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A man in Calhoun County, South Carolina collected so many used tires on his rural property his neighbors could see it from space using Google Maps Satellite View. How many tires does it take to make a dent in the planet's face? About 250,000. More »
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Next time you see your old pair of worn Kumhos chucked into a pile just imagine what would happen if they were given to Korean artist Yong Ho Ji, the Michelangelo of recycled tire art. More »
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What this latest Bridgestone advert lacks in sex appeal, it more than makes up for in an old lady smacking an old guy on his tailfin. Maybe that's your thing, anyways. And check out those Dagmars. (Hat tip to Skulldriveshaft!) More »
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It's not even January, and already millions of Americans have had weeks of snow driving. Every winter, astute owners raise the question of whether it's time to buy snow tires. BMWBlog's Shawn Molnar offers his take. — Ed. More »
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A flock of birds, a school of fish, a murder of crows. What do you call a group of 100 drift enthusiasts congregating at a West Virginia track on the edge of winter? Let's borrow from horses: a rake. More »
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The 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marked not only the end of a mesmerizing Formula One season but also Bridgestone’s participation in the sport as a tire supplier. From 2011 on it’s all Pirelli all the time. More »
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In Norway, the Gatebil auto festivals draw thousands of spectators every year for a mix of car show, parts bazaar and racing. Here's our gallery from this year's final Gatebil drift, enveloped in epic clouds of shredded tires. More »
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Performance alignment settings are great for the track, but they'll eat your tires alive on the street. More »
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Seeing a Lexus with its rear tires steeply cambered by an overladen trunk, John Scott, a Wisconsin car enthusiast, had a brilliant idea. Now his concept for negatively cambered tires may literally reinvent the wheel. More »
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A NASCAR setup tire in the paddock at Michigan International Speedway in June of 2007. (Yes, we know the sport long ago transcended its stereotype. It's still funny.) Photo Credit: Sam Smith More »
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This commercial from Russia's Altay Tire company uses all the same conventions other tire companies rely on, just without any sense of restraint and with far more close-ups of the product. We're assuming the product is Russian hookers. (NSFW) More »
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No, a "South African Spare Tire" isn't a new mixed drink, it's a quick-n-dirty car repair where the driver wraps a length of garden hose around a rim and drives on it like a tire. Some asphalt marring may occur. More »
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Check out those whitewalls! More »
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Hidden behind Toyota recalls and its own brake recall, Ford's issued a recall of defective 2010 Shelby GT500 rear tires. How the recall affects you below so you can possibly keep your family alive. More »
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What has less to do with selling tires than the 2010 Pirelli Calendar? The making of the 2010 Pirelli Calendar video. Hot sloth-on-sloth action below. NSFW. More »
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We have Terry Richardson to thank for the not-so-subtly pornographic pictures of just-of-age girls in the 2010 Pirelli Calendar. We have no idea what this has to do with selling tires, but here's the whole thing, uncensored. Super NSFW! More »
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The 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor has some massive 4x4 truck tires. How much does a 35-inches-when-mounted-and-upright LT315/70R17 BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO tire and SVT rim actually weigh? Check the picture above to see what Edmunds found. Remember, lift with the knees. More »
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There is a public playground in Tokyo constructed from some 3000 discarded road tires, some of which are assembled into various sculptures. Including, of course, several Godzillas. More »
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A set of new Cragars for $50? OK, killjoys, we know that's about 300 bucks in 2009 money, but this Mark C. Bloome ad from the January 24, 1969 Los Angeles Times is still fascinating.
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It's that time of year again, when Pirelli sends aspiring Playboy photographers out on calendar assignment, letting them dream up ridiculous ways to photograph nude or nearly nude models in exotic locations. What this has to do with the business of selling tires we have no idea. Whatever, nekkid ladies! Hit the jump for a large and VERY NSFW gallery from the 2009 Pirelli Calendar. More »
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Own a high-performance supercar but want to ruin its ride and handling? Well Kumho has just the thing for you! Presented today at SEMA were these new ultra-low-profile 15-Series “performance” tires. Available only in 385/15-22 size for now, they’re designed for the otherwise-competent Ferrari F430, Dodge Viper and Corvette Z06. But, while the 15-Series tires are just for looks, their complete and utter lack of sidewalls has an unexpected benefit. More »
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Mike Allen over at Popular Mechanics put together a handy list of the top five reasons for tire failure. We figure it's important stuff since, you know, your tires are pretty much more important than any other part of your car — they're what the whole rest of the vehicle rides on. Believe it or not, there's more that can be wrong with your tires than just underinflation, so check out the list below the jump. More »
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One of the most impressive things about the 2009 Corvette ZR1 is how much grip it has. Normally, sticking 638 HP into something that weighs just 3,350 LBS and driving only the rear wheels would result in massive amounts of wheel spin, both in a straight line and around corners. But in the ZR1, it doesn’t — not without significant provocation. This is partly due to the whiz-bang magnetic damping system that adjusts itself near-instantaneously to keep the car level around corners and keep the tires in contact with the road over rough surfaces. But a big part of its grip, and the resulting 7:26.4 ‘Ring time, comes down to the tires: Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 ZPs specially developed, racecar-style, alongside the ZR1. More »
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Of course you know how to do a burnout. We all talk a big game when it comes to hoonage, but as we get ready for the Woodward Dream Cruise this weekend, we're sure there's got to be someone out there who might appreciate a simple instructional video. For this lesson, we'll be showing you how to do a burnout with a rear-wheel-drive, automatic transmission vehicle.
