Hankook Celebrates 5 Years as Tuning Safety Partner

Hankook Tire has celebrated five years as main sponsor of the TUNE IT! SAFE! initiative at the Essen Motor Show. On November 26, Hyun-Jun Cho, managing director of Hankook Tire Germany, and Dietmar Olbrich, the company’s sales and marketing director, joined Dr. Andreas Scherer, Germany’s state secretary at the Ministry of Transportation, and German Federal Ministry of Transport and Automobile Tuners Association (VDAT) president Bodo Buschmann in a contract signing ceremony covering this year’s campaign. Following the ceremony the 2011 campaign vehicle, a customised German police car to be used for raising public awareness about safe and legal vehicle tuning, was handed over to the German police.

The 2011 campaign car is a R56 Mini-E that has been given a going over by tuner AC Schnitzer. It is said to be Germany’s first ever all-electric police car designed for daily use. Thanks to its 204 horsepower, this compact powerhouse accelerates to 100 km/h in just 8.5 seconds. It also has respectable stamina for an electric vehicle and is able to travel 150 kilometres before needing to visit the charging station. The range, notes Hankook, is in part due to the low rolling resistance of the ultra high performance Ventus S1 evo tyres fitted in size 225/35 ZR 18 on the Mini-E. The Korean manufacturer’s flagship tyre also provides the required traction, which is particularly important for electric vehicles as the engine’s total torque is available virtually from standstill.

The TUNE IT! SAFE! campaign was initiated by the VDAT in 2005 in response to a massive increase in the number of shoddy tuning products entering European markets. Many items on offer were cheap yet illegal and of poor quality.