Load the reference image in the Luminosity-channel and take a note on the size of the image. Then create a cube and give it corresponding values in the X- and Y-fields. Set Z to 1. Assign the cube the material with the default mapping type, UVW -- you want the reference image displayed on the front of the cube so that you can work from the Front viewport and with UVW the image will place itself properly.

Then move the cube 1 or 2 units backwards on the Z-axis. Why? In the next step you're gonna create a Polygon Object and start adding points and if you keep the cube at 0 on the Z-axis you points will be placed visually "inside" the cube. The points will be created at Z=0 and you don't want that space occupied by the cube. So change the cube's Z-position from 0 to 2.

Create a Polygon Object (Objects>Polygon Object). Nothing in your viewport will change but in the Object Manager a new Polygon Object is visible so double-click it and name it "Segment". Switch to Front view, zoom in on the profile, make sure you're in Points mode and that you have Segment as the active object. Now start adding points by selecting Structure>Add Points and then CTRL-click the outline of the profile. Just focus on getting the points down for one side of the profile since we will later mirror the Segment to get the complete element.

Place the points at the "crucial curves" of the profile -- identify what features are giving the profile its shape and place the points accordingly.

When you have all points in place you select them all and clone them once -- Structure>Edit Surface>Clone. Set Clones to 1 and change Rotation from 180Ú to 0Ú. Click OK.

OK, now you've cloned your points so don't let go of that selection! Move the new points on the Z-axis only to -50 (or just type -50 in the Coordinates Manager). All points are at the same Z-value so moving them all att the same time will be OK at this stage. Note: the cloned points are the unselected ones in the image above.

Time to bridge the points. Select the Bridge tool (Structure>Bridge) or just hit B on your keyboard. The cursor will now look like an arrow with a small, black bridge. Click on the first point and start bridging. Check out this gif if you're not sure on where to start, or read up on the Bridge tool in the manual.

This is roughly what you should have by now. Here I've dropped the Segment in a Symmetry Object just to see how it works. Now it's time to start slicing using the Knife.

Select the Knife (Structure>Knife) or hit the letter K on your keyboard. Make sure that the option Restrict to Selection is unchecked in the Active Tools Manager -- we want our cuts to slice throgh the whole mesh. From the Top or Right viewport add 4 cuts like in the image: 2 cuts to form a thin band of polygons and 2 cuts to form a slightly wider band. If you hold down Shift while cutting you will restrict the knife to 45Ú angles and will make it easier to keep the cuts straight.

Now switch to Polygon mode, select the polygons shown above and delete them.

This is how it should look.

OK, this can be a bit tricky but the principle is quite easy: select some points, clone and move them, and use the Bridge tool to create new polygons. Here's how you do it:

Select the points on the image marked with purple dots (•) and copy their Y-value from the Coordinates Manager.

Now select the blue dots (•) and clone them once, just as we did before.

Paste the values you copied earlier in the cloned dot's Y-channel and hit Enter -- the points should move down to the position marked with orange (•).

Now Bridge the points to build the polygons nescessary for the pattern of the tire. The image above shows what it should look like.

Continue cloning points and then bridging them as this image shows. As you can see I've let 2 triangles slip through but I think we can get away with it :)

Now it's time for some more slicing. Select the Top view and lay down 6 cuts along the X-axis as shown in the image. The cuts are made close to the edges and the reason for these cuts is to provide sharp definition when we eventually drop the finished wheel in a HyperNURBS. When you're done cutting swith to Front view for some extra slices.

The black lines on the image indicates where the cuts should go. Once again, we want sharp definition on our tire pattern and this will get us there.

This close-up is just to illustrate that I decided to go with triangles for the ending of the thinner polygon band as well. You can also see some of the cuts we made in the previous steps.

If you drop the Segment in a Symmetry Object and hit render you should have something like the image on the right. It has some resemblance with a tire but we're not there yet. Switch to Points mode and Top viewport.

Select the Live Selection tool and make sure that Only Select Visible Elements is unchecked. Then select a any group of 4 points and start moving the on the X- and Z-axes. If you have some reference material of real tire patterns, use them, otherwise just move and rotate the points (around Y-axis only!) until you get something that could pass as a believable pattern.

Frequently check with the Symmetry Object active and dropped in a HyperNURB to see how you're doing. When you're satisfied it's time to Duplicate and then Bend.

Deactivate the HyperNURBS and select the Symmetry Object. Then select Function>Duplicate. The number of Copies determines the size of your tire -- 5 copies will make it pretty small and 200 will make it pretty huge (although rather thin...). Anyway, enter 50 to start with and work from there. Alse check Generate Instances so you wont bog down your system with too much geometry. Also, if you change the geometry of your Segment, all instances will update immeadiately.Now, the tricky part here is to know how much every instance should move. Select Top view and start experimenting with different values for the Z-channel. You might wanna zoom in real close in order to get the instances to line up properly. I found that something around 2500 was an appropriate number. Click OK.

Add a Bend deformer (Objects>Deformations>Bend). Group the Symmetry Object (containing your Segment), the Instances and the Bend deformer under a Null Object (Objects>Null Object). Name the null Wheel. Select Right viewport and rotate the Bend deformer -90° around the X-axis/Pitch. Now double-click the Bend object to bring up its dialog box. Change the Y size so that it encompasses the whole group of instances and is placed reasonably in the middle of the group. Check Keep Y Axis Length and set the Mode to Limited.

Your hierarchy should be as the image above illustrates. Now we will bend all those instances into a circle and forming the actual tire.

Grab hold of the yellow handle on the Bend deformer and start dragging it in the Z-direction. You will see the instances starting to bend. You will probably have to drag the handle as well as zoom out quite a bit before the circle will be almost closed. Now zoom in and double-click the Bend deformer once again. You'll see that the Angle will be very high and this is the value you should play with now -- add 10-20 degrees, click OK and see what happens. Zoom in extremely close on the gap between the two ends and make sure that they meet as neatly as you can. For my wheel the angle of 412Ú proved to be OK.

Now drop the Wheel-group in a HyperNURBS and render -- Congratulations, you have a tire! Just add a hubcap and you're ready to roll!

Here I've added some additional cuts (the line along the center of the tire) to break up the pattern a bit plus a rim modeled by following this tutorial by Holger Schömann at Digital Worlds.

Note: the tire can get very heavy on the polycountside when you drop it in a HyperNURBS so if you're not planning any close-up shots of it, deactivate the HN. Usually you can get away with simple polygons. Or set the HyperNURBS Subdivision Renderer to 1 to keep some smoothness.