oh I'm sure he's going to post another stupid thread about mods/maintenance/damage that can be otherwise looked up anywhere other than here and still find an answer, or have basic questions that even a 14 year old might have about cars, all the while touting that he's in law school and his BEAUTIFUL fiancee has a '13 GT500 vert.

 

Diva...I take it there is a history there with the OP...RazorGT???

 

I think Razor had all the input he needed in the first dozen replies to feel more secure about his own preference for 18's. His more recent thread in 'Appearance' looking for pictures is asking specifically about 18's.


Norm

 

It is a toss up. If you pair the wheel's/Tire's together you should feel little to no difference on a STREET application. (Yes i have had both on my car). I enjoy the 20" wheels look on the car. When i had 18" it gave the car a more classic look since it gives you more sidewall on the tire.
Do your own research and maybe even drive a friends stang with 18's then 20's. Too many people seeM to have the "Know it all" mentality. At the end of the day it is your car and your style... Period.

 

Vertigo I like your ride with the 18". I'm looking to upgrade and want to keep more of the classic look. I have factory 17" and have the car lowered, just looking for a tighter wheel well look. The stripes on your ride, are they factory?

 

What year did this occur? and what manufacturer, make Model of tire?

 

2004, probably early September.
Firestone SZ50 EP in 225/60-15.
1979 Chevy Malibu, 355 CID, 3400-ish lbs, around 53/47 weight distribution. Add about 170 for me at that time.

Somewhere I still have a smallish piece of the road debris that caused it all.

The item of great interest was why the car was slow to act like anything was amiss, and didn't want to lurch out of lane during significant cornering with one rear tire all the way down to low or zero psi even with a trunkful of "competition supplies", aka floor jack, tools, plus a bunch of other crap for the day I can't remember any more.


Norm

 

The edge of the remaining text on the sidewall looked like a FireHawk font.

There was definitely tread separation already occurring before this tire finally failed. I asked what brand and make/model because Firestone does have issues with all the tires it manufactured around this time with respect to tread separation, most notably in their ATX series tires equipped on many Ford SUVs, but since the manufacture process was the same across all their lines all models were compromised.. There is in fact an open lawsuit with these model tires you were equipped with also listed. The tires themselves were discontinued in 2002. But, there were obviously still remaining shelf stock in many outlets and dealers nationwide.

At first I thought these were the run flats, Because the runflats for this Model were self sealing and with the thicker sidewalls would have still allowed the driver to operate the vehicle as the tire treads were degrading during driving. Thus not really noticable even with zero PSI since they were in fact designed to "run flat". The final failure of the tire would have happened when the tread separation exposed more breach of the "CARCASS" than the self sealing properties could overcome.

I would think the tread separation would have been accelerated under any lateral G load while taking any Apex at any speed. And more so if the outside temperatures were optimal for compounds for this performance tire.


Below are pics of what the initial signs of this failure would look like on the exact same make and model of this Firestone tire.



Anyway this is my best guess. The rest is for you to tell my friend.



BTW...going back to tire History....this wasn't the first time Firestone had issues with manufacture process since they also had a bad time of it in the 70's when they began manufacturing Steel belted tires in the same manner they manufactured their bias ply tires by using the same machinery. All those 500 series radials were recalled and completely discontinues after a series of catastrophic failures. Again..just a summary here from recollection not a timeline of the actual history.

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'05 GT. 18" wheels. Not lowered......and won't be.

 

I can't imagine any tread separation not being consequential to the sidewall puncture and the distance I drove on it that way, as I autocrossed quite a few times on two of the remaining "good" tires afterward. They were probably the best performing tires I ever fit to that car, and they were way better than the BFG g-force Sports I had to settle for after the incident.


I still have two of them mounted and one sitting "loose", so I'll take some pictures when I get the chance (they aren't all easy to get at and I'm wrestling with the annual tax matters, so it might be a couple of days). But I don't recall seeing any cracking or other signs of deterioration, nothing like your pictures. Guess I got lucky one way or the other.

What I've been holding back was the fact that all four of those tires were mounted on 8.5" wide rims (that being two full inches wider than "measuring" and half an inch above max recommended), and there isn't much question that the extra width was providing a lot more lateral stability compared to what a 6.5" measuring rim could possibly provide.


Firestone sure has had their problems with steel belt radials over the years. My cousin had a bad set of the 500's back in the day, and then there was that debacle with those Explorers.


Norm