World’s fastest Shed partners with First Stop

SUVs now account for 37 per cent of all car sales. The Nissan Qashqai is the UK’s most popular model. Most people are familiar with what Range Rover and VW have to offer in this space, but more recently SUVs made by Seat and Dacia have increased in popularity as well. With SUVs as popular as ever, SUV tyre sales have been on the up-and-up too. So the question for many motorists is: what tyres should I buy for my SUV?

If you’re researching tyres online, the chances are you’ve seen a lot of tyre labels. Introduced by the European Union in 2012, the tyre label is designed to help consumers by showing the tyre’s relative performance in three main categories: Fuel Consumption, Wet Grip, and Pass-by Noise.

The Mazda MX-5 arrived in the UK nigh on three decades ago, and the love these cars enjoy can be seen in registration figures. More than a quarter of the 25,022 first-gen cars sold here are still on the road. Pirelli loves the MX-5 too, and has been involved in bringing the roaster world record glory on the 30th anniversary of its launch.

Snow is rare in most of Britain at the best of times. This year’s mild winter means it is even more difficult to imagine what it felt like for seven men and their three vehicles to face 5,000 kilometres of ice over a period of 20. Still that’s what Icelandic-American expedition team Expeditions7 went through recently when they drove from the southern coast of Greenland to the land’s northernmost spot and back. One of the team’s special vehicles built by Arctic Trucks was equipped with Nokian Hakkapeliitta 44 tyres. These are tailored what Nokian calls “real winter”. Now that’s an understatement. White-outs with zero visibility made it a unique challenge at times. On the slowest legs of the journey, the vehicles could only manage 10 kilometres per hour and the lowest recorded temperatures were -40 degrees Celsius!

Ever wondered what tractor tyres and wheels go fastest? Telford-based GKN Wheels and Structures was one of the key partners in JCB’s recent tractor speed record and the tyres were supplied by BKT. Now you know. But the details are impressive. Following two successful runs at Elvington Airfield in York, the JCB Fastrac broke the world record for a tractor, achieving a peak speed of an incredible 153.771mph and an average of 135.191mph – making it a tractor tyre and wheel speed record too!