While traveling home on the open freeway I came around a slight bend and was under an overpass with a car approximately 30 yards ahead of me. He wasn't going to move so I was speeding up changing lanes when I noticed something in the road. Since I was moving at over 80 mph there was little I could do but try to put the object between both wheels. It was a stone about 1/3 the size of a football. I caught it with the inside corner of my right front. It bent the Hell out of my silver Kosei K1 Racing wheel and gave me an instant flat. As I pulled over to check out what the hell happened. I noticed another car pulling over in front of me. Two shady-looking guys got out so I unsnapped the retention snap on my holster not knowing who they were or what they wanted. They looked around their car and a third got out and was looking in my direction. After keeping an eye on them for a few minutes they eventually got in their car and left.

Then I begin to notice other cars pulling over on the right hand side of the freeway and I figured it out. They, too, had hit the fvcking stone. In all, six cars were pulled over by me and one hapless driver pulled over on the left hand side. I-696 in the Detroit Metro Area has traffic cruising at ~75 to 85 mph so I feel for her.

I assisted two people change their tire and when I went back to my car --- guess what? No tire iron. Yep. I knew EXACTLY where it was, but too little too late. As I was figuring it out the line of tow trucks pulled up and I recognized one of the drivers. He put "AELF" on the flatbed and brought us home. Charged me for a tow, not the flatbed so I'm out of $70.

Everything APPEARS to be okay, the wheel rubs twice per revolution and I'll jack her up in a couple of hours to take a closer look. On the bright side I can use my new lightweight aluminum jack... Oh, boy!!

SOOOO....

Does anyone know where I could find a SILVER Kosei K1 Racing wheel 15" x7" with a 45 mm offset? Since Tire Rack, Discount Tire, Wheel & Tire Zone are all closed at 3:00 AM I thought I'd ask any night owls who happen to be online. Thanks for all condolences and any information.

 

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate night. I thought you were about to get your R stolen . Glad that didn't happen.

 

I vaguely remember a recent thread with someone elling some Kosei's, might want to look for that.

Edit: I just looked and they were on Ebay, try checking classifieds maybe? I dunno, but good luck

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ^colyer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sorry to hear about your unfortunate night. I thought you were about to get your R stolen . Glad that didn't happen.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks, man. I was fully prepared to engage them if necessary. That's not to say that they would not have gotten it [or me], but there's no way in Hell I was going to just let them take it. And since I was outside of the car their chances were small. Very small. Unless two of the three were armed and prepared to use what they had.

All in all, I realized that they, too, must have hit the infernal wheelwrecker. But this was the first time in over a decade where it was very comforting to have "a little German friend" along for the ride.

 

Thanks for the lead, SoCal ITR. If push comes to shove I'll put the skinny OEM wheels back on and purchase S0-3 PP in 195/55/15...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Chui &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for the lead, SoCal ITR. If push comes to shove I'll put the skinny OEM wheels back on and purchase S0-3 PP in 195/55/15... </TD></TR></TABLE>

Just as a note, the 195/50s just went up to 98/each

As a result, I just ordered some Goodyears myself.