpin, one when a TIT in a mini( fast one too) i had been tailing for two laps decided to let me past on the Dunlop straight half way down then kept his foot in .I felt i had to go for it and broke a little(spelt LOT) too late for the esses. Foot hard on the brakes and had to just go for it ,sideways and lost it a little.Only problem was when i got down to Redgate there where NO brakes at all just a fooking long pedle so had to come in.
The last one was entering the Dunlop Straight i got a bad line (Lack of concetration) coming into the last corner,i comented that it wasnt good at the time to my pasenger ,and therfore the exit was a little to far to the left causing my nearside wheels on to the grass at over 90mph, lets say It was a trouser moment ,but Steve was following and said it was quite a sideways one too

Good day out Shame about Andy and Rob, Bri was allso a casuatly with the fan belt snapping on his mates Fiesta rs18

Roll on croft

 

what the fook went past at the end

 

you got a photo of the tyre?

 

glad it was a good day then Clive,nothing like a good trouser moment,not the same if you don't get one.

see you at Croft.

 

cheers andy

thought I did quite well considering I was just hanging on for dear life!!

Gareth, I have a phot of the tyre will post it up in a few mins.

steve

 

here is the tyre in question, the pic isn't the best the bulge is the whole top part of the tyre and was about 2 inches high , the camera angle isn't the best, the bulge did go down a lot when the tyre cooled.



spoke with dave at ears motorsport he confirmed the tyre pressures were ok, it was the soft compound I was using which caused it, I ordered 4 brand new harder compound slicks off him at a great price

steve