The Austin-seeking guided scrap tire

[hamondale]

OK so here's another Austin story.  Same time, summer of  '72, probably within weeks of when I almost picked up the hog.  

In late June of '72, we were stricken with an early season hurricane, first of the year, hurricane Agnes.  It came up the Atlantic coast, turned inland up the Susquehanna valley, and stalled over central PA and western NY.  Result was a 100 year flood.  Nowhere as bad as 9/27/2024 Helene in east TN and western NC (I've been down there on relief missions 4x so I know), but bad wrt property damage.  No local deaths.

So for a couple of 18 yr old guys, a lot of sights to see.  A buddy and I were in the Austin driving around on the country roads in the main (Genesee) valley and hills.  At one point in the valley, we came to a flooded road that was closed off and we had to pull a U turn.  Our U turn brought us in tight to some flotsam up on the road, and my buddy in the passenger seat of the Austin, being tall and having long arms, reached down and scooped up an old tire not on a rim, that had washed up on the road.

I said "What the hell are you going to do with that?"  He said, "we'll find something to do with it."

So we drove off up into the hills on country roads, seeing more flood damage, and after five miles or so, we started down a steep hill back into the valley, where we would go onto a main NY State highway.  We were about a quarter mile from the state road, and I didn't want to attract any potential police attention, so I said, "Get rid of that damn tire."  So he just let go of it.

It took a couple of bounces, and smoothed out, rolling down the hill in the middle of the road, right behind us.  And it stayed there for a couple hundred yards.  Which was remarkable, because this was a narrow country road, crowned in the middle.  Not nice flat pavement.  It was balanced in the center of the road.

But after a couple of hundred yard, it slowly came off the crown, and drifted toward a small drainage ditch along the road.  I thought, ok, it's going in the ditch and we're done with it.  Except at that point, we came to a small curve in the road, which the tire followed on the inside, and came out of the curve right back up to the center of the road behind us.

And it stayed right there following us.  I'm thinking holy crap this thing is like it's got a guidance system in it, and it's locked onto my tailpipe heat.  And now, we're 50 yards from the intersection with the state highway.  And it's right on my bumperettes.  (Cue Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull.)

This country road was at about a 45 degree angle with the state highway, and from my vantage point up on the hill, I could see clearly no traffic was coming.  Even with old bias ply tires, the Austin cornered pretty well, so I just blew thru the stop sign and merged onto the state highway going about 45 mph.  

I watched in the rear view mirror, then looked over my shoulder to see the tire blow across the state highway, go between a couple of bushes through a yard, and hit the side of some guy's house.

We went back and passed by a little while later, and could see the house had a slightly raised first floor, so it just hit the stone foundation.  Laying there in the yard, no harm done.  But that's one of those things where if you tried another hundred times, you couldn't do it again.

[BlownMGB-V8]

That's hilarious!

Can't say I've ever been chased down by a tire, but Dan was driving my first MGB in an autocross when the wheel came off and raced him for the creek. They made us quit after that.

Jim

[Spitfire 350]

Good story, I was envisioning it in my head as I was reading it. Keep 'em coming.