The Truth Behind What Caused Paul Walker's Fatal Crash

[MightyMouseTech]

This was a super low-mileage car. Roger was a really good driver. There were no other cars around or last-minute obstacles to avoid. It had to have been on original tires.
No one talked about the tires. Everyone wanted to hang Paul and Roger out to dry as their speeding scapegoats. The tires were a footnote to an exaggerated story, and it became a missed opportunity to teach a very real lesson. The LA Times reported one article on it nearly 5 months after the crash, and that was it. The cause of the crash was still ruled “unsafe speed for the conditions.” And not “tires, which may as well have been made of paper mache.”

The point, kids, is if you have a car you don’t drive very often; or if you buy a car from a collection and it has low miles; or if you buy a car that has been sitting for any period of time, or used sporadically: check the tires, and change the tires. They may look like they are in good shape with not many miles on them, but if they are out of date and you don’t check, you won’t know anything’s gone wrong unless it’s too late. Learn from my stupidity in this situation, or from poor Roger and Paul. As they say, the life you save, may be your own.

http://www.thedrive.com/opinion/5189...rs-fatal-crash

[Bbb34]

I think most people understand just how important tires are, but few consider the age of the tire, even with thread that looks like new.

Great article.

[MightyMouseTech]

I am probably the most anal person I know when it comes to tires. No way in hell would I be driving anything on 9 year old tires, let alone a GT.

[jpnh]

Excellent point made in article

[NickyC]

The tires are an old story though, and his line "no one talked about the tires" is nonsense. They were mentioned pretty quickly in the aftermath of the accident.

[tdott]

A friend that works for Porsche said that even before the crash there was a TSB issued telling owners to upgrade to PSS tires and that this was old news.

All I could find was the press release, not the actual TSB.
http://press.porsche.com/news/pdf/20...Carrera-GT.pdf

[David70]

I am skeptical when someone kills gets killed driving 90 mph in a parking lot and someone else determines that the cause was the tires. Possibly correct but also seems like possibly just one of the things that went wrong. New tires and accident doesn't happen? Maybe, maybe not.

[9krpmrx8]

Last weekend I was at Firestone getting some tires I bought from Tirerack mounted on some rims and I was browsing thru their tire selection and most of the tires manufacturer dates were in early to mid 2013. The most recent I could find was some offroad MT's made in late 2014. In comparison, the tires I was getting mounted (Pirelli P zero nero) were made in late 2015. I am sure most of the Firestone customers are unaware that the "new" tires they are buying have been sitting in a shop for several years.

I am sure a lot of super cars that barely get driven ride on very old tires.

[Z K]

All the more reason to go out and actually drive your car.

Everything goes bad on a car when you don't drive it on the road as it was intended to.

[08njSTEP]

2 stories about old tires:
1) was driving my dad's '67 Vette on highway and got a horrible vibration. Got off and checked. Tread separation. Took tire to Firestone and it was replaced as new under warranty. The tire had no measurable wear although it hadn't been manufactured in over 20 years.
2) Was at a car show and a guy was selling an original tire/wheel. The tire held air and seemed in excellent condition. He was loading up to leave and the tire exploded.
Tires don't last forever and they are the 1 part that contacts the road. Be smart and safe.

RIP Paul & Roger

[sales@vivid]

Its amazing to me that people dont even know how to check how old tires are. This is a very important thing that often gets ignored.

Good points in the article.

[overcoil]

On another note: techs at dealerships, first thing they seem to do is inspect the tire's and measure brakes.

[insanecoder]

Sounds pretty logical to me.. I didn't know they died cornering.. obviously grip is paramount.
So it could of been the aged tires but then the tires may also have lost traction due to some gravel depending on the quality of the road.. which has happened to me once before the tires suddenly gripped after slippage.. felt like one of my nine lives floated away on that one

[Red Bread]

Going that fast in anything on that stretch of the PCH remains South Park Stupid. Tires or not.

[Irishsig]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

Going that fast in anything on that stretch of the PCH remains South Park Stupid. Tires or not.

PCH?
It was at 28385 Constellation Rd, Valencia, CA

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by Irishsig

PCH?
It was at 28385 Constellation Rd, Valencia, CA

Oops, my mistake. Was thinking of the Enzo-ectemy.

[GuidoK]

I dont like some of the tone of that piece Matt Farah wrote.
It hints on that it would have been OK to drive twice the legal speed there if the tyres were in better condition and that they were unlucky that they had old tyres.

Imho they were lucky that no one was walking on that sidewalk....
Rodas & Walker had a semi professional racing team together. That Rodas didnt have the car under control with his expertise says only something about how reckless he was going at it, regardless of the state of the tyres.
There's no denying it, if they took that corner at normal speeds, they would have been alive I think.
Driving on public roads is not about how fast a car can technically go or how fast an experienced driver can go, but how fast someone should go. And that is totally left out in that piece....

[Dackelone]

Most Germans "know" to replace their tires every four years or less than 4mm of tire thread remaining. Sure, the German law says you can run a six year old tire and it only has to have 1.4mm of thread... but out in the real world(Autobahns) your just asking for a wreck of your tires are old(hard) or don't have enough thread to prevent aquaplaning. This goes for both summer and winter tires. The Germans don't believe in "all(no)-season" tires.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Most Germans "know" to replace their tires every four years or less than 4mm of tire thread remaining. Sure, the German law says you can run a six year old tire and it only has to have 1.4mm of thread... but out in the real world(Autobahns) your just asking for a wreck of your tires are old(hard) or don't have enough thread to prevent aquaplaning. This goes for both summer and winter tires. The Germans don't believe in "all(no)-season" tires.

I wish we had the German attitude here.

Here is what happened to an idiot driver using 16 year old WINTER tires in the SUMMER!

Although, "no" season tires make great spring/fall tires.

[JoosyJoos]

Admitted I'm not sure what tires were equipped on the Porsche Carrera GT from the factory but in general the higher the performance of the tire, the faster it will heat cycle out, dry rot and generally just lose grip.

On an R comp tire, that could be less than a year. On a high performance street tire, it could be a couple of years. The important thing is, that they do in fact degrade and it may not be immediately apparent until you get some slip angle into the tire.

[Questofthetune]

I had a low side crash on my old GSXR from 7 year old tires. Tires are scary when they become rock hard.

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I dont like some of the tone of that piece Matt Farah wrote.
It hints on that it would have been OK to drive twice the legal speed there if the tyres were in better condition and that they were unlucky that they had old tyres.

Imho they were lucky that no one was walking on that sidewalk....
Rodas & Walker had a semi professional racing team together. That Rodas didnt have the car under control with his expertise says only something about how reckless he was going at it, regardless of the state of the tyres.
There's no denying it, if they took that corner at normal speeds, they would have been alive I think.
Driving on public roads is not about how fast a car can technically go or how fast an experienced driver can go, but how fast someone should go. And that is totally left out in that piece....

Exactafreakinglutely. They drove irresponsibly (sad but unfortunately true) and paid the ultimate price.

Heck, one time I was srsly out of it, went to a shop to do something else and the mechanic freaks out telling me that my rear tires are BALD. Yes, they were totally BALD, no tread left at all, like I was on slicks! No idea how that came to be lol. Anyway, all that time I was driving normally, doing spirited runs, etc (not like a grandma as I didn't know), so obviously I kept my car under control and well w/i my skills despite the srsly compromised traction.

Drive w/i your skill lvl, RESPECT the road and fellow rd users and if you wanna d*ck around, TITTT!