They're only round and black, so how hard can it be to make a tyre? To find out exactly what is involved, we asked Michelin, who invited us along to one of its state-of-the-art facilities to build our very own.

When you consider that more than 200 components go into constructing one, you start to get some idea of how complex the process is. And as many are still made by hand, there is much more under that tread and sidewall than you'd first expect.

True, machines are now used for high-volume tyre manufacturing, but they have only been around for the past decade or so.