24 hours a day, 365 days a year – that’s the time it takes to produce more than 318 million tires each year, from the largest tire manufacturer worldwide. That’s over 870,000 tires being made each day!
While one would assume this award goes to one of the tires commonly seen on the road like Bridgestone or Goodyear, it might be a surprise to know it’s actually LEGO Group. That’s right, the Guinness World Record holder for “largest tire manufacturer per year” goes to LEGO. The honor was bestowed on them in 2012.
The huge amount of tires created every year is because nearly half of all LEGO sets include wheels of some sort. This wasn’t always the case, though. LEGO tires are a relatively recent creation. They were introduced in in 1962, in set number 400, which went on to be the best selling LEGO set in 1967.
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Prior to then, some sets included pre-molded miniature cars, which included tires molded on. More typically, though, children simulated wheels using the LEGO bricks or simply used their imagination.
A few fun facts about LEGO tires:
- The smallest wheel stands at 14.4mm high and can be found on a small two-seater car
- The largest LEGO wheel is 10.7cm high and can be found on the Power Puller, a set introduced in 2000
