Well, as some of you know, my dad and I are driving down to Monterey car week again this year. We technically started at my grandparents house in Naselle, WA.

All was well besides the weather of course. We are taking the 101 down and possibly another route up the east on the way back. We were making pretty good time, and reached Reedsport, OR. For the second time (other than my birthday) my dad let me drive the turbo (which was amazing!). We had just gone to look at the sand dunes on the pacific, where I picked up driving. I still only have my driving permit, so it was pretty generous of my dad to have enough confidence in me to drive his car.

Anyway, right as I pull out onto the highway, I hear a small nock. I figured it was just a rock that I drove over. After about ten minutes, I learn that it was much more than a rock! I ran over two nails and a screw!! The light on the dash was flashing "flat tire".

All i'm thinking at this point is that our trip is over. I pull to the side of the road and let dad take the wheel. We drove about half a mile to an area where we could stop. Our current location is about 15 miles south of Reedsport OR and about 20 miles north of Coos Bay.

We tried to stay as calm as possible with the sound of air coming out of the tire. We called 1-800-Porsche to find that our trip might have been completely over. The solution that they gave us was to send a flat bed truck 150 miles from the Bend, Oregon Porsche dealer to us. And then bring us back to Bend and wait to get a new tire (which could take days). At this point my dad is furious with the lady on the other line. Then while talking to Porsche, we call Gary at Barrier Porsche in Seattle to see if this is the only solution. Sadly, he says it's that or Les Schwab.

We were definitely not going to waste all that time and go to bend, so we call 411 and find that the closest les schwab is about 15 miles away (yes!). We gave them a call and found that they could possibly repair the tire if the hole was less than a quarter inch. So we decided to take that chance. They sent Thomas out to take the wheel off and then bring it back to their center and fix it (pics below). He took almost two hours to fix the tire (which was done successfully) which meant the whole ordeal lasted well over three hours. We are still hoping that the tire holds up, considering that you are not supposed to plug high performance tires. We have to give Porsche of Monterey a call and see if they have this tire. This really delayed our trip, but we ended up getting to Monterey (I am writing this in the hotel room).

So far all is well, and we are just waiting to go to all the great events.

Hope to see some of you there!!

-George Jr.

The tire









Waiting for Thomas


Thomas Arrived...








My dad w/Thomas and the wheel










Me pretending to jack the car up...




The wheel going back on...








Finished...

 

Glad to see you made it back on the road safely. I have a single brand new PS2 in that size just sitting in my garage.

 

Really!

 

Glad you made it to Monterey and the tire repaired - that really bites to have that happen in the middle of nowhere! Good luck the rest of your trip - have a great time.

 

So sorry to hear about the tire! I totally understand how you guys feel! I was on a PCA drive to Cannon Beach a few years back and I blew out my front AND rear tire in the middle of nowhere! I had to drive back on 2 spares from Cannon Beach to Redmond going 40 mph in the middle of the night because nobody was open it would be close to probably impossible to find my tire size out there! lol!

Best wishes for the rest of your trip! Be safe and have a wonderful time!

 

Les Schwab has great customer service at every location I have been to: Chelan, Monroe, Everett, Seattle area, Wenatchee, Coulee Dam, Rathdrum, ID. It's why I have our Tahoe and Jeep GC on Toyo tires (and boat as well) from Les Schwab so that anywhere I go our tow vehicles will have the tires they need. They have even come out to my location on a highway to replace a tire on my boat trailer.

 

Glad to see you made it back on the road safely. There is no wonder why Les sells more tires than anyone else.


John

 

having driven down from portland to sf, i would never do the drive again. weather was bad and combined with high elevation, you get hail, ice and light snow. not a good drive at all unless it's in summer. plus, it's middle of no where in southern OR and northern CA so you are pretty much screwed if something should break down.

 

Thanks for the warm wishes everyone! Hopefully nothing like this happens again.

 

ahhhhh father son bonding and creating memories and stories

consider a plug kit and a plug in the cigarette lighter
compressor for out of town road trips in a car without a spare

 

I'd envisioned something a lot worse when I saw the word "tragedy" but I'm glad that wasn't the case and that you two got back on the road safely. You two fared a lot better than Larry did when I had to literally bring him a new tire/wheel from a friend's spare set to the middle of nowhere.

BTW, the Turbo DOES come with a patch it can and compressor but it's pretty much useless and makes a big mess too.

BTW Part 2, when you patch a tire, you lower the speed rating but depending upon where it's patched if it's even possible, it'd hold just fine if done correctly.

 

Same here. I was expecting a wreck of some sort. Glad you made it down OK.

 

OH MY GOD! I'm going to have nightmares again. I'll have to see my shrink before I take my car out of the garage now.

Hopefully you won't have replace all four tires. Replacement depends on the tire wear whether you can get by with one, two or all four tires. Thanks to AWD this can become critical.

 

Luckily we only have to replace the back tires. We had about 9k on them so we needed to buy tires for both rear. I just didn't realize how much tires cost!

 

cheaper then veyron tires