So why do tyres need Best Before dates?

• Old tyres increase a car’s stopping distance by 23 per cent, an exclusive Auto Express investigation has revealed.

• For the second instalment of our Tyre Wars campaign, we hit the track in a car with a set of nine-year-old rubber to see how it measured up to some comparable new tyres with the same tread depth.

• With the set made in 2000, our test car took a huge 96 metres to come to a halt from 70mph – 23 per cent more than the 78 metres needed by the newer tyres. The extra distance equates to around four car lengths – more than enough to make a life-saving difference in a crash situation.

• Even more shocking is that despite their miserable performance, all the rubber we used is totally road legal, as there is no limit on age at present.

• We carried out the test as part of our Tyre Wars safety campaign – which aims to highlight the dangers of ageing rubber and urge the industry to stamp ‘best before’ dates on the sidewall of every tyre sold.
  
  

Tyre      Wet circle   Wet handling  Wet braking     Wet braking
             lap time      lap time            from 70mph    from 30mph
Old       29.6 secs    58.6 secs          96.7 metres     12.2 metres
Buffed  26.2 secs    53.9 secs          78.5 metres     11.5 metres
New      27.3 secs    52.5 secs          80.2 metres     10.5 metres

Thanks to mobile tyre supplier etyres (www.etyres.co.uk 0800 028 9000) for its help in this feature