Tire records - The biggest tire, the fastest, ... Some tire records

Tire records

The biggest (Michelin 59/80R63)

This tire is mounted on the tipcarts of exacavation quarry in Australia. It's weight is 5 tons and measure 4m of diameter for 1,48m of width.
Its cost is 40 000 $ the unity !
They are inflated in 6,5 bar of pressure. This very low for such a big tire. It enables to run on big stones without damaging the tire.
This tire is only avaliable on the Caterpillat 797B. See how big is this machine compared to a car !

The biggest tire of the world, the Michelin 59/80R63

The fastest tire (Goodyear / Thrust SSC)

Thrust SSC (SuperSonic Car) is a British designed and built jet-propelled car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers and Jeremy Bliss, which holds the world land speed record, set on October 15, 1997, when it achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph) and became the first land vehicle to officially break the sound barrier, not considering the earlier but unproven claim of the Budweiser Rocket. The car was driven by Wing Commander Andy Green in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada USA. It was powered by two afterburning Rolls-Royce Spey engines as used in British F-4 Phantom II jet fighters. It is 16.5 m (54 ft) long, 3.7 m (12 ft) wide and weighs 10.5 tons (10.7 t). The twin engines developed a thrust of 223 kN (50,000 lbf) and burned around 4 Imperial gallons per second (18.2 l/s or 4.8 US gallons/s). Transformed into the usual terms for car mileages based on its maximum speed, the fuel consumption was about 5,500 l/100 km or 0.04 mpg U.S.

The future of the tire

The American Research and development section of the French firm Michelin announced their new product, the "tweel". The rim and the "tire" do not make more than one and does not appeal any more to the standard inflating by the air. According to Michelin, the characteristics of this type of tire are very encouragentes.
Beyond these first real-world applications, Michelin has additional projects for Tweel on construction skidsteers and a variety of military vehicles. The most intriguing application may be Michelin's early prototype Tweel fitment for passenger cars. The mobility company released video of promising Tweel performance on an Audi A4.
Michelin has also found that it can tune Tweel performances independently of each other, which is a significant change from conventional tires. This means that vertical stiffness (which primarily affects ride comfort) and lateral stiffness (which affects handling and cornering) can both be optimized, pushing the performance envelope in these applications and enabling new performances not possible for current inflated tires. Additionally, Michelin has increased the lateral stiffness by a factor of five, making the prototype unusually responsive in its handling.