Interpretation ID: nht75-2.5

DATE: 11/25/75

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; R. B. Dyson; NHTSA

TO: E. H. Wallace - Tire Division, OCA

TITLE: FMVSS INTERPRETATION

TEXT: Demonstration of Prototype Tires That are Not Certified as Complying with FMVSS No. 109

This is in response to your inquiry concerning the circumstances under which the demonstration of prototype tires would be permitted. I understand that representatives of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. are visiting the NHTSA to discuss a newly designed passenger car spare tire which is not certified as complying with Standard No. 109. They wish to mount, on cars which have been driven to the DOT headquarters building on complying tires, samples of the spare tire and then to demonstrate the tire's performance on the local streets.

This demonstration would violate Section 108(a)(1)(A) of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, as amended, because use of such tires on the public roads would constitute an introduction in interstate commerce of an item of motor vehicle equipment which did not conform with an applicable motor vehicle safety standard. The alternative which you have suggested, mounting and demonstration of the tires on a runway at Bolling Air Force Base or other place out of the public traffic stream, is not prohibited by the Act or by our regulations.