When it comes to driving on ice and hardpack snow, nothing comes close to the control of studded tires. Hundreds of little spikes literally bite into the frozen surface like steel teeth, ensuring absolutely huge traction. Unfortunately, those same studs that are a game-changer on ice can make life miserable on dry pavement. Not only do they reduce ride comfort, but they can wail like a banshee and are downright rough on asphalt and concrete surfaces. So rough that some jurisdictions ban their use.
In a perfect world, the ideal solution to this dilemma would be tires with studs that can deploy or retract on command. Think James Bond’s Aston Martin V8 in The Living Daylights or the Mach 5 in Speed Racer. Maybe more the former than the latter, but still. While push-button studs haven’t become reality yet, the winter tire engineers at Nokian have cooked up the next best thing: Studs that automatically deploy and retract.
Needless to say, this has been in the works for ages. Some 80 years after inventing the winter tire in 1934, Nokian unveiled a concept tire with retractable studs that seemed like pure science fiction. Well, it took about twelve years of research and development, but the production equivalent is finally here, known as the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 01.
The way the Hakkapeliitta 01 works sounds simple, but it’s actually genius. As tires roll down the road, the amount of friction generated on a given surface heats it up. For an extreme example, think about racing drivers weaving to heat up their tires before a restart. Because clear asphalt offers substantially more friction than ice, a tire rolling along asphalt should warm up quicker than a tire on ice. This principle is key because the studs in the Hakkapeliitta 01 deploy not based on ambient temperature, but based on tire temperature.
If the tire is cold, the two different styles of studs—one type placed near the center rib of the tire for straight-line traction and one type placed near the shoulders for cornering traction—extend from the tread to bite through frozen surfaces. If the tire warms up, those studs hide back up inside the tread again. Even if it sounds like the studs might deploy overnight in cold conditions, they should quickly settle back into the tread on dry pavement, tucked away in reserve in case they’re needed.
All this happens passively, no electronics required. Nokian’s pretty coy about the precise technical details, but the essential component appears to be the proprietary material the studs mount to. Since the Hakkapeliitta 01 doesn’t require any sort of electronic mechanism to deploy or retract its studs, you can sort of just throw them on anything. Plus, if you quickly hit a patch of ice while running on mostly bare asphalt, loads of little sipes, a winter rubber compound, and the confidence of that three-peak mountain snowflake rating means they should offer just as much confidence as a studless winter tire in that particular scenario. Of course, I haven’t personally tested them yet, but I have spent my own money on Nokian tires in the past and found them well worth it—and I’m extraordinarily picky about rubber.
What was once the tire tech of fantasy is now pretty much real, and it’s coming to North America this autumn. Unfortunately, studded tires remain profoundly illegal in my neck of the woods, so I won’t be able to throw a set on my 335i and report back, but you can bet I’m watching the Hakkapeliitta 01 closely.
Top graphic images: MGM/UA; Nokian Tyres
Studded tires are great where it snows, my brother has studded Hakkapeliittas and they do great on ice, I can comfortably drive a RWD ford ranger with no weight in the bed on ice slippery enough that it’s hard to walk on. I would hate to live where they’re illegal, couldn’t drive a rwd car in the winter without them.
We’ve driven V8 RWD cars in Maine and northern Illinois for 14 years now. Crown Vic, Magnum, Challenger, Charger and 300C. I’m impressed with what regular winter compound tread tires can do, unless I’m ice racing I really don’t see the need for studs again.
Cool as heck, and love that they function passively. I wonder how well the system continues to work as you lose tread depth though?
Side note: Modern studless snow tires are borderline magical for how much grip they can generate even on straight up ice. Studs still have their place, but they are probably only worth the compromises in very specific use cases anymore.
Side Note: That era of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage is georgous and is still one of my favorite cars of all time. I had a poster of one very similar to the Bond verson on my wall for years. If I ever inherit millions, it’s one of the first purchases.
While I agree it’s a great looking car, it looks to me like a British-ized late-60s Mustang. Which isn’t a bad thing, that Mustang looked good
Kind of like how the “Kenmeri” Skyline looks like a Japanified 68-70 Charger. Again, not a bad thing at all.
Proper British muscle car
“Plus, if you quickly hit a patch of ice while running on mostly bare asphalt, loads of little sipes, a winter rubber compound, and the confidence of that three-peak mountain snowflake rating means they should offer just as much confidence as a studless winter tire in that particular scenario.“
No. That’s literally what the studs are there for
It offers as much confidence as any other studless snow tire does, which is NOT as much as studded tires, but still far better than standard all season or performance tires. I’m not sure what you’re objecting to, it’s factually correct.
I would suspect they misread the sentence as “as much confidence as a studded winter tire”
I disagree with the notion that a three peak mountain snowflake gives me confidence on a bonafide patch of ice. That is what studs are for
Go go Gadget studs!
