unbelievable - 411 driven for first time in 9 years

[Kevin H]

I drove my 411 for the first time in nine years today and the most unbelievable thing happened - (unbelievably bad that is)

The car isn't quite roadworthy yet, but it's very close with just a few relatively small things to do. Despite this the guy who is working on it suggested a drive it down the dead end street and back (which he had done several times the day before).

He was in the passenger seat and I pointed out that there was an odd noise coming from the back of the car. I joked that it sounded like one of the wheels was loose. We stopped, he got out and vigorously tried to move the rear wheels which felt solid. We did another drive to the end of the street and back, only about 150 metres, the noise was still present so we headed back for the workshop when disaster struck. One of the rear wheels came off and the rear passenger side brake disc ploughed a metre long trough in the asphalt.

It was running on it's Avon Safety Wheels on which he swore the wheel nuts were tight, but clearly they couldn't have been. It's really not conceivable (is it?) that tight wheel nuts could have come undone to the point where they would fall off, in the space of a few hundred metres.

Fortunately there wasn't much damage to the car - the inside of the 'as new' alloy wheel was badly scored and the rear wing sustained a small amount of damage from the wheel.

Does anyone know what the torque should be on the Avon Safety Wheel nuts?