2026 Tyre Selection: From Solid Rubber to Smart Compounds
The features of a contemporary British car would be unfamiliar to drivers from a few years ago. Engines have evolved from billowing steam and smoke to quiet electric hums, and dashboards have replaced brass gauges with high-definition glass screens. At first view, the tyres could appear rather like those of a century ago. This apparent simplicity is misleading. Maybe the most sophisticated part of the contemporary car, the tyre has come a long way from being a simple piece of hard rubber to a very advanced piece of safety equipment. Early on in the history of automobiles, cross-ply tyres were rather common. They provided very little comfort, were firm, and tended to overheat. Mid-20th-century radial tyre conversion altered everything. Manufacturers produced a tyre that could bend without losing its form by varying the arrangement of the internal cords. This gave a smoother ride and, most significantly, a considerably bigger road footprint. Now, the molecular structure of the rubber its...