Big, Sticky Tires Endangered?

A regulation recently passed by the European Commission in an attempt to reduce CO2 emissions will (surprise, surprise!) cause trouble for performance cars. The law will "restrict tire rolling resistance to 10.5 kg per ton by 2014," which plainly means that the wide, sticky meats on the back of your Enzo, MC12 or modified Nissan will no longer be legal. If you think like us, that wider tire is almost always better, this is no good. It also means that cars like the Bugatti Veyron, where the enormous, 365mm tires are crucial to performance and safety, will have major hurdles to jump-- although mathematically, this of course favors heavy supercars. This does not bode well for flyweights like the Atom with appetites for sticky tires.

In the land of muscle cars that we're lucky to call home, where some Chevy's (okay, just the 'Vette Z06) come with 325mm rear tires, we don't see this happening any time soon. At least we hope not... as long as the kind folks over at the California Air Resources Board don't see this and get any ideas.

Source: [AutoMotto]