Cooper Launches UK-Designed UHP 4×4/SUV Tyre

The first in Cooper’s 4×4 product portfolio to be developed outside the USA, the Zeon 4XS, says the American manufacturer, has been designed specifically to meet the demands of European 4×4 vehicles on European roads. The tyre will include fitments for the Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg, BMW X5, Audi Q7, Volvo XC90 and Mercedes M-Class, and will be available to buy in the UK and mainland Europe from early November.

Designers in the Company’s Wiltshire-based European Technology Centre are said by Cooper to have built on the company’s reputation in the US 4×4 market while also utilising the company’s high-performance car tyre technology to yield a tread pattern that offers comfortable, quiet running.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe managing director, Julian Baldwin, said, “The fact that Cooper Tire’s headquarters in America have entrusted our design team in Melksham with the development of the company’s first premium UHP tyre for high performance 4 wheel drive vehicles is yet another major seal of approval on the quality of work we do here in Europe.

“The 4XS caters for a wide range of very popular vehicles and will compete with the market leaders thanks to a rich heritage in the US, where roughly one in every five 4×4 tyres sold is a Cooper.”

Among the many benefits of the Cooper Zeon 4XS, the tyre’s asymmetrical ‘rib’ tread design offers a trio of distinct performance attributes. It has an open inner shoulder, designed to enhance wet grip; wide circumferential grooves in the centre of the tyre to help resist aquaplaning; and a solid outer shoulder to optimise handling in dry conditions

Cooper has used what the company terms Fully Coupled Silica Tread (FCST) technology to create a tread formulation that offers optimum wet grip and tread wear, while Optimised Polymer Technology (OPT) promotes better fuel efficiency. Cooper’s aim is clearly to take on economically conscious SUV-drivers wishing not to downgrade the performance – no mean feat. In addition to the other features previously mentioned, a rim protector extends beyond the rim flange, guarding wheel rims against damage from kerbs while, as one would expect given its specific targeting of the European market, the 4XS meets European legislation for clean oil.

The Cooper Zeon 4XS will be capable of speeds of up to 186mph (300kph) in Y speed rating, and will also be available in W (168mph, 270kph) and V (149mph, 240kph) rating.