See-through Tires!

**doctorbrody** · #1: 03-30-2009, 10:45 AM

These tires are made in South Carolina.
Radical new tire design by Michelin - they had a pair at the Philadelphia car show.

Pretty cool, right?

**alaskajoel** · #2: 03-30-2009, 10:50 AM

creative, but rediculous

**Gmoe** · #3: 03-30-2009, 10:50 AM

Not a tire.. Called a "tweel" if I remember correctly. Yes, very cool though.

^ I think there's no sidewall just to show what's going on inside. I assume a production model would have a sidewall and would look 99% the same as a reg. tire.

**alaskajoel** · #4: 03-30-2009, 10:55 AM

i would hope so - i can't imagine driving in snow or mud with these...you would get it all stuck in the tire and throw the balance off horribly.

**darkfox1** · #5: 03-30-2009, 11:36 AM

these have been around since the car in the pic was new.

never released.. I think its a great idea.. put sidewalls on it like a normal tire and make it so they dont require air.

Then the politicians who think we can save gas by inflating tires will have nothing to say.

and construction workers will be VERY happy when they run over an entire box cutter and it gets into the tire.. and they can keep driving.

**JonLGT** · #6: 03-30-2009, 12:45 PM

If I see this again....

**Dark-V** · #7: 03-30-2009, 02:07 PM

I think them not being released yet (if they are still even planning on it) is a good thing so long term reliability is established. And never needing to worry about blowing a tire is a great thing. But there could be issues with some of the supports breaking or tearing...

Lots to think about.

**F-WDC Spec B** · #8: 03-30-2009, 02:36 PM

it would seam like a con to this design would be the transfer of force from the tire to the rim. in other words when you would hit a pot hole or something the force of the shock would transfer directly to the rim via the (for lack of a better term) semi rigid spokes where as air does act like a cusion.

**LGT Dave** · #9: 03-30-2009, 03:05 PM

I'd like to know what kind of weight differences there are between these and regular tires too.

**F-WDC Spec B** · #**10:** 03-30-2009, 03:30 PM

actually i just noticed that the spokes of the rim meet the spoke of the tire. maybe it is just a coinsidence but maybe that was done because those areas could take more....

**darkfox1** · #**11:** 03-30-2009, 05:02 PM

this could be a good idea in runflats at least..

**rubberman** · #**12:** 03-31-2009, 06:05 AM

The tweels do have some design improvements to go through, noise being one since the exposed spokes are open and cause air turbulence. They are being used in some construction & Bobcat type skidsteer markets (no flat tires is good for reducing downtime).

They are a pretty cool concept and very tunable by material / design for specific suspension response. They do offer some significant handling improvement potential over conventional tires, but it'll probably be years before any market products are available.

**Han'sGT** · #**13:** 03-31-2009, 08:53 AM

Didn't we see these over a year ago

**Levish** · #**14:** 03-31-2009, 02:32 PM

I believe the car is a 02-03 so you probably saw it much longer ago

**franklin** · #**15:** 03-31-2009, 08:50 PM

Whats the point ? They are weird , but are they any better or just weird ?