Wow, egg on face for Pagani. Their reputation goes down a notch in my book. And TopGear too. I know The Stig is supposed to be mute but c'mon.
^Well i guess they are not street legal then..as those tires do not use the standard codes..
Is there no way a tire could be street legal without using those exact codes?
Technically, they would not be legal. For road legal tires, manufacturers are expected to certify them with the various government agencies where they wish to sell them. Some examples of the process requirements:
"E.C.E. standards have been initiated that require tire "pass-by" noise meet specific limits. These standards began in 2004, when tires fitted as Original Equipment on new vehicles intended for sale in Europe must pass noise emission testing, and will continue to expand in scope until the standards will be applied to all tires sold in Europe.
This has required that some of the recent tires developed for Original Equipment use on cars and light trucks in Europe feature less aggressive looking tread designs than in the past. This trend isn't just a fashion trend among the European tire designers, it's a case where form follows function. The noise a tire generates as it rolls through the air and comes into contact with the road is associated to the aggressiveness of its tread design.
The E.C.E. symbol on a tire's sidewall identifies that the manufacturer certifies the tire meets all regulations, including the load index and speed symbol that appear in its service description. In order to be E.C.E. branded, tires must receive laboratory approval, pass confirmation testing and have their manufacturing plant pass quality control inspections."
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=15
"The DOT stands for the Department of Transportation, a government agency required to certify quality standards for vehicles. This DOT certification is branded on the sidewall of your tire, which certifies that it meets or surpasses the requirements of the DOT. The numbers/letters that follow the DOT mark represent the plant where the tire was manufactured, the size, pattern, brand, and the date of manufacture."
http://www.hankooktireusa.com/Serv/TireRegistration_DOTcertifi.aspx?pageNum=3&subNum=6
"To help consumers compare a passenger car tire's treadwear rate, traction performance, and temperature resistance, the federal government requires tire manufacturers to grade tires in these three areas. This grading system, known as the Uniform Tire Quality Grading System, provides guidelines for making relative comparisons when purchasing new tires.
Federal law requires tire manufacturers to place standardized information on the sidewall of all tires. This information identifies and describes the fundamental characteristics of the tire and also provides a tire identification number for safety standard certification and in case of a recall.
U.S. DOT Tire Identification NumberThis begins with the letters "DOT" and indicates that the tire meets all federal standards. The next two numbers or letters are the plant code where it was manufactured, and the last four numbers represent the week and year the tire was built. For example, the numbers 3197 means the 31st week of 1997. The other numbers are marketing codes used at the manufacturer's discretion. This information is used to contact consumers if a tire defect requires a recall."
http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/tiresafety/ridesonit/brochure.html
Basically, if a tire has not been tested by the manufacturer and certified with government agencies, it's not street legal. The requirements in load, heat, noise, etc, is very different for a race tire that might last only 1 hour on a light vehicle with 1 driver, no passengers, no luggage. As we witnessed with the Ford-Firestone fiasco, no smart manufacturer would want to risk the safety of its customers (and its reputation). Simply taking a racing tire, which has not been tested for those load and durability parameters, and cutting grooves in it doesn't suddenly make it a roadworthy tire, and a company would be successfully sued if any failures resulted. Hell, they can be sued for tires that are certified for road use. A failed racing tire modified for road use could be gross negligence.
Let's put it this way: You could put a big enough muffler and catalytic converter onto a race engine, such that a policeman wouldn't think twice. You might even pass a sniffer emissions test. But it wouldn't technically be street legal. An emissions (or stock-class racing) inspector looking into the engine bay would know what's up: You're trying to cheat.
The issue with regard to the Huayra is: Is that truly representative of what a customer car is capable of in fully street legal trim? The answer appears to be "No."
As for the "hand cut" aspect, I doubt these were done by hand. All of these manufacturers have access to CNC mills or lathes. These are often used for tire prototyping, so plugging in some known parameters for another tire and feeding it into a mounted slick should be easy. What it basically means is that it is not mass-produced via injection molding machines like other tires on an assembly line. (And with injection-molding, you get the requisite government-sanctioned certification codes, which is part of Pagani's undoing here.
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