Amici:
Had a great time at GRATTAN (my favorite track) this past week end? Weather
was too cool for swimming, but fabulous for racing. Lots of excitement...I
had a new set of GOOD YEAR BLUE STREAKS mounted on my old ARW Silverstone
wheels
(which are only five inches wide). I guess that caused too wide a profile,
as I rubbed the inside of the right rear down to the cords in four laps. That
could have been exciting, if the corner workers had not suggested I be black
flagged. That tire is 'shot.' The other three are fine. I am going buy a
replacement, and then mount one on one of my PANASPORT wheels (1" wider) to see
what impact that has on the profile width. If that works, I'll keep them, else
I'll have a set of nearly new GOOD YEAR BLUE STREAKS (four laps of GRATTAN)
for sale.
I sure could have had a blow out on the track, but NO...that came later
Sunday evening on the way home. I had TWO (-2-) serious tire problems
including
one blow out. On the way home, at 68 mph I had a complete tread separation on
the van's right rear tire. Bumper to bumper traffic. Fortunately the inner
cords held air to where I could bring the van and trailer to a safe stop. At
65
I am getting too old to be changing tires on a full race rig on Sunday night,
on a traffic filled I-196. That's more exciting than racing. Then to top it
off, after changing the tire, we pulled off at the next exit. There was a
Super Wall Mart, but it's tire and lube bays were closed until Monday morning.
We stayed over night at the local Holiday Inn Express. When I pulled in
there, I hit a curb with the trailer tire. Swishhhhhh...side wall puncture.
I thank God Almighty that it happened near South Haven...it could have
happened driving through Chicago, where I would have considered suicide. As it
turned out, we disconnected the VAN from the trailer, and went looking for a
place
for dinner. South Haven is a high end resort area on the East shore of Lake
Michigan. We had a lovely fresh lake perch dinner. Stayed over night. Got
taken care of at WALL MART first thing in the morning (three new tires), and
had an uneventful rest of the trip home.
Bill Dentinger
PS
My recently purchased 1995 Chevrolet G30 Diesel 6.5 liter Cargo Van drives
like a new vehicle. It should, it still has only 45,000 original miles. But
it
sure does not have hairy chest like the FORD power stroke diesel in my old
yard goat pickup truck. The Chevrolet is just fine, but it did struggle with
some of the hills, and 65 mph seems to be the top comfortable cruising range,
whereas the FORD does not even breath hard at 75 mph. Sure like everything
else
about that old van. Very comfortable (for a ONE TON rated unit), and what a
lot of cargo area. I like it!
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