Thought you all might like to see the next generation in tire technology from Michelin. I was emailed these photos from a friend who said Michelin showed them at the Philadelphia Auto Show. These tires are airless so are not susceptible to puncture damage. No more air compressors or flat repair kits needed, and less petroleum in the manufacturing process. They are pretty funky looking.

 

I wonder what the ride quality/noise is on those.

 

i saw this post like 6 months ago on a z forum...same time the carbon fiber wheel from germany popped up

 

With no sidewall, I wonder what cornering performance is like????

 

It's great technology, and it might have a future in commercial or fleet applications. But lets be honest . . . it looks like hell. There's no way you'll ever see my G sporting a set of those fugly things!

 

I remember seeing these a looong time ago... so what's going on with these?
I wonder how these will work with a little camber...

 

Well, on a conventional tire the sidewall is what gives the tire it's lateral support, but this tire gets it's lateral support from the numerous strips of rubber running from side to side. In actuality, the lateral stiffness is much greater than on a conventional tire and makes it much more responsive.

 

Thanks, that's good to know.

 

We could always adopt 80-100 year old technology and go back to solid rubber tires.

 

Fugly exactly, still pretty neat though

 

whoa, i saw that like years ago, i thought it was some stupid joke but... hmmm... guess i was wrong...

 

I would guess that the open sidewall is for demonstration only. In production, they'll probably put one on. Otherwise you'll get rocks, water, whatever caught up in those ribs and kicked out. However, since the sidewall isn't part of the structure, it could probably be translucent or a number of other colors. That could be interesting.

 

saw this a really long time ago.........saw a video on them to that showed how they perform