At some point in the recent past (or I would not have been able to remember it), there was a short film showing this tire and how it actually works. It is not stiff at all as I recall, infact, it showed the car running over a curb and the tire flexing like a racing slick with 5 lbs of air in it. Imagine how this tire (term used loosely) would feel on the car in a corner or during an evasive manuver..(that could explain why the vehicle is fugly...nothing ventured...nothing lost..something like that... SB.
Wow.. looks like we made it all the way back to the late 1800's. Isn't this the same type of rim used on covered wagons and other vehicles prior to the invention of the inner tube?