su8pack1

AORoads

I've had blowouts and they've been dramatic, but with room to control the car. The worst was actually a very rapid (but not a blowout, per se) loss of air in a right rear tire, fully loaded car, at night, with very heavy traffic, interstate speeds in all three lanes. I was lucky I felt it. By the time I could get over to the side squeezing out traffic, the tire was on the rim and smoking. It was totally roasted and toasted.

Given the chance to minimize one variable, I'd do it---and that's what a runflat does for those who choose it. There are too many other variables that any driver can't limit, such as the fact that an accident is planned for, nor does it give you warning the morning of.

Neither does a blowout, or rapid air loss. Nor that piece of 3'x3' aluminum that flew out of the TOP of a recycling truck near Key West at 70 mph, crossed three lanes and hit....it didn't cause a blowout but it had its effect...

phileaglesfan

If runflats are so safe why are they not used on race cars and they probably have more blowouts than normal driving.

rcallen484

Chassis designed to withstand horrendous impacts, crash resistant fuel cells, roll cages, helmets, Hans devices, fire suits, race suits, on board fire extinguishers, exhaustive safety inspections, track safety crews, on site ambulances/helicopters and probably a bunch of other stuff I am unaware of.

rado63

I have been a licensed diver for 33 years. Had my first blowout two months ago. Ran over a pice of debris on the freeway at 65 mph. Left front tire blown. Steering was stiff but the truck, not my Corvette, was controllable, never touched the brakes until I was off the freeway and ready to slow to a stop.

If the run flat helps keep the driver in control of the car then I am all for having run flats on my car. The Corvette is so low to the ground, I imagine if you get a blow out on non run flats you will probably have body or chasis damage, and how would you get the car off the road, or home?

On a historical note, I believe the Good Year EMT tire was introduced on the C4 in 1994.

redzone

Not sure about other motorsports,but Nascar tires have had inner liners in case of blowouts for many years.

Travelor

If you watch NASCAR you will hear about the "tire within the tire" technology used by all cars on their high speed racecourses. Not really a run flat as we use, but the idea is the same - have a tire let go at speed and still save the car.

I was never about having the wife driving by herself at night and having a flat and having to pull over on thee side of the road. As we worked together and did most everything together, she never drove alone at night. Now that this thread has been discussed, I would put run flats for the wife's car if for no other reason than a rere instance of her driving at night alone and her having the possibility of being forced to stop on the side of the road and risk gremlins hurting her.

Garret

At almost twice the price of non run flats allot of people would love you to believe RF are the best thing since sliced bread. If they were so great I agree, race teams would use them no matter how many other safety features they have.

The only fact here I see is that no one has produced any stats proving the RF are any better than non run flats to me. All I know is I will never be doing 120+ MPH for hours on end and tires that wear twice as fast, have no warranty(goodyears) and cost twice as much lead me down the non run flat road this spring when I look for new tires. I will consider the Pilots, but by no means will I get them based on a race car accident.

Seadawg

In 4 years of driving vettes as a DD, I've had 4 flats. One of them was a 3/8 bolt that 'dislodged' at about 75 mph, because I heard it hit my wheel well. It was not a blowout, but within a few seconds I was at 0 psi.

Since I had experienced flats before, I slowed down to about 60, and drove it about 10 miles to the dealership.

Even in the curves, you really could not tell I had a flat, it was the driver's side rear tire.

Even with 2 front tire flats, the car drove the virtually the same for normal street driving.

c54u

Probably no one will.

It's all a matter of what you are willing to compromise and the risks you are willing to take. Those are your deciding factors.

CCIE

And there's another reasonable consideration. Is my wife's peace of mind worth a a few hundred more, or maybe five or six hundred more, once every few years to know that she won't get stranded on the side of the road with the kids in the car. Looking at it that way, I'd have to say yes as well.

So we have the argument that we have no spare in some cars. Okay, really good reason to consider run flats. Possibility of major inconvenience to loved ones, those than are inexperienced or physically not up to the challenge, might be unduly frightened by not knowing what to do.

And then, the likelihood of major accident caused by rapid or explosive decompression.

I'm not sure in what order I'd arrange these.

ls1121

NASCAR uses the Ultimate run flat...a tire inside a tire.

CCIE

http://www.edmunds.com/driving-tips/...-a-primer.html

Joe B.

...from your Edmunds link.

Ironically, TPMS makes the case for run-flats less compelling. Since these systems excel at alerting drivers to underinflation and slow leaks before they can fester and weaken a tire, the likelihood of certain types of blowouts and flat tires is reduced. In making the case for mandatory TPMS, the NHTSA cited tire industry data claiming that 85 percent of tire deflations are slow leaks — some of which go unnoticed and end up as blowouts. The remaining 15 percent are due to sudden ruptures or large punctures. Other industry sources put the sudden rupture percentage even lower than 15 percent.

JoesC5

I've had my driver's license since 1956 and I have never seen/dodged any road gaters on the highway, and I have never seen anyone changing a flat on the side of the road.

Therefore no semi rig has ever blown a tire, and no car has ever had a flat tire.

brooklync5

Thats some scary sh*t man... I was glad to see the driver walk away unscaved.

Vegas Panton

Good friend of mine hit some sort of debris at 150 plus during the Silver State Classic Challenge open road race( www.sscc.us ) in his new ZR1 with Michelin runflats. Tire pressure went to zero very quickly. He was able to get the car stopped in a very safe and controlled manner without incident. There have been several other tire problems/blow outs on that course with much worse results. As a side note, Spring Mountain Motorsports run Michelin runflats on all their Corvettes.

ls1121

OK so you've had a license but do you actually drive a car on the highway? Sorry but this sounds like BS to me. I drove 100 miles each way to work for about 4 years and there is $hit laying everywhere on the highway.

capevettes

When I had my blow-out I was in third gear at about 4,500 RPM's on a very long on-ramp (you can do the math). My attention was to merge and I ran over what looked like a half shaft or medium sized pipe on the ramp. I saw it too late. Missed the RF and put a huge slice in the RR. The tire drove the pipe through my inner fender. The tire pressure went to zero in no time at all. I was able to maintain complete control and drove home 50 miles or so at 65-70 mph. Directional stability was compromised but in a straight line going down the highway it was very controllable.

Original Goodyear Gen 1 runflats with 14,000 miles on my 06 Z. I replaced both rears with the same tires and bolted on a new inner fender. No other damage.

rcallen484

He was being facetious.