Wartime Radial in a Basement, Peacetime Dominance for Decades

"First conclusions, first precautions. To prevent the invention, quickly perceived in Clermont-Ferrand as one that will, once peace returns, outclass the Metallic and the Pilot, from falling into enemy hands, all the files are clandestinely routed to Spain and then sent to the United States and Latin America to be safe during the duration of the conflict."

"The philosophy of the House, in any case, is present: a man, alone at first, who can freely pursue his project to the end, a team that enables him to achieve it, a boss who decides to take responsibility and the House’s heritage in a new direction. Michelin will remember this and find in this discovery, which will give birth a few years later to the X radial tire, a new justification for its choices: priority to technology and researchers who must impose their views, flexibility and mobility of the internal organization, the decisive importance of the Patron at the center of the system[28](private://read/01jkqdqdgs7t399cyecbezrhj0/#ftn_fn28). And, extraordinary confirmation, the “flytrap” being tested around the Carmes factory on a Citroën Traction that escaped requisition offers road holding superior to all the tires on the market and its resistance to wear is excellent."

"With synthetic rubber (the rubber route is cut off), Michelin also manufactures tires for the Wehrmacht. Tires that the House’s engineers designed to crack at low temperatures. In front of Stalingrad or elsewhere on the Eastern Front, the assault troops’ trucks occasionally find themselves mysteriously immobilized. The Nazis had forgotten: the tire is also a “strategic product.”"

"This time Bibendum intrigues. The newspaper L’Aurore announces that the “factories in Clermont-Ferrand have developed an exceptional tire whose texture, through an armed casing, includes metallic elements.” The article specifies that it “would be capable of running sixty thousand to seventy thousand kilometers, double the normal distance. Considering that the French market is too limited, the Michelin management would intend this tire for export. They are even thinking of directly competing with American production across the Atlantic or participating in a powerful international trust.”"