Michelin Built This Freakish 10-Wheeled Citroen to Test Truck Tires at 110 MPH
This is the Trojan Horse of the car world.
Ten tons, 700 horsepower, and 11 tires actually touching the ground. The Citroen PLR is one of the most unique vehicles the world’s ever seen, and it’s also been called many names throughout the years. Whether you know it as the Mille Pattes, the Citroen Centipede, or the Michelin test car, the absolute absurdity of this French masterpiece remains the same.
The official name for this custom Citroen is Poids Lourd Rapide, which roughly translates into “fast truck” in English. It was built by a team of Michelin engineers in 1972 as a testbed for the company’s commercial vehicle tires, and while you might think that having 10 visible wheels means that the vehicle would be able to test a number of tires at once, you’ve fallen for Michelin’s Trojan Horse. Inside is a contraption used to test even larger tires, and the surrounding shell is merely nothing more than a safeguard for the driver.