This past weekend, at Gainesville Raceway, the annual GTO vs. Mustang Track Day is held. I figured this would be a great opportunity to locate some feature cars for the magazine and it would be fun to go there and hang out.
My GTO has Falken 615 tires on all four corners. These tires are a 200 tread wear rating and were designed with autocross and drifting in mind. My GTO also suffers from a bad alignment on all four wheels, giving them a positive camber and a slight toe in. This resulted in a highly increased wear on the tires, one that wasn’t evenly distributed across the thread.
I had already purchased tires to be replaced on Monday and didn’t think much of it. Well, on my way up, I get about half way to Gainesville when “BOOM!” My left rear tire blows off all its thread on the inside. I pull over and address the damage to car, there is none. The tire on the other hand was complete toast! I feverishly install the spare tire and drop the car down slowly with the aggravating jack that’s included with the car. Sure enough, my spare tire has 8psi!
I hop in the GTO and enter in a gas station in my Garmin navigation system. Approximately 5.5 miles ahead is a single gas station at the next exit. I drive there cautiously as the rear end of the Goat sways in a concerning manor. When I pull up I notice there is no air pump or vacuum system. (What gas station off an interstate exit doesn’t have an air pump?) I’m forced to scan for the second closest gas station which is no about 8 miles in the other direction. I slowly drive the distance and add 52 lbs of air to the tire since it asks for operation at 60psi.
So that was my lovely Saturday. I ended up just driving home and brooding.