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**The Story Behind Michelin Pilot Sport Pax Tires**

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Okay, Perelli P Zeros, just $144 a tire. Pretty good, not bad, not a bad deal. Got Michelin Pilots, $200 a tire, okay. Yokohama Advans, oh, okay, $329. Yeesh, that's expensive (chuckling). All right, what are these?

**The High-End Tires - Michelin Pilot Sport Pax**

Michelin Pilot Sport Pax. $42,000? Yep, that is a real thing. Now these are Michelin Pilot Sport Pax and they are specifically designed for the Bugatti Veyron. And they cost $42,000 a set.

**Why So Expensive?**

Why do they cost so much more than the average tire? What allows it to demand such a price? Is it just a markup because they're on a Bugatti? Well today we're gonna look at this very special tire, how it's adapted for the Veyron, and shine some light as to why they cost so darn much. Let's get it.

[Hip hop beat]

**A Special Thank You**

Thank you to Audible for once again sponsoring an episode of \

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Okay, Perelli P Zeros, just $144 a tire.Pretty good, not bad, not a bad deal.Got Michelin Pilots, $200 a tire, okay.Yokohama Advans,oh, okay, $329.Yeesh, that's expensive (chuckling).All right, what are these?Michelin Pilot Sport Pax.$42,000?Yep, that is a real thing.Now these are Michelin Pilot Sport Paxand they are specificallydesigned for the Bugatti Veyron.And they cost$42,000 a set.Why?Why do they cost so muchmore than the average tire?What allows it to demand such a price?Is it just a markup becausethey're on a Bugatti?Well today we're gonna lookat this very special tire,how it's adapted for the Veyron,and shine some light as towhy they cost so darn much.Let's get it.(hip hop beat)Thank you to Audible for once againsponsoring an episodeof "Bumper 2 Bumper".Now as you all know,we here at Donut took a muchneeded break a few weeks back.I was able to go outand do a little fishing,ride the old two-stroke.And to make sure I wasstill engaging my brainand staying creativeI listened to a fewaudio books on Audible.They have an audio bookor audio experiencefor literally everyone.And using Audible,it's been a great way to give my eyesa little break from all the screens.But now that I've jumpedback into the daily grindof crafting auto entertainmentand struggling to sleep,but thanks to Audible Sleep,the stresses of daily life fade awaywhile I drift into a deep slumberlistening just soothing audio experiencefrom Sarah Auster and fricking Diddy.I used to listen to Diddyto get pumped for middleschool basketball games.Now I listened to him to fall asleep.We're going full circle, people.So what all you guys waiting for?Try out Audible for yourself today.Visit audible.com/bumper2bumperor text "Bumper2Bumper" to 500-500.And thank you for supportingthe companies that support us.It's fair to say that tiresare an often overlooked aspect of a carwhen discussing speed.People understandably wantto talk about the engine,the stiff suspension, andthe aerodynamic design.Except none of that really mattersunless the rubber that meetsthe road is doing its job.So enter in Michelin'sPax Run Run Flat system.The Pax system was a reinventionof the traditional run flat tirethat ended up on the Veyron.At this point in timethere was a fairly mainstreamapproach to the run flat tire,which was to have a stiffened sidewall.And that sidewall is asmooth wall of rubberbetween the tire tread and the bead.And the sidewall usually is what protectsthe inner structure ofthe tire from road wear.On a run flat tire however,a puncture meant thestiffer sidewall was neededto bear the weight temporarilyand allow the driver to continue to driveat a reduced speed.But there's a good sideand there's a downside with everything.And unfortunately this created an issue.The stiffer sidewall madethe ride much harsherand even adversely affected the handlingat times when the tirewas properly inflated.Pax system, by contrast,uses a much softer sidewallwith a supportive ring insertmade out of a combinationof polyurethane and rubber.And that ring is coated with a geland the polymer insert is wrapped aroundthe outside of the wheelunderneath the tire casing.And as a result the tirewon't collapse onto the wheeldespite the fact that ithas no air inside of it.And meanwhile, the gel that's there,it lubricates the tire as it runs flat.This polymer ring allows the tireto be a much stronger alternativeto the normal run flat tirewhile simultaneously retaininga much more comfortable and stable rideunder normal driving conditions.Now that sounds, oh,pretty fricking usefulif I was going, oh, I don't know,253 miles an hourin my Bugatti bomb-body.(engine revving)For the Veyron, Michelindidn't stop there.The Veyron has a bespoke modificationthat came in the form of its size.Now the average tire is somewhere aroundnine and a quarter inches wide.Totally fine for everyday use.The Veyron's rear tire widthsits at a healthy 14.4 inches.So here's about 14.4 inchesand here's about nine inches.14.4 inches.Nine inches.Yeah, uh huh, you get my point.It's a thick boy tire.It's so widethat it actually is the widest rear tireever made for a production car.The Pax system has a custom designed tirewith a specifically shaped beadlock.And the bead is a bundle of metalwrapped in the rubber aroundthe inside edges of the tirethat latches under the edgeof the wheel creating a seal.This specially shaped beadensures that it stays in placeregardless of the lack of air pressureby fitting it into aspecial groove in the wheel.And the need for this custom groovein the ring insert I talked about earliermeant that the wheels