The Ultimate In Cold Weather Tyres?

14th December 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole, just ahead of Captain Robert Falcon Scott. To mark the occasion, Extreme World Races is staging the EWR Centenary Race to the South Pole, in what it describes as "the ultimate off-road test", with winds up to 80 mph and temperatures as low as -56ºC in the coldest, driest and highest desert on earth.

It takes a special vehicle to cope with such conditions and Arctic Trucks, leading extreme terrain modification specialists, have come up with the AT44 6×6 Hilux. Described by Arctic Trucks’ Emil Grimsson as “our biggest challenge to date” and “a huge step forward in off-road engineering”, the AT44 6×6 has a 400 litre fuel tank and capacity for 8 x 200 litre fuel barrels to allow unsupported travel to the South Pole.

The quality and reliability of the tyres is obviously crucial to the success of the project and a small batch of the 44″ tyres (size 44×18.5 15) is produced every year for Arctic Trucks by Dick Cepek. The operating pressure is as low as 2 psi (0.14 kg/cm³).

More on winter tyres…