Research by independent tyre retailer, ProTyre, has shown a massive increase in the number of unsafe high performance cars currently on Britain’s roads.

An estimated 65% of these cars run on highly worn or illegal high performance tyres, putting the lives of their drivers and those of other road users at risk on a daily basis. This figure has doubled since last year.

“Driving high performance cars on badly worn tyres is irresponsible,” said ProTyre’s regional area manager Marc Ainslie.

“Ultra low profile high performance tyres are being fitted to more and more vehicles on the UK’s roads, offering drivers optimum performance and safe handling. But if these drivers are not ensuring that their tyres are safe, they are not only playing with their own lives, but those of other motorists and pedestrians.”

These latest findings identify a dramatic increase in worn tyres compared to 30% of cars when the company undertook a similar piece of research last year.

In addition to the risk of an accident, driving with defective tyres can also result in a £2,500 fine and three penalty points – four illegal tyres could result in a driving ban.

ProTyre conducted its research at its outlets over the past two months finding that on average 65% of cars fitted with high performance tyres were either illegal, with a tread depth below 1.6mm, or badly worn and in need of replacement.