Merityre Article Archive

Once more unto the breach dear friends, or rather, once more into the gripping world of car tyre trivia. So, did you know?

The word ‘tyre’ is derived from the word ‘attire’ i.e. clothing. This makes the American spelling ‘tire’ the more accurate.

The very earliest ‘tyres’ actually helped hold wheels together. The part that ran on the road was an iron band, which was heated and placed over the ‘felloe’, or rim, of a wooden wheel. When it cooled, the band shrank to fit the wheel tightly, adding strength to the structure.

Formula 1 tyres lose weight during every race. The high wear rate means that a tyre weighs 0.5kg less when replaced.

Speaking of weight saving, the tyre Goodyear developed for the Gulfstream business jet had aluminium, rather than steel, bead wires. This saved 1.3kg per tyre.

Bridgestone produces 40,000 Formula One tyres per year. The company reintroduced slick tyres to Formula One in 2009, after an 11-year absence (prior to this, grooved tyres had been used since 1998).

When travelling at 300km/hour, four car tyres can displace 61 litres of water per second.

A study by Continental Tyres found that 40% of motorists in Britain claim to have never checked their car’s tyre pressures.

To make matters worse, even fewer drivers said that they knew how to check tread depth; 70% didn’t know what the legal tread depth was anyway.

Happy checking your tyre pressures at the filling station? Driving there means that although the garage’s gauge may be accurate, your tyres will be warm and give a falsely high reading. The tyres are likely to end up 12 to 15 per cent underinflated.

Racing car and aicraft tyres are filled with nitrogen rather than compressed air. Why? Because in flight, aircraft can encounter temperatures of minus 40 degress Centigrade and frozen moisture in the tyres can cause vibration and balance problems on landing. In a racing car, using nitrogen reduces the tyre pressure variations that can adversely affect lap times.

The lessened amounts of in-tyre moisture and the reduced pressure loss are not enough to make using nitrogen economically viable in road tyres.

The world’s largest tyre manufacturer by volume, with interests in Dunlop and many other regional and second line brands worldwide, is the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

The world’s most prolific tyre maker made 330 million tyres last year. This doesn’t really count as the tyres were for toys and models, also made by the Lego Group!

In the 1964 film ‘Goldfinger’, the scene where the tyre slicer comes out of the rear axle of James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 was faked. A mocked-up quarter of the car was filmed on a small set. The tyres (and sills) of ‘Tilly Masterson’s’ 1965 Ford Mustang convertible were shredded – but not by the DB5.

Green credentials: Interfloor recycles used car tyres to make Duralay Treadmore high quality crumb rubber underlay. Every 10 seconds one used car tyre is turned into carpet underlay That’s 60,000 tyres a week and approximately three million a year, which would otherwise go into unfriendly landfill.

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Great Britain has a temperate climate. That no one seems to have told the climate about this is by the by: the sort of conditions we experience every year are officially classified as being ‘temperate’. Yet facts are facts and like all of us, our car tyres have to cope with markedly different climatic conditions. In high summer, the mercury can hit the 30-degree mark, in midwinter, it can fall well below zero. Can a single set of tyres handle this? Let’s find out.

In winter, accidents increase by a less-than-modest 267 per cent. This begs the question of what is a winter tyre? More appropriately, what is it about winter tyres that make a difference? Car tyres conform to a given set of physical characteristics – they must, to be safe, legal and functional. However certain elements among these characteristics can be ‘tweaked’ and it is these differences that make a winter tyre.

The first tweak is to the tyre’s compound, the mix of rubber used in its construction. Water freezes when the ambient temperature is low. Car tyres don’t freeze but they harden, especially when the temperature falls to under seven degrees Centigrade. Winter tyres have a softer compound through containing more natural rubber than conventional tyres and this improves their grip in cold conditions. This specifically softer tread element gives a significant reduction in stopping distance. It also has a knock-on effect in performance terms. Because winter tyres offer superior grip, your car’s cornering, acceleration and braking benefit, as does your confidence.

The next point contains a paradox. After all, isn’t it true that car tyres with a softer compound will wear faster? In a word, no. In fact, conventional tyres have a particularly hard time in winter, pun intended. In practice, they wear out up to 20 per cent faster in cold conditions, so winter tyres can save you money. Some suggest that winter tyres’ enhanced grip means that your car’s engine has less work to do than with conventional tyres, so that fuel economy is also enhanced. This may be a moot point but a Finnish tyre maker says of its winter product, ‘Lower fuel consumption by lower rolling resistance, shorter braking distance on wet road, stronger aquaplaning protection and better snow grip are its benefits.’

The final point concerns noise. Winter tyres have a more open tread pattern, the better to clear away mud, snow and ice. This might suggest they give increased road noise when in use. However, most manufacturers claim that their winter tyres are as quiet and comfortable as normal tyres. This makes sense, as the tread compound is significantly softer.

So, are winter tyres a worthwhile investment? The above suggests that they are. Ideally, it would be best to have two sets of tyres, one set for summer use and one set for when the climate forgets to be ‘temperate’. The bottom line is still more telling. Given the use of grit and salt on the roads during a UK winter, it would make a lot of sense to acquire not only a set of winter tyres but also a set of ‘winter wheels’!

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