If your anything like us, summer is the time for road trips across the country to pitch up camp and listen to some awesome bands at a music festival. Being a magazine we do this a lot, and it means a lot of time in the driving seat and a lot of money on petrol. Your ticket costs enough as it is, never mind adding more on top.
French tyre giants Michelin have been doing a ton of research recently to try and save us all a bit of money on our fuel costs, increase our safety and make us generally more efficient drivers. They have compiled all their findings in their Road Usage Lab, so we have taken a look to find what useful tips we can give you to help make your festival road trips that little bit better.
On a road trip it can be tempting to get a bit sporty when crusing around those hairpin corners and sweeping S-bends listening to drum and bass. This can result in up to SIX TIMES more wear on your tyres in the long run though. Just throttling it back a little bit means you can delay forking out for new tyres for a while longer and spend more money on having fun!
Tip 2: Check Your pressure!
Nearly 65% of us will end up driving around with under-inflated tyres this year. Did you know that even half a bar of under pressure can cut 8,000km off of your tyres mileage. That’s two whole trips around the entire of France!
Tip 3: Wide Tyres Aren’t Always The Best Idea!
We all know, especially if you live in the UK, that festival season can be as wet as it is sunny. Also 99% of accidents happen when the road is only slightly wet. With that in mind, while having wide sporty tyres look cool when it’s hot, they actually have to expel twice as much water as a narrow tyre meaning they are more prone to aquaplaning on those wet roads. If you live anywhere that is likely to get any rain it’s something you should definitely bear in mind.
Tip 4: Keep Alert On The Straights
75% of accidents happen on straight roads so don’t think it’s time to relax after you hit the motorway after those winding lanes. Always keep alert and stay dafe!
Tip 5: Drive Green And Keep The Festivals Green!
We all love the outdoors so do your bit to help the environment and drive green. Smoother acceleration and braking, better cornering and less use of the gearbox are just a few things you can do to keep down those carbon dioxide levels.
You can check out more tips over at: http://www.michelin.co.uk/michelin-total-performance
