Whenever a company has a great idea but fails to turn it into an actual product, others will be more than willing to take over their work. Airless tires were such a great idea, promising to end the angst of a flat-tire scenario. But, unfortunately, there is no commercial product available yet, so two guys decided to take it into their own hands. The result is surprisingly good.
Remember how the Tesla Cybertruck unveiling spurred a host of customs garages in Russia to build Cybertruck copies based on useless soviet-era off-roaders? Well, those poor copies are still marching on, while the original Cybertruck remains a rare sighting in and around the Tesla gigafactory. This happened so many times and right now we have another example coming from the UK, this time with the airless tire.
A racing driver and a mechanical engineer got a little too enthusiastic with the airless tire concept that several tire makers touted as the next best thing but never materialized. In theory, airless tires are better for the environment, never get a flat, and are safe from dangerous blowouts. They have only one problem though – you can’t buy any, so the guys at Driven Media decided it is time they make their own.
Racing driver Scott Mansell (no relation to Nigel) and his team used water pipes and tire tread to create what they called DIY airless tires. The result is, well, airless, but you could hardly consider them tires. Nevertheless, despite the primitive look and feel, they perform surprisingly well, allowing the Caterham Seven in the video below to perform (pretty much) as expected. Of course, not without problems.
The guys used a 14-inch steel wheel from an old Mondeo as the base and placed 15 pieces of freshwater pipe around it. Several smaller pipes were added to reduce vibrations, and the entire contraption was assembled using 300 nuts and bolts. They wrapped everything in standard tire tread and proceeded to test their airless tires in various scenarios, including driving over a bed of nails and over potholes, but also drifting and driving at speed on a track.
As you’d imagine, these tires are far from perfect, but they serve their purpose pretty well. Two problems arise from the test – they’re noisy and vibrate pretty badly. That is before the nuts and bolts started to undo themselves. Watch the video below and have fun, but don’t try to replicate this, as it could get really dangerous.
After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions. Full profile
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