<p>Awcntdb – I’m curious about your thoughts on Paul Walker’s tragic death. Apparently, he lost control of the car which turned out to be difficult to handle. I always naively thought that a high performance sports car would handle well at the speed he traveling. Have to say that that accident took any romance out of the notion of a fancy sports car for me. (I’m a woman who doesn’t care too much about cars anyway, but that eliminated any residual fascination). </p>
<p>Hope this isn’t derailing the thread too much but it seems related to the discussion of high performance sports cars. </p>
<p>The Walker accident all point to faulty car upkeep, even though speed was the main factor. </p>
<p>Yes, the Porsche GT is a super sensitive car, but that sensitivity is what makes a great handling car. It was revealed that the tires on the car were almost 10 years old. For some perspective, it is not unusual to change tires twice a year or just junk them after a serious track event. Same with brakes - frequent changes. If the tires are bought and not used, we throw them out after a year or two as well, as they are already hardening and are not as good.</p>
<p>To specifically answer your question, the tires on the Walker car were so old that they were hardened and could not deform properly to hug the road. The faster you go and the more downforce produced, you want the tire to flatten a bit and contact the road more. This deformity is where we get lateral turning forces in excess of 1.5 Gs and the responsive left and right steering as speed increases. This necessary deformity was not happening here. </p>
<p>In short, they are driving tires, which were like round spinning sheets of ice. The car lost traction in a corner where normally it could grip just fine, but the tires could not deform and hold the road - thus the loss of adequate control steering, understeer. They drifted into a tree. It was not the car’s handling, per se, that was at fault; it was the equipment on the car, which was not properly maintained. For some more perspective, given the radius of that turn they crashed in, a GT with proper tires, which are properly warmed, could take that corner at 125 or so and come out the other side.</p>
<p>The cars are safe as long as you actually go to school when you buy the car and continue to go to school each year. That is part of most insurance requirements for the seriously fast cars.</p>
<p>10 year old tires are often considered marginal even in regular driving conditions (not track or racing conditions), especially if the car is parked outside in the sunlight.</p>
<p>^^ You are welcome. And I forget one piece of data - they crashed between 87 and 93, I believe (way under a 100 for sure), yet that car could take that turn over 30% faster with no issue with the proper tires.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus - Thanks for providing that link. Great point about sunlight.</p>
<p>Tires are well worth having regular checks and replacement as needed rather than trying to eke the last few miles or months out of them and possibly have them fail when you need them most, for regular driving but especially if you engage in higher speeds and by definition riskier driving, since there is so little margin for error and less reaction time at higher speeds.</p>