tyre development

Creating a tyre tread by hand may seem old-fashioned or even quaint, but even the best-known tyre brands rely upon skilled carvers when developing new patterns. We visited Continental in Germany to see how this is done and to find out why technology hasn’t consigned engraving to the history books.

It’s been raining a lot lately, and that is great news for tyre developers testing the wet performance of their latest products. Not so good if they’re trying to test tyre performance in the dry, and it would be better to go indoors in search of better weather. Continental has done precisely this.

It’s unlikely your motoring future includes a moon buggy in the driveway, but a set of ‘space tyres’ may be just over the horizon. Goodyear is about to blast its tyre development off into orbit.