Wow! What a car! It is a 1949 Delahaye Custom Saoutchik roadster. Now there's a car with style. Totally impractical, it's too big and it probably drives like a tank. But man, what a breath of fresh air. It's the total opposite of everything the automotive industry is producing these days.
While I am sitting there drooling over unobtainable supercars, tire man comes to give me the news. The good news is there is nothing wrong with the tire. The bad news is the wheel is leaking. Seems there is tiny pinhole, possibly a stress fracture, that is leaking a tiny amount of air.
I bought a new wheel for $120, same as the ones I bought from them four years ago, except newer and shinier. I suppose I could have taken the wheel and tried to plug the leak from the air pressure side with some kind of goop, but I didn't even think about it till later, and there's no telling how successful that would be.
The standard fix for problem leaks like this with tubeless tires used to be to install an inner tube. Schwab won't do that anymore. They claim if the tire pressure gets too low the tire could slip on the rim and cause the valve to get ripped off the tube, which would in turn cause the tube to instantly deflate, causing you to lose control of your car, crash, die, and your survivors would sue Les for allowing such a thing to happen. Sounds bogus to me, but everybody is afraid of lawsuits these days, and anybody with any money has good reason to be afraid. Anyway, the leak is fixed and I don't have to fool with it anymore. At least not till next time.
Update February 2017 replaced missing pictures.
1 comment:
I dunno how huge that Delahaye is, but it sits on a 116-inch wheelbase, which is what you'd see on a first-generation Chevy Monte Carlo. The engine is a supercharged 4.5-liter I-6, rated at around 165 bhp.
The front-end overhang, though, is ridiculous; not even the most egregious front-drivers have that much of a beak. And the turning circle, what with the enclosed front wheels, must be humongous.
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