Johannesburg- It’s a scary moment to have a tyre blowout at 230km/h, especially when driving through a curve.
I was doing a high-speed test of Mini’s new five-door Cooper S on Gerotek’s 3km oval track when the right front tyre went bang as I was going through one of the banked left turns. It caused the car to swerve to the right but fortunately it missed hitting the barrier (by millimetres).
Thankfully the car was fitted with runflat tyres, and I’m certain this is why I was able to retain control of the car and avoid a painful thump into the barrier.
The stiffened sidewall allowed the tyre to remain in contact with the road and still provide grip. A non-runflat might have collapsed and caused the wheel rim to scrape on the tar, which gives about as much grip as driving on a skating rink and explains why blowouts with non-runflat tyres often lead to serious crashes.
Apart from helping to prevent accidents, the benefit of runflats is that they (usually) allow you to continue your journey, at a reduced pace, of course, instead of having to stop and change a wheel in a dodgy part of town.
For these reasons we’ve always sung the praises of runflat tyres, and this scary incident has only strengthened our resolve.
Their potential life-saving ability overrides any criticisms about the stiffer ride quality they cause, which is why I’m all for BMW South Africa’s policy of fitting them as standard to most of its BMWs and Minis.
Until now BMW SA has used runflats as replacements for a spare tyre, instead of as a supplementary measure, however.
With not even a space-saver spare in the boot, it causes a problem when a runflat is too badly damaged to continue driving and leaves you stranded – as happened with me.
Fortunately BMW SA’s seen sense and will now start offering space-saver spare wheels on its new BMW models launched in South Africa going forward. Minis won’t have it standard but customers can choose it as an option if they so wish.