HiQ branch Raw Tyres in Pontefract has won a Hunter HawkEye ‘Special’ imaging aligner worth £8,995 in a competition organised by wheel alignment specialists Pro-Align. The winning workshop was one of 251 from across the UK that entered Pro-Align’s online competition as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations.
Solideal UK has marked its 20th year anniversary by opening a service centre in Birmingham, the company’s 15th outlet. Hoping to tap into a wealth of opportunity in the area, Solideal UK, which specialises in tyres for fork lift trucks, has recently signed a three-year lease for a 1,626 square foot unit on SEGRO’s Kings Norton Business Centre (KNBC).
Starco Europe has announced the appointment of Anders Pålsson, an experienced Swedish business leader who has spent the last nine years as MD and CEO of Hilding Anders. In that time he guided the Swedish bed manufacturer from an annual turnover of 3,000 million SEK to 7,000 million SEK. Special wheel and tyre manufacturer and supplier Starco is preparing to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary.
Avon Tyres has announced that it will support the Castle Combe race event held on September 3 to honour the Wiltshire track’s 60th anniversary. Avon’s global motorcycle sales manager Graham Matcham said, “We have a very close working relationship with Castle Combe and with both companies being so near it is understandable that we have used our ‘local’ circuit almost constantly over the last 60 years to help develop our world-beating tyres. We are delighted to be taking part in this exciting event and are looking forward to showing Castle Combe’s visitors our 100th anniversary display.”
An application for a petition to abandon proposals to change the frequency of the MoT test lodged by the IAAF has been accepted. The e-petition went live today. Now the federation is urging everyone in the trade, as well as motorists, to add their voice to the IAAF‘s demand that “the ill-considered proposals to relax the frequency of MoT testing be dropped.
UK distributor of Hunter’s wheel alignment and tyre balancing machinery Pro-Align celebrates 20 years in the business this October, and has been running a competition through its website to celebrate. Open for a few more weeks, the company is to give a Hunter Hawkeye ‘Special’ imaging aligner worth £9,000 to the winner. Paul Beaurain, founder and managing director, Pro-Align, said: “The response to the competition has been fantastic with almost 200 businesses entering so far.
Slight residual dampness on the Assen track made the start of MotoGP’s round seven race vital, as several riders fell foul of conditions, but it was not enough to prevent Ben Spies taking his first MotoGP victory, controlling the race from the front to romp to an eventual 7.7-second lead over second-placed Casey Stoner and his Repsol Honda teammate Andrea Dovizioso. Bridgestone Motorsport manager Hiroshi Yamada congratulated Spies on becoming the tenth rider to claim a premier class MotoGP victory on the manufacturer’s tyres.
South Lanarkshire’s Whitelaws Coaches has reported that a set of Michelin XDN 2 Grip drive axle tyres have reached their 300,000th kilometre and fifth anniversary. The XDN 2 Grip tyres were fitted as original equipment to a 49-seat Sunsundegui Sideral in 2006 and are still going strong today, with 10mm of tread remaining. Michelin says the set will cover a further 100,000km before needing to be regrooved. Whitelaws director George Whitelaw has now fitted the drive axle tyre across his 42-strong fleet in place of the former Michelin XDA 4 fitment, saying: “We are amazed by the performance of the XDN2 Grip tyres. This set could well be seven years old before they need replacing. When a vehicle is doing long-distance, trans-European journeys, it’s quite remarkable for a tyre to last this long before even needing to be regrooved.”
Avon Tyres is continuing its centenary celebrations with a special one-off showbike that made its public debut at this weekend’s Isle of Man TT races. Avon’s UK sales manager Gary Bretherton says: “We wanted to have a machine which truly reflected the modern edge of Avon Tyres and its products and the Yamaha YZF-R6 really fits the bill. The bike itself is fitted with a number of go-faster goodies and of course Avon’s own VP2 Supersport tyres. We have used the bike in posters and other promotional literature quite literally ‘reflecting’ a classic motorcycle from an earlier era. This shows both the proud history of Avon Tyres along with the cutting-edge product that our customers rely on to this day.”
Maxxis is marking this year’s tenth anniversary of the Performance Vauxhall show at the Santa Pod Raceway on 11-12 June, 2011 with a 25 per cent discount for tyrepress.com readers quoting code MAX01 when booking. Maxxis says the organisers are working hard to ensure this year’s show is its biggest and best with two days of drag strip action and entertainment, huge club displays, a retail area and two nights’ camping and entertainment. The show will include new features such as the Vauxhall V8 Thunder Shootout; drift arena; power and style awards; precision driving and stunt shows; Westfield drift rides; tenth anniversary displays; autocross demonstrations; and Vauxhall Frontera 4×4 displays.
Students from St Matthias Primary School in Malvern, Worcestershire were given an “alternative learning” experience through motorsport when they were visited by the Cooper Tires British F3 series. The visit was part of an initiative to introduce the youngest generation to motorsport. The project was initiated by teacher Emma Rowe, who enlisted the help of the F3 championship promoter, the SRO Motorsports Group, to help bring motorsport to life for the pupils, asking them to design a “racing buggy”. Last Friday the primary school students were treated to a visit from reigning British F3 National class champion Menasheh Idafar and the T-Sport team.
As Tyres & Accessories reported on May 9, Hankook has reached its 70th anniversary. The tyre maker says it has decided against celebrating with “pomp and ceremony” and instead wishes to mark 70 years in the business by concentrating on its sustained growth. In this jubilee year, the South Korean company says it will also renew its promise to customers that in the coming decades it will “still tackle all challenges with passion and commitment and continue regional investment.”
Halfords-owned Nationwide Autocentres, which purportedly performs more MOTs than any other garage group, has released details of research showing how cars perform when it comes to the annual road worthiness test. It found that three year old Renault Meganes examined in 2009 had a one in four chance of failing, while similarly aged Vauxhall Corsas had a one in five chance. According to the company the data was collated more than six months ago, but it still raises some interesting points on the the frequency of test failures of particular models.
Pro-Align has added David Haydon as the latest recruit to join its wheel alignment sales team, as field sales executive in the South West. According to the company, both Pro-Align and Haydon are “bowled over” that the ex-county cricketer has brought his proven sales track record to the wheel alignment business.
2011 promises to be an exciting year for one of Europe’s major suppliers of specialist and industrial tyres the Starco Group, according to Group marketing manager Brian Lorentzen. Since the onset of the recession at the end of 2008, Lorentzen says Starco’s strategy has been to trim its organisation – “both to weather the financial storm and to prepare the company for the future. It is natural that we have focused on reducing operating costs throughout the group; by reducing unnecessary stock levels and by cutting expenditure on those activities which do not relate to our core business.” All this, of course needed to be achieved “without reducing the company’s ability to innovate and operate, and without impacting the customer satisfaction on which our current and future business depends,” as Lorentzen acknowledges.
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