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This commercial aired during the first Monday Night Football game in 1970 and proves just what everyone already knew: women can't drive worth a damn and need exceptional tires to compensate for the lack of driving ability. Of course, the woman in the video has to deal with construction, bumpy roads, detours and more while picking up her manly husband from the airport after a very long and manly business trip. It kind of reminds us of the shower scene from Psycho, which is fairly accurate given a woman behind the wheel was like being murdered, at least in the 1970s. [Youtube] (Thanks, Sugi) More »
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Just when the cheesy and flashy auto customization market couldn't get any worse, a company with a horrible name like Sweetskinz has come out with artistic tires. If anything positive were to come from Sweetskinz, its the increased tire visibility, which is something maybe one person, somewhere in the world, may be interested in having. Other than that, these are pretty lame. More »
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Forget about the complicated tire pressure monitoring systems integrated into luxury cars, the P-eye makes the task of checking your tire's pressure simple, very simple. It's a cap for the tire that will blink red when the tire is 5-percent below its recommended pressure. The system does have a flaw, albeit a minor one. More »
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With missions to the Moon and eventually Mars in the cards, NASA is in need of a new tire capable of supporting surface exploration. Goodyear has unveiled this tire as a potential solution. Based on the original wire mesh 1960s Lunar Rover tires, they've been updated to fulfill NASA's much increased needs. More »
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Anybody that has ever tried to put those damned tire chains on can smile and know that the age old midwest winter traditional may soon be extinct thanks to Q Celsius, a new tire that has retractable studs. The Q Celsius takes its name from James Bond's gadget man, Q, and operates with a switch inside the vehicle. More »
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Here we have the latest trailer for the live-action Speed Racer movie. It drops some backstory and provides our first insight into what made Speed Racer a demon on wheels. We're still not that impressed by the Wachowski brothers' extravaganza, based on these early looks. However, there's definitely some kinda cool stuff going on with Speed's famous set of wheels. For example, this trailer shows the Mach 5's ability to replace its own shredded tires while flying through the air. I bet Tony Stewert is really jealous right now. More »
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This is quite possibly the first sign of the apocalypse, but Kumho now has the Ecsta DX Aroma all-season tires available. Kumho is using the term "aroma" literally, because these tires have ditched the masculine smell of rubber in favor of lavender. How does one get tires to smell like a color? More »
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Most guys into off roading will equip their rig with anything from a set of 33" tires for light duty rock crawling to 44" tires for deep mud bogging. Of course everyone has their preferences and guys usually make tire size decisions based on ego as much as utility. Kristjan Kristjansson of Iceland either has a big purpose, or an enormous ego because he's gone ahead and fitted his GMC Suburban with 49" flotation tires. They make sense for playing in Iceland's frozen wonderlands, but we have to wonder how the tire hum has affected the cabin ambiance. More »
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It's winter, for crying out loud! Who wants to squat down on a frozen driveway while buffeted by subzero windchill to check their tire pressure with an old-skool gauge? Not me. Enter the TPMS-201, a great invention that caters to the lazy bastard in all of us. (Also caters to those people who don't own cars that automatically monitor tire pressure.) More »
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I was more than sure that tires capable of sensing low air-pressure and flats already existed—either digitally or by the tilted axis. Reuters seems to think otherwise and is reporting on a new "smart tire" being developed by researchers at Purdue University. More »
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It makes such incredibly perfect sense for tire companies to be huge supporters of Drifting Madness (and burnout competitions, of course) that it was inevitable that one of them would put up a drifting Flash game to encourage young hoons to hone their tire-wear-enhancing techniques while online (yes, yes, it's been around for a while, so anyone who's limbering up their 1337 skilz to break out the scathing "ur teh lame this so old" comments can just go somewhere else). Players can choose from a variety of vehicles, including a Fjord, Muzda, or Minimal minivan, all equipped with a selection of Marhal Tyres; the sound effects are just the thing to liven up a dull Monday workplace. We recommend the Minimal. Thanks to Franzouse for the tip! [Driftgame.au] More »
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A researcher in Pennsylvania claims he's found a new source of oil, and it's right under our cars. By microwaving it inside a vacuum, Frank Pringle says he's able to break an old car tire down into ready-to-use diesel fuel. A 14-inch tire yields 1.2 gallons of diesel, 7.5 pounds of carbon black, 50 cubic feet of combustible gas and 2 pounds of high-strength steel. All of this takes about 50 cents of electricity. His process is currently being refined for large-scale use. Through the same method he's able to refine grass clippings into ethanol, extract oil from shale and create gas from coal. Pringle is also working on a way to extract usable fuels from heavily polluted river sludge, a process that could clean our industrial waterways while powering our vehicles. [Via The Daily Green] More »
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Apparently the Woodward Dream Cruise ain't just all about the cars — but about the bikes as well. And when we say bikes, we don't mean something by Harley-Davidson or Suzuki, although there's plenty of those hangin' round these here parts. Rather, we mean the two-wheeled people-powered kind of transportation. And this here proud Mary bike's got a serious case of a swollen back wheel. Maybe the owners should apply a cold compress to it or something — you know, to cut down on the swelling. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=290942&view=rss&microfeed=true We're not sure we want to get a translation of this ad from you Japanese speakers out there- it seems more bewilderingly profound when we can't understand what the tuxedo-clad barefoot protagonist and his sidekick are hollering at each other. More »
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A late season rain storm rolled into sunny Los Angeles a few Fridays ago, just in time for us to go down to the Santa Anita race track and blow our meager earnings on the ponies slide around on wet autocross course set up in the parking lot of the San Gabriel Valley horse track. Only a few journalists were on hand for the event which was largely attended by tire distributors and shop owners. The lot of us got to sit under a tent and learn a few things about tires before driving. More »
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