The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed some new tire ratings labels to help consumers looking to buy new tires. Rating tires in three areas, fuel economy and greenhouse commissions, wet traction, and durability, the NHTSA is apparently trying to focus consumers’ attention on the fuel savings to be found in choosing a low-rolling resistance tire. Plus, this is a handy and quick way to directly compare tires, something that is notoriously difficult to do. But holy lawsuits, Batman! What could the unintended consequences be?
Celebrity car designer Chip Foose along with Pirelli and Grand-Am Road Racing are coming together for a promotional giveaway of a custom Chip Foose/Pirelli Edition Ford Flex. While the underappreciated Flex is not met with much excitement from the general car-loving community, any Foose-ified vehicle is and this one promises to be as cool as the one pictured above from Chip Foose at SEMA in 2007.
Every year, the New Oxford American Dictionary makes a major announcement, it officially crowns the new Word Of The Year. I can imagine the entire New Oxford staff excitedly gathered around the editors desk with paper streamers and noisemakers ready to hear this years winner. It’s a big deal in the dictionary scene, or at least that’s how I imagine it. This year’s word: Hypermiling
This past year we had the summer of $4 dollar gas. American drivers were totally flabbergasted at the pumps. Americans are used to driving around 6,000 pound SUVs, and now those people were paying for gas with a roll of hundred dollar bills. People re-arranged their schedules and lifestyles to better suit their gas mileage. Barack Obama even suggested his convoy keep their tires properly inflated while on the campaign trail. It was a shocking experience, and that shock will forever be remembered in our dictionaries.
Closed-circuit television footage from a security camera mounted in the lot of a Volkswagen dealership filmed the unfortunate result of a poorly maintained eighteen wheeler with improperly greased bearings. First seen in the distance hurtling off the expressway, the enormous, smoking tire bounced through the dealership parking lot before slamming into a parked car.
Seen later off camera: two understandably startled salesman discreetly changing their undergarments.
A teaser video showing the new, SVT-tuned Ford F-150 Raptor in action has hit the media recently, generating some fresh hype for Ford’s newest pickup truck. Tentatively scheduled for release in 2010, the Ford has been overheard boasting to its dealer network that the F-150 Raptor will be “The first and only Baja 1000 Trophy Truck you’ll be able to buy from a dealer.” Obviously intended to be the off-roading expert of the F-150 family, the F-150 Raptor will be outfitted with customized Fox Racing long-travel shocks, 35″ all-terrain tires, and Ford’s 6.1L BOSS V8 engine, tentatively expected to produce 380 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.
There’s no shortage of aftermarket wheel accessories available out there today, and despite the presence of a few designs significantly lacking in taste, sometimes the perfect wheel can be the cherry on top (or -erm- on the bottom) of an absolutely delicious ride. As Chris from Automoblog pointed out, however, choosing the perfect set of shoes for your old metal lady shouldn’t be approached casually and actually requires a small amount of research in order to be done correctly.
Sure, the guys at your weekly basketball game might be impressed when you cruise up to the half court Wednesday night with a sweet set of 20″ Giovanni’s on your ‘98 Crown Vic, but you’re going to have a mighty tough time looking fly later on when you have to cruise on over to Pep Boys with roughly $2,000 in transmission damage. Over-sized wheels (typically defined as anything exceeding 15″ in circumference) have a tendency to throw off the OEM wheel-to-hub ratio, which can lead to anything from snapped ball joints to speedometer inaccuracies. In addition, incorrectly sized tires will alter your final drive ratio, producing more “roll out” and placing essentially the same amount of stress on your transmission as would be caused by constantly towing a trailer.
This weekend, the F1 Japanese Grand Prix will feature special tires to draw attention to an environmental initiative the racing league hopes will resonate with fans. Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, has thrown their weight behind an environmental compaign called “Make Cars Greener.” Beyond the specially-prepared and green-grooved Bridgestone tires, “Make Cars Green” has 10 points to “green” up everyday driving.
Although largely common sense suggestions, www.makecarsgreen.com recommends the following:
Everyone wants to be eco-friendly. Everyone is concerned with electric cars and hydrogen cars and air cars and solar power on the roof and every possible way to reduce their “carbon footprint”… but what about tires?
More than 240 million tires are thrown away each year in the United States. Fewer than 7 percent are recycled, 11 percent are burned for fuel, and 5 percent are exported. The remaining 78 percent are sent to landfills, stockpiled, or illegally dumped. That’s almost 190 million old tires a year wasted in this country alone. People in the auto recycling industry have known this for years. Tires are a pain in the ass to get rid of, no one wants them.
Believe it or not, some people dread having to buy car tires. They stick with what’s on their car for as long as possible, even to the point of said tires going bald, endangering the lives of anyone in the vicinity. But for the uninitiated, or those who haven’t bought a tire since everything was sized in purely imperial measurements, buying a car tire of any kind, let alone the perfect one, can often be painful and confusing. That said, here’s a simple guide and some tips for buying the right car tires.
Tire Ratings System
The alphanumeric rating system of tires can be maddening, even for car enthusiasts. Throw in the fact that the letters for speed ratings are, as some might hope or expect, not in alphabetical order, and that each manufacturer trots out their “branded” technology, and you can safely say that even the informed amongst us can sometimes get confused on how to choose the right tire. But rest assured, you can still find the perfect tire for your vehicle without using the confusing alphanumeric tire rating system.
Believe it or not, some people dread having to buy car tires. They stick with what’s on their car for as long as possible, even to the point of said tires going bald, endangering the lives of anyone in the vicinity. But for the uninitiated, or those who haven’t bought a tire since everything was sized in purely imperial measurements, buying a car tire of any kind, let alone the perfect one, can often be painful and confusing. That said, here’s a simple guide and some tips for buying the right car tires.
