ROLL WITH THE PUNCTURES TIRE INSERTS EASE BLOWOUTS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

BURBANK - Rick Cole hopes his business blows up, not out.

He's in the tire accessory industry, a small part of the aftermarket segment with less sizzle than flashy rims or curvaceous spoilers. His product, the Tyron, sits snugly out of sight, clasped between wheel and tire. Though its pressed steel band, coated with zinc and interspersed with plastic spacers, hardly looks impressive, Cole says it can be the difference between a tire blowing out and merely running flat.

``This is the simple solution to a blowout,'' said Cole, chairman and chief executive officer of Tyron Automotive Group USA. ``Sure, the cops love it because they can drive around and feel like Batman with them, but for the consumer, it really makes you safer.''

Normally, as a road hazard punctures a tire at high speed, it makes the tire unstable, causing it to drop inward onto the inside of the wheel. This creates greater instability, causing the tire to come off the rim and the vehicle to lose control.

``A tire's held in place by air pressure,'' Cole said. ``When you get a blowout, there's nothing holding it on. Our product makes it so the tire surface is flat (against the wheel.) Then your rim doesn't hit the road and you'll still have a cushion of rubber.''

With that cushion, the air seeps out more slowly and the perforated tire remains firmly on the rim. It doesn't make the tire impervious to sharp objects, nor does the Tyron prevent it from eventually going flat. As such, the product can't save a fleeing criminal from a police spike strip or a building security grate.

At highway speeds, Cole estimates the Tyron buys a driver a few miles to get off the road and to a service station, a distance that improves at slower velocities. More importantly, it prevents the vehicle from losing control and rolling over.

The technology itself isn't new - it's been manufactured in the United Kingdom for 24 years, developed for British police and military units in Northern Ireland whose tires were often shot out. Cole, a former race car driver and classic car auctioneer, stumbled upon the technology a few years back and became the sole North American distributor.

He shopped it to the Los Angeles County sheriff in 2001, conducting tests to see if it could endure explosions and gunfire. It passed muster and made its way into the sheriff's fleet, the first of a slew of municipal contracts.

``It's like a parachute - it seems kind of expensive and you don't need it until you jump out of a plane,'' said Lt. Daryl Evans of the sheriff's Special Enforcement Bureau. ``But when you need it, it's worth it. We've never been in a rolling gunbattle, where someone's shooting our tires out, but we get tire failures just like anyone else. Anything that would stabilize the car at high speed is a good thing.''

Originally, Cole marketed the product exclusively to emergency responders, but decided to expand into retail. The products now sell at Galpin Motors dealerships locally and 21 sites throughout California, with the firm currently ambitiously pursuing national distribution. With the expanded volume, it expects to turn a profit by summer's end, and aims for distribution in 100 dealerships by the end of 2003.

``We're always skeptical, because we get presented with thousands of ideas each year,'' said Brian Gelt, Galpin's finance director. ``It took a great deal of research and time to make sure this is something we wanted to offer to customers. So far, it's performed exceptionally.''

Exceptionally enough to get Galpin chairman Bert Boeckmann to partially invest in the company, along with another high-profile owner, NASCAR and CART driver Jimmy Vasser. Though Gelt had no specific sales figures, Cole says Tyron brings in $50,000-to-$100,000 each month in sales, retailing for $695 for a set of four.

That price raised the eyebrows of Officer Leland Tang, a public affairs officer with the California Highway Patrol. In his ten years with the CHP, he's seen his share of blowouts and questions the need for an aftermarket add-on.

``For that kind of money, I'd invest in a defensive driving class rather than putting an item that may or may not work,'' Tang said. ``If people know not to hit the breaks and oversteer, you can literally drive off the freeway. You can drive on a blowout without a problem.''

But in the heat of the moment, Cole prefers to rely on his product rather than his instincts. He's installed the device on his own Lexus sports car and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator, and he dreams much bigger. His offices are filled with truck wheels, Lear jet wheels, Patriot missile launcher wheels - and news clippings of Shaquille O'Neal's recent tire blowout. He sees anything that rolls as a potential market.

``This should be on every car sold, just for safety,'' he said. ``You spend all that money on getting steel supports in the doors, extra air bags and everything else, but nothing on your tires.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Workers assemble Tyrons - devices that help keep tires on the rim in the event of a blowout - at a Burbank factory.

(2) Tyron Automotive Group USA chairman and CEO Rick Cole holds one of his firm's products.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Box:

TIRE SAFETY

Source: Tyron Automotive Group USA

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist