Vehicle manufacturers typically demand customised tyres for their cars. To denote this exclusive tailoring, tyres that are approved or factory fitted as original equipment display a special marking on the sidewall. The best-known of these OE tyre designations include those for Porsche (N0, N1, …), BMW (*) and Mercedes (MO), although other brands, from Alfa Romeo to Volvo, also have their own individual sidewall marking. We recently became aware of something new that flies – at least in part – in the face of this concept of original equipment tyres specially tailored to a specific vehicle model.