Huh, that’s cool! I live just far enough north in Ontario that those would be legal, but I don’t feel the need for studs
Neat, but I’m glad I don’t need winter tires, let alone ones this crazy.
They were banned in Japan about 30 years ago. Until then, snowy areas soon became filthy with road dust every winter, not to mention the racket they made. One of the main reasons for the ban was that the dust was connected to lung disease.
Since then, normal snow tyres are almost uniformly called “sutadoresu”, studless.
Driving down highways in places where they are legal, like Oregon, you quickly realize the damage they do.
Since Vermont NEVER fixes their roads AND allows the use of studded snow tires YEAR ROUND, every single road in the state has gullies cut where the studs have literally removed pavement where the tires travel.
I doubt retractable studs will help, either – especially as the tire wears. There has to be a point where these ‘retractable’ studs no longer have a deep enough rubber declivity in the tread block to hide inside of.
Yes, my initial thought when I read the article.
what if they had a separate air tube close to the surface of the tire that you can pump that would push out the studs and deflate to retract the studs
Might be the other way around, with the additional air pressure holding the studs in offsetting the general tire pressure. Plus that way worst case you are able to drive with studs vs without them.
yes, that makes more sense.
If it works, talk about genius!
I’m gonna guess shape memory alloy? But maybe I’m still brainwashed by my one engineering professor who was researching shape memory alloy and tried to work it into everything.
I think you could be right. It could also be something like the wax used in automotive thermostats.
The way this blog post immediately in my mind suggests it works like a thermostat. Which they could have achieved with springs or memory metal
We should know either way as soon as these are available for sale and someone like Engineering Explained reverse engineers it and shares what was found.
Although a niche product it is very much a product fit for a specific purpose and one which seems driven by engineers trying to come up with a simple solution which often times is incredibly difficult
I imagine it’s as simple as a polymer that shrinks aggressively below a certain temperature. I can also imagine little water pockets behind the studs, since water expands when it freezes.
I have the iconic James Bond theme looping in my head and have a sudden urge to watch The Living Daylights now.
The Living Daylights is one of my favorite underappreciated Bond flicks. A strong debut for Dalton, a great story, and back then, it was a wonderful antidote for how creaky the Moore era had become.
I really wish we had been able to see more of Timothy Dalton in the role, his two outings are some of my favorites in the series and have a much more modern feel to them than both the late Moore era and the late Brosnan era (early Brosnan, GoldenEye, excepted, his later ones got pretty campy and excessive)
Even more interesting, on the Blu-ray bonus features, Dalton claims he was offered the role before it went to George Lazenby and Dalton turned it down because he felt he was to young for the part.
Goldeneye is hands down the best Brosnan outing and I would love to see a 4k release. As per most of his movies, Sean Bean dies.
Tomorrow Never Dies was excellent too, but I agree about the later Brosnan films.
Yeah, that was pretty good, it didn’t have him surfing on a giant CGI wave
I can appreciate The World Is Not Enough for the canon, but yeah, reading the plot off the Wikipedia page will give you whiplash. And I don’t know if there’s anything redeeming about Die Another Day. I’m not going to claim to be the world’s biggest Bond aficionado (more of a Mission Impossible guy), but that’s the only one of the films I can think of that I just gave up on halfway through.
The Living Daylights was absolutely formative for me as an 8 year old when it debuted. I’m firmly of the belief that Dalton is the Bond most true to Ian Fleming’s, and I will die on this hill.
I agree, he’s probably the closest. For my money, he really brought out book Bond’s overall ambivalance about the work. Connery’s and really Moore’s Bonds couldn’t conceive of any other life, but Dalton’s had this constant melancholy of maybe this is silly and ultimately pointless.
100% agree
The “who was the best Bond?” is generally a “who is best after Connery”…and I put Dalton there. Some days I even put him ahead of Connery (like when I’m watching Diamonds are Forever). It’s a shame the studio f’d up his time as Bond. License to Kill was good, but it felt like they had a reduced budget. And then 5 years of nothingness. Brosnan seemed to get full budgets and the push to make 4 movies in 8 years. Dalton really should have gotten to do at least one more.
Oh well.
Its a tire application of a pop-up turkey sensor!
if the studs pop out, you’re cooked!
Don’t trust the studs. You need to use your own calibrated instant-read thermometer to determine if the tire is done cooking.
I put my tires in a fryer. Yes, the local fire department knows me well.
As long as they are completely thawed, and you drop em in slowly, its fine!
Thermopen to the rescue!
Where each tire has roughly 160 “turkey sensors”
And said sensors need to be able to support the weight of a 3000-6000 lbs vehicle at speed (say 20-100 mph)