I was ushered into a room one early Saturday morning last year, greeted by large posters and a lovely smile from the usher. She said I had to sign in and so I did. A quick glance around and I am surrounded by standing signs. Probably from the sponsors, I thought to myself. I guess even large companies who subsidise for events had to find some sort of way to ease the burden.
I was looking directly at one of the sponsors at the BMW intensive driver training. It was a single tyre propped up to showcase it’s brand. Fresh new tyres, it was the Continental CSC5 run flat tyres in 18″ size. There were 13 cars in total used for the driver training, 10 for participants and 2 for the instructors as well as one for spare. That meant a total of 52 tyres in total, all of them were run flat tyres and 18″ in size.
I guess tyre sponsors did come in useful, the training brought students and car to the edge before all grip was lost. That meant lots of under-steering, over-steering and hard braking exercises. This would definitely take a toll on the tyres as this wasn’t the only course for that year.
Back to the room, a projector showed slides as one of the instructors started to explain about car safety and how the car reacts in certain conditions. To some it was something new, to others it could be a good reminder but how much do we actually remember ourselves? The age group was very wide, everyone was there to learn something and something we did learn.
A video was then showed, it featured one of the hosts from a popular British TV car series driving a 5-series. In his first attempt, he drove it through a wet test track and then set off an explosive to his rear left tyre. This caused him to lose control of the car whilst the car spun across the track and onto the grass.
A second attempt was done with the exact same setup but this time with run flat tyres. Again he set off the explosives but the car didn’t budge. This was BMW ‘s way of showing the benefits of having run flat tyres. That’s why all BMW cars are now delivered with run flat tyres, well here in Malaysia anyway.
Rewind back two years and here I was in a 2 car convoy on the way towards Taman Negara for a spot of a holiday. The route there was fairly straight forward, take the highway all the way until you reach some small roads through several villages. On the map it looked straight forward but the moment when we arrived there it wasn’t.
Due to the nature of the surrounding areas which were mainly plantations, the single lane roads were filled with litter from the trucks and the most notorious of them all, huge potholes. This was probably caused by the tractors and lorries plying their way through these routes.
Avoiding them and keeping the car in control took a lot more concentration and the terrain didn’t help at all, if the roads were flat, it would have been possible to see when a pothole would be approaching but thanks to undulations on the road, every crest was a gamble.
And gamble we did, slowly avoiding the potholes trying to arrive our destination before dark until our luck ran out. The front car in the convoy hit a huge pothole. The 30-series tyres and large 19″ rims couldn’t withstand the impact and this resulted in two tyre leaks and two rims bent.
If a tyre was punctured, a sealant can or a portable patch would have been a life saver but a bent rim was the ticket. Fortunately the car had a spare tyre, but unfortunately he needed two spare tyres and I didn’t have one.
The problem was that my car didn’t have one because BMW insists that with run flat tyres I don’t require a spare tyre. All I had was a sealant kit and a portable pump. That began the slowest and longest drive to the nearest town.
I like technology, I like it when cars are now equipped with many safety features. I like the run flat technology on tyres where a harder sidewall gives you that peace of mind of your loved ones. But through my experience, I learned not to discount the advantage of a spare tyre that’s why I bought one for my car. Some say it takes up space in my boot, I say it gives me a plan B as well help others in need.
Image Source: Creative Commons Flickr
*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Autofreaks.Net
