It's rare to hear a tyre manufacturer claim that its rubber is tailor-made for Ireland, but that's what Semperit Ireland is saying about its new SpeedComfort tyre.
Geoff McIllwaine insists that SpeedComfort will bring acoustic comfort through a reduction in suspension and road noise. "We think this tyre also has a lot of relevance to Irish roads," he says. "Our engineers have given it high-damping technology and absorbing rubber compounds which dampen the shocks caused by unevenness in roads."
SpeedComfort is very much for the family motorist, he claims: "Safety and long service life are important considerations in this sector but the added comfort, given the particularly poor road surfaces in much of this country will, we think, find favour with the everyday driver."
Even the best tyres lose some of their efficiency in the wet, but McIllwaine says that resistance to aquaplaning has been increased.
At the launch of SpeedComfort last week, he lamented our continued neglect of tyre safety which sees upwards of 200,000 cars running on Irish roads on illegal tyres. "It's time we had a higher legal tread regulation," he says. "The current 1.6 mm limit cannot ensure safe driving in the wet which is virtually a daily occurrence. At this tread depth, 80 per cent of the tyre pattern's efficiency has already been lost."
According to Semperit research, only 40 per cent of drivers check their tyres regularly.