Spotted this on the Florida Turnpike recently:
Ignore the warning lights and notice the size of that left rear tire on the car in front of me. My speedo reads 4-5mph high so that idiot is really doing 80 on the spare. 
He was slicing and dicing his way through traffic and soon disappeared into the distance. Did something change? Are they not 55mph any more or is that guy just brave/stupid?
Before you give me grief for snapping a cell phone photo at 80mph, let me provide photographic evidence that that is not the case:
For the car:
For my bike:
On my motorcycle:
Or after hours:
I totally BUILT that last one!
Yeah, they're there to get you to the nearest tire shop. They're still not supposed to be raced on.
We run bolts through them, add off road tire sealant, and ice race on them. Those little tires are tough as heck.
Streetwiseguy wrote: We run bolts through them, add off road tire sealant, and ice race on them. Those little tires are tough as heck.
Pics please!
Big Red. 3.4 Chev V6, Kinsler EFI
Just a Golf, but the yellow on the wheels is the 55mph warning sticker.
They don't last forever...
Hah! Sometimes posting goofball threads yields really cool results! Those cars rock!
Down here in So FL there's lots of cars running around on one or more spares. Some of my neighbors have had the same spares on their cars a year or two. Of course it's also the state where accidents are encouraged by radio advertisements saying you could get $10,000 - $20,000 - $50,000 or more if your injured.
Nice Free Agent sticker.
some people drive months at a time on the mini spare, and they drive like they drive on regular tires..
is that what they are for? no.
can it be done? yes.
I think it was C&D a few years back did some handling tests on spares. It said in the article that the tires themselves weren't really a problem above 55 mph, but that tire wear is so rapid on the space savers the 55 mph "limit" is there to encourage drivers to get them changed ASAP. Of course, there are also handling implications when one of your tires is smaller in diameter and much lower grip than the others.
I heard or read somewhere (don't know how true it is) that the smaller diameter spare on a driven wheel can grenade your diff pretty quickly. Typically the diff doesn't do much diffing (the spider gears don't turn relative to each other) but with a small diameter spare the spider gears are constantly turning relative to each other. This increases the heat and wear and ruins your diff.
I can see this being an issue with limited slip diffs, but I can't see this being the case with an open diff. Spider gears tend to be pretty hefty, and there's plenty of oil in there keeping the ring and pinion cool (or the entire transaxle) so I think it is a myth., but wanted to throw it out here for other's opinions.
Bob
Datsun1500 wrote: So in day to day driving you wear a helmet with a camera? Am I the only one that finds that odd?
And you doubt that with this crowd? 
Datsun1500 wrote: So in day to day driving you wear a helmet with a camera? Am I the only one that finds that odd?
My favorite is the one for my motorcycle.
At least the spare isn't on the front of the car... THAT SCARES THE E36 M3 OUTA ME!!
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