Bridgestone Event

Last week I’ve been to a blogging event organized by Bridgestone at Chateau Impney, a stunning hotel, as you can see in the picture below. The gardens are so beautiful, I had to take a couple of pictures there.

Bridgestone is a brand I know from F1 when they were supplying Ferrari. I was a Schumacher fan for a long time, since I’ve started watching the races a few years ago (19 to be more precise, gosh, that sounds like a lot). Bridgestone is the largest company of tyres and rubber products worldwide. It was established in 1931 in Japan. Today it has 13 manufacturing plants and offices in 35 countries; that is impressive.

The event was focused on a run flat tyre called DriveGuard. This tyre will allow you to drive for at least another 50 miles at 50mph, while giving the same comfort and performance in wet conditions as any other premium tyre. I think that is fantastic. It doesn’t matter where the damage is done, even if it’s on the sidewalls. It can be fitted on most cars with TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring system). The tyre is fully recyclable at the end of its life.

This is why it’s likely that the next tyres we are going to buy are going to be Bridgestone Driveguard. Imagine going on a camping trip with the caravan, a fully loaded car in the backseats and the dog. We do that and in that situation, having a puncture would be a nightmare. The spare is, obviously, underneath the boot cover. So, in order to get to it, we would have to: take the dog out and tie him to a tree far from the road, fold and take his cage out, take out both boot covers and only after that getting the spare. After changing the tyre, everything goes back.

I had a look on the size we need for our car and the price is similar to the one we’ve paid for our current tyres. We only buy premium tyres because they are much better quality and last for longer. With tyres it’s a matter of safety as much as comfort.

The event was great, so well organized. There were a few fun games for winning a couple of these cuties. We saw clips of the three Olympic champions ambassadors of their Chase Your Dream No Matter What campaign. The Olympic partners are: Daley Thompson, the only decathlete to ever win two Olympic gold medals, Charley Hull, a woman competing and winning in golf, a sport dominated by men and Chris Mears, 24 years old diver that had a life-threatening illness and managed to overcome it and win gold at 2016 Rio Olympics.
It’s really interesting to read about it and their stories are inspirational, there are clips with them. Do have a look on the website.

There were a few presentations of the company and of the DriveGuard. Then we were split into three teams and we went to do different activities.
We could drive two cars, the ones in the 2nd picture in the post. The cars were exactly the same with the same tyres. One car had the front left tyre completley deflated. I don’t drive, I know it’s strange considering my passion for motorsports. My husband is an amazing driver with a lot of experience, so I usually rather not drive. So, Peter offered to drive me around to see how are the tyres in real life. I was very happy with that option. He drove on the circuit at a high speed and both cars felt the same. I was impressed, the car stopped fast and it was very comfortable while driving.

Another activity we had involved a VR tour and hands on demonstrations of how to check the tyre tread and the difference between a standard tyre and the DriveGuard.

This is how a slice of tyre looks like. The one on the left is the standard one, with less rubber on the sides. The one one the right is the DriveGuard with more rubber, a special compound, not as hard (for comfort) but efficient.  I was surprised to see how easy is to bend the tyre on the left.

This is a Tyre Tread Depth Gauges. The tyres should be checked monthly, it’s a matter a safety as it means the car has less grip and it can slide on wet and also that it will stop later. If the depth is less than 1.6 mm, the driver can get 3 points and up to £2,500 per tyre. I don’t know what people usually do, but we’ve changed all the tyres at the same time when we bought the car (it was an used car). If our treads would be under the limit, it would mean a risk of 12 points and a fine of £10,000.

Another thing to consider with tyres is if you are going abroad. The Tyre Tread Depth is higher in some parts in Europe. For example in Germany is 3 mm, so you may risk a fine if the tyres are less than that.

If you don’t have a Tyre Tread Depth Gauges, then use a 20p coin. The rim of the coin has exactly 1.6 mm. That’s so handy to know. If you have a car and a 20p coin, do check your tread depth.

I had a wonderful time at the event.