Michelin's Strange PLR Tire-Testing Car Was A 10-Wheeled Fever Dream

Do you remember sketching out cars as a kid? As a young dreamer, you'd envision the wildest things on four wheels. In some cases, it might have even been way more than four wheels. Excess was the order of the day. That's exactly what comes to mind when looking at Michelin's bizarre 10-wheeled tire test vehicle. You read that right: 10 wheels and tires. And somehow, that might not be the strangest thing about it.

See, Michelin has been manufacturing tires for over 130 years. That means testing. Lots of testing. Back in the day, Michelin would use a special test vehicle, the "Mille Pattes," to test truck and bus tires at high speeds. And the numbers are simply bonkers. In addition to 10 tires, the officially named Michelin Poids Lourd Rapide, which roughly translates to "fast semi truck," packs two engines, three rear axles, and tips the scales at over 20,000 pounds. If those figures weren't wild enough, the whole thing looks like the automotive love child between the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile and the weirdly cool Citroën DS wagon.

In 1972, global tire giant Michelin needed a new way to test bus and truck tires. So, the French brand set to work building the ultimate mobile tire testing rig. The result was the Michelin Poids Lourd Rapide (PLR). Though most fans and historians will likely refer to it as the "Mille Pattes", or "centipede" in French. At a glance, the PLR looks like a Citroën DS station wagon got the stretch limo treatment and grew six extra tires in the process.

In 1935, Michelin became the controlling shareholder of French carmaker Citroën. Fast-forward over four decades, and Michelin's close relationship with the automaker prompted the PLR to use a DS as a base vehicle. It might look like a Citroën, but it certainly isn't powered like one. Instead of a factory Citroën engine, the Mille Pattes packs two 250-horsepower Chevrolet 350-cubic-inch V8s at the rear of the rig. That's right: This thing puts 16 cylinders behind the cockpit, just like the larger-than-life Bugatti Veyron.

But unlike the Veyron, which required extreme tire technology to set its speed record, the purpose of the PLR was to test tires. To accomplish that task, the engineers built a movable hub into the back of the Mille Pattes. Once underway, an engineer could lower the test tire to the track surface at speed, adjust the camber, test braking, and apply up to 7,716 pounds of force to the tire using a hydraulic system, bumping the number of tires touching the road to 11. Factor in the two engines, two radiators, and test equipment, and the PLR weighs in at 20,172 pounds. But that didn't stop the so-called centipede from track-testing tires at up to 96 mph.

It's an interesting concept. Buses and trucks were getting faster in the 1970s, and the tire-making titan needed a safer way to test large tires. So, instead of testing on semi trucks and buses, the solution was a 24-foot-long Citroën with three rear-mounted Peugeot 504 axles, two Chevy V8s, and a mobile tire-testing lab.

So, what did Michelin do with its monster tire testing vehicle? Well, Michelin's Mille Pattes has been retired for quite some time. Michelin stopped using the Mille Pattes in the early 1980s, focusing on other means of testing large tires for real-world use. As of 2022, the 10-wheeler has a home at the official Michelin Museum in Clermont-Ferrand, the birthplace of the tire maker. Here's the good news: the PLR reportedly still drives, and makes appearances at events from time to time. And though you'll immediately recognize it for its attention-grabbing two-tone combo of orange and yellow, not unlike the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, you're not likely to find any hot dogs on the PLR.