I've never seen that, but they will spray car tires with urine. If it's a car that is regularly parked on their turf they'll see it as part of their environment and spray the tires as a message to any other cats in the area. I guess car tires pick up all kinds of smells from the road, so cats find them interesting.
Could the car have driven over some cat feces? That sounds like a more likely explanation as to how it got there.
So the cat must have climbed onto the tire to do his business there? This isn't normal cat behaviour. There is a chance that the cat was chased by something and climbed under the hood to escape. Did you check to see if there was a cat still hiding under the car?
Cats usually prefer somewhere soft to go to the toilet and will bury their feces so as not to attract other animals. A dominant cat will leave it uncovered to let other cats in the area know that he or she is the boss, but climbing onto a car tire isn't very boss like behaviour.
Has this happened before? Are there a lot of feral cats in your area or do people let their cats out?
No just one and very dominant indoor outdoor male, longhair. I actually seen the owner tell it to potty while oointing and it does. In my yard, usually corners.