I recollect that the Michlin radials did not fail, but because, as you so
correctly mention, everyone was used to biased, they had no notion of what to
expect from the radials of Michlin. Also, I many times had people yell over to
me
that my tire(s) were low, or flat, because radials naturally looked low, by bias
tire standards. The radials were laughingly refered to as "zip tires." They
had
excellent traction, so that if you were used to biased, which begin to slip much
sooner, that when the radials finally DID let go, the whole car would go "zip!"
People, especially the kids, would over-drive the tires' and the car's
capabilities.
It is noteworthy that finding bias-plys is almost impossible today.
Cheers.
Randall Young wrote:
> Phil Ethier wrote:
> >
> > Firestone took a shot at killing radials in this country when the first ones
> > they made wrecked some police cars. Does not look like they have come very
> > far in the 40 years since.
>
> The Firestone 500 debacle was actually less than 30 years ago (the tire
> was introduced in 1972).
>
> 35 years ago, it was actually Michelin radials that failed suddenly and
> without warning. But since everyone in the US was used to bias-ply
> tires (which do much the same thing), it wasn't nearly as big a deal.
> Back then a 'blowout' was a common occurence, and drivers were expected
> to be able to deal with it.
>
> BTW, the Firestone 500 debacle killed the company that Harvey Firestone
> started in 1900. The current mess belongs to Bridgestone, a Japanese
> company.
>
> Randall
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