Innovation Through Driving

Working flat out on safety

Suffering a puncture ranks amongst the biggest fears of UK motorists. Not just the horror of a blow out at speed, but the nightmare of having to change a flat when you're in a hurry, when it's cold and wet or with other traffic racing past.

It's an understandable concern as our research shows few drivers are lucky enough to escape this predicament. 80% of you have suffered at least one puncture in your driving life - yet 25% admit you don't know how to change a tyre. Adding insult to injury, we also discovered that in almost half of the cities tested even a lone woman stranded by the roadside would get no help from passing drivers.

Imagine, therefore, if there was a tyre that could handle almost any type of puncture and still carry you safely onwards to home or some other safe spot to get help.

Thanks to our RunOnFlat tyres, you don't have to imagine any more.

With RunOnFlat our pioneering designers have radically re-engineered the traditional tyre to massively reinforce the sidewalls. So, when a RunOnFlat tyre is punctured and air pressure is lost, it doesn't collapse as a normal tyre would - helping you stay in control of your car control at the critical puncture moment.

In combination with a new anchoring system and unique Goodyear compound, the innovative sidewall construction then allows you to drive on for up to 50 miles at up to 50mph (providing you drive carefully and defensively) until you can find a safer, more convenient place to effect a repair or replacement.

The RunOnFlat tyre was put to the test last year when Goodyear set eccentric British challenger Lloyd Scott, perhaps his most bizarre and challenging task yet, to raise money for cancer charity, Children with Leukaemia. Lloyd, 48, from Essex, who has previously cycled across Australia on a Penny Farthing bicycle and completed last year's London Marathon in a full suit of armour, agreed to take the wheel for Goodyear's RunOnFlat Rally last year. The RunOnFlat Rally saw Lloyd drive more than 1,600 miles in distance across the British Isles, from John O'Groats to Land's End in a MINI with flat tyres.

Not satisfied with the challenge of struggling across the UK in his specially decorated RunOnFlat Rally MINI with deflated tyres, Lloyd also completed some 'special stages' during the rally. These special stages included some of the most bendy, scary and narrow roads in Britain.

We believe RunOnFlat heralds a new era in road safety; making the danger of punctures a thing of the past. And we aren't the only ones who think so. Leading marques such as BMW, MINI and Mercedes are now choosing to fit RunOnFlat tyres as standard. And we're undertaking over 100 development programmes with other leading manufacturers to further increase their availability.

So, it seems safe to say, our innovation could be a major safety feature of the next car you buy.