themselveshad to be custom designed as well.So the Pax system requireda Pax tire and a Pax wheel.You couldn't just go and put a Pax tireon any old wheel and vice versa.Bespoke equipment is what that is.That kind of sounds expensive.And do you know what?Yeah, it was really expensive.Tires with this Pax technologywere also offered on mainstream vehicleslike the Honda Odyssey,the Nissan Quest,and the Acura RL.But there was a littlebitty, tiny problem.In order to repair orreplace a Michelin Pax tire,a standard repair shop needs to havespecialized Pax tire equipmentand additional trainingto know how to put those tireson and take those tires off.And this equipment could cost anywherefrom $3,000 to $15,000depending on what the shop already had.And on top of that,the installation time wason average twice as long.If you watch a videoof someone trying to putone of these tires onit looks really hard.You ever put on tire by yourself,you know what a huge painin the (bleep) it is.Now this is double thepain in the (bleep).So the similarities of the Pax systemfor an average car like theHonda Odyssey and the Veyron,they end right there.So to further stabilized the Veyronthe tires were glued to the wheel itselfin order to further securethe bead to the wheel.And what's even more insaneis that the wheels themselveshave to be replacedevery two to three tire changes.Even if it was driven zero miles,the glue needs to bereplaced every 18 monthsto ensure bead sealintegrity at high speeds.Hey, it's hard to blame them.It's got 1,000 horsepowerand at 250 plus miles an hourthat becomes a real concernbecause wheels begin to experiencemore G-forces than any other tire.But how many G-forces, Jerry Berry?Well, don't worry, 'cause UncleJerry's has got you covered.We're gonna look at it.The combination of immenseG-forces and air pressurecreates an excessive amount of friction,and therefore heat builds up in the tireswhich eventually leads to failure.What does that disintegrationprocess entail?Well, when the tire gets hot,the air molecules inside get hotand causing the air to expand.Not only does the tire pressure increase,at high speeds most ofthe forces are occurringat the center of the tread.This causes the center ofthe tread to actually risefrom the massive centrifugal forces,meaning that the tire to somedegree is actually pointy.,Think about it, it's not really flat.There's an actual edge there.For the Veyron,the tires can only withstand these forcesfor just 15 minutes at its topspeed before disintegrating.That sounds pretty cool to say,but I want to give you amore quantitative perspectiveat these forces.Let's take a look at the Veyronwhen it's going at its topspeed of 267 miles an hour.At that speed,the tires are turning at arate of 4,300 times a minute,creating a ton of G forces.Now what are G forces?Well you probably know that,it's the acceleration of an objectrelative to Earth's gravity.Now the Veyron's tires at its top speedare experiencing 5,442 Gs of acceleration.(Jerry making weird noise)It's even hard toimagine how much that is.It's a lot.Now when it comes time toactually making the tire,it takes a lot longer to produce.A normal everyday tire curesin a fairly convenient 16 minutes.The Pilot Sport Pax tires on the Veyron,it takes them an hour to produce those.Now Michelin is historicallyvery tight lippedabout their rubber compounds,but we can assume that thesetires use a bespoke compoundspecifically designed todeal with the high stressesof going 250 plus miles per hour.And in fact,when Bugatti approachedMichelin in the early 2000swith the idea of hittingmore than 250 miles an hour,Michelin was like (scoffs),they scoffed at them.At the time there was no tirethat could handle the weight of the Veyronat just over two tons at those speeds.Now the stresses are so intensethat the tread design for these tirescouldn't be more than five32nds of an inch deep.because the deeper treadwould flex too muchat such high speeds.Now when you take yourcar to the tire shopthe average tire changetakes about 30 minutes,maybe an hour if they're busy that day.And it will cost anywherebetween $100 and $250depending on the car.It's pretty normal, right?Nothing that would raise any eyebrows,and I like raising my eyebrows.The Veyron, well thatis a different story.The Veyron's need for its wheelsto be replaced and glued to the tiremeant that it had to be servicedat a specially Bugatti certified location.And there is not a lot of those.So there's a chancethat you might have tosend your car to France.That's right.Your million dollar Bugattihas to be sent to a different countryfor you to get tire serviceif there's not a Bugattidealer anywhere nearby.With all that research and reinforcementto allow the Veyron goto 264 miles an hourand the fact that thesetires can only be usedon this specific car,it really isn't hardto see why they commanda $42,000 price tag.Now Bugatti and Michelinactually worked together againwhen it came time todevelop the Chiron's tires.They went to Michelin'saircraft testing center.They used a machine thattested space shuttle tiresat speeds up to 318 miles an hour.Don't worry.They did not make the samemistake as they did last time.Oh no, no, no.They use Michelin Pilot Cup Sport 2swith universal geometry.They give you a little bit of a deal,only $38,000 for a set of tires.Wow, thank you, Michelin.You're so nice.Thank you guys so much for watching "B2B".Leave a comment down below.How long have you gone withouthaving to replace your tires?Are you safe or you on the,on the little testy side?Thank you guys so much for watching.Follow us on Donut @donutmedia.Follow me @jeremiahburton.I'll be back next week.Bye for now.(jazzy music)