Yikes! Cool pics mate!
Looks like you had a whole friggin lot of fun!

The tire itsef is looking very very good! If you can mantain the same level of realism -which I´m sure you will- throughout the whole proyect, you will a trully astounding model.

I wonder if you could give us some pointers on the lighting you´ve been using. (Are you using mental ray for everything now?)

Thanks mate, keep up the good work!