Neil Haughey
New member
I had one hell of a shock after returning from the Haynes test track last week. The track has a lot of low speed left hand turns which puts a lot of stress on the drivers side front wheel (RHD). Anyway I always check a car over thoroughly before taking to the track starting with the tyres and working inboard.
Imagine my horror when checking and cleaning the wheels to find that on the front drivers side wheel I have one wheel nut missing and one finger loose. All other nuts on the car are tight enough to hold the wheels on, hence the car drove fine back from Haynes with a wheel held on by only 3 nuts.
I checked the car after each session on the track except the last session because we drove home shortly afterwards, so the failure must have happened near to the end, if I had of gone for more laps I am sure I would have had a wheel come off. Each session was only 6 laps or so (very short tight track maybe 30 secs per lap) and ISTR I did about 6 sessions total so maybe 15 min to 20 min total track time.
This has got me seriously spooked now because the nuts are fairly new (maybe 15K miles although they have been off a fair few times) and I don't recall any threads about using non stock nuts for track days although I recal reading something about Ruf not using the stock alloy nuts.
Maybe the mega tight turns at that track create a special set of circumstances we don't see on most tracks however I thought I better share this experience with you guys.
Testament though to the grip of these Hankook RS2 tyres.
Imagine my horror when checking and cleaning the wheels to find that on the front drivers side wheel I have one wheel nut missing and one finger loose. All other nuts on the car are tight enough to hold the wheels on, hence the car drove fine back from Haynes with a wheel held on by only 3 nuts.
I checked the car after each session on the track except the last session because we drove home shortly afterwards, so the failure must have happened near to the end, if I had of gone for more laps I am sure I would have had a wheel come off. Each session was only 6 laps or so (very short tight track maybe 30 secs per lap) and ISTR I did about 6 sessions total so maybe 15 min to 20 min total track time.
This has got me seriously spooked now because the nuts are fairly new (maybe 15K miles although they have been off a fair few times) and I don't recall any threads about using non stock nuts for track days although I recal reading something about Ruf not using the stock alloy nuts.
Maybe the mega tight turns at that track create a special set of circumstances we don't see on most tracks however I thought I better share this experience with you guys.
Testament though to the grip of these Hankook RS2 tyres.