The 15 millionth ContiSeal run-flat tyre has just rolled off the line at the Continental plant in Lousado, Portugal, with ContiSeal tyres rolling out on Victoria Police’s allocation of Volkswagen Passats.
Continental released its first self-sealing ContiSeal tyres back in 2008 and they were standard issue on the then all-new Volkswagen Passat CC. Since then, they’ve featured on vehicles from makers including, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Hyundai, Skoda and Seat, and many more.
This week, Continental celebrated the 15 millionth ContiSeal tyre rolling out of its factory in Lousado, Portugal. Locally, Continental says that 98 percent of ContiSeal tyres used in Australia are fitted to the Volkswagen Tiguan and Passat. Indeed, the Passat wagons chosen by Victoria Police are all fitted with ContiSeal tyres.
What is a ContiSeal tyre? “A ContiSeal tyre on the outside looks like any other round, black, rubber tyre, under the surface however, these tyres have a special viscous (or sticky) inner layer that will seal off most punctures caused by nails or screws. The sticky inner seals around the foreign object so when it is removed, the puncture is sealed immediately. This enables the vehicle to continue its journey with identical driving performance to that of the tyre prior to the puncture,” According to Continental.
It’s worth noting that if you want to retro-fit ContiSeal tyres to your own vehicle, you can, but only so long as your vehicle is fitted with a tyre pressure monitoring system. If you want to learn more about run-flat tyres as they’re generically known, follow this link.
If they ride like BMW run-flats, i will take a BIG pass…