A crowd of over 15,000 attended the Marangoni Fast Show at Santa Pod on 9/10 March. For Marangoni, the Fast Show was a huge success. The informal and involving Marangoni roadshow feature with its ‘hand’s-on’ approach reportedly proved popular with show visitors, particularly the Pit Stop competition with its top prize of a white-knuckle ride up the strip in the Santa Pod 2-seater dragster.
Federal Tyres has partnered with Nathan Weissel, winner of the 2007 NSW Drift Series, 8th overall in the Australian National Drift Series as his major sponsor. According to the company, the extreme performance of Federal’s 595 Competition Series has shown great resonance in action at 2008 Toyo Drift Australia Series at Symmons Plians Raceway.
CEO of South Africa’s Dunlop Tyres International, Dr Luis Ceneviz, has responded positively to the actions carried out by the country’s Competition Commission to ensure anti-competitive behaviour is regulated. A statement from Dr Ceneviz was released after police and investigators from the commission raided Dunlop Tyres International’s head office in the city of Durban on April 4.
“During the raid, Dunlop remained fully co-operative and complied with any request made by investigators for any hard copy or electronic documentation,” said Cenevis. “At this point we are not able to give any further comment on the issue and have instructed our attorneys, who will be dealing with the matter.
B&J Rocket’s unique Pro-Team online competition concludes in May at the ‘Reifen 2008’ trade fair. The campaign started mid-November and the growing image gallery of Retreading Pro Teams worldwide can be viewed in the competition pages under www.bj-rocket.com. In addition to the competition, B&J Rocket will be promoting its wide range of products on its show stand situated in hall 4-308.
Kent based tyre dealer, Commercial Tyres has named Fleet Manager Stuart Joyce based in Snodland, Kent, as the winner of its recent prize draw. The competition, run in association with Continental Tyres, gave away a brand new LG 32-inch LCD television to Mr Joyce of Alan Firmin Ltd after he completed a questionnaire and submitting it to his local Commercial Tyres depot.
Paul Kuske of Commercial Tyres commented: “We have been an official representative of the Continental Tyres dealer network – ContiNetwork – for six years now and were very pleased to be chosen as a partner for this competition. We hope Mr Joyce gets a lot of enjoyment out of his prize and look forward to establishing a good relationship with him in the future”.
Hardly a day goes by without some tale or other of economic woe – the sub prime crisis, falling stock markets worldwide; all the indicators suggest that this is a time to batten down the hatches and ride out the storm. However, analysts Plimsoll Publishing have just produced their annual acquisition survey of the Tyre Manufacturers & Distributors industry and their message is that, for the strongest companies in the market, this could be the ideal time to buy a competitor.
Problems surrounding the importation of sub-standard tyres in Uganda may be reduced following the decision to introduce a certificate of conformity that importers must obtain from manufacturers. A consensus to this effect was reached during a recent workshop held by the Uganda Industrial Research Institute.
Regulation of the sale of tyres has become the responsibility of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), and at the opening of the workshop UNBS executive director, Dr. Terry Kahuma, commented that regulation will better ensure safety and fair trading. “We have embarked on enforcing standards of imported tyres in order to protect road users and passengers against accidents caused by sub-standard tyres,” Kahuma was quoted as saying by Uganda’s New Vision newspaper. “This has come up as a need to protect consumers and traders dealing in good quality tyres but subjected to unfair competition by those dealing in poor quality tyres.”
Pirelli Tyres has crowned Tyres Northampton as Pirelli Performance Centre (PPC) of the Year for 2007. The award is the culmination of a four month assessment programme which included the PPC technical audit followed by an onsite video “mystery shop.” The PPC technical audit covers a wide spectrum of areas including working practices, standard and maintenance of equipment, housekeeping and tyre/wheel removal procedures. In contrast, the video “mystery shop” focused on the consumer experience and levels of customer service. A tyre dealer gaining PPC status can justifiably claim to be amongst the most professional in the UK as expectations are high and audit standards stringent.
The UK distributor for Yokohama tyres, Yokohama HPT Ltd, has announced several key new original equipment fitments in the Japanese manufacturer’s range for the UK market. The latest brand to select Yokohama as the tyre of choice is Volkswagen, for its new Touareg model. The choice follows Porsche, which recently adopted the Advan Sport model on its high-performance SUV, the Cayenne. The new Volkswagen model leaves the factory with both 19 and 20-inch wheel options fitted with Yokohama’s Advan Sport, sized 275/45R19 and 275/40R20 respectively.
The road safety message is one that can never be taught too early, and for several years Bridgestone has encouraged children to express their understanding of the issue creatively. This year the tyre major is again holding its “dreams at heArt” children’s drawing contest as part of its global “safety at heArt” activities, and all children in Europe up to age 11 are eligible to enter.
To mark the forthcoming 2008 F1 season, Autogem will be hosting a series of online Playstation 3 (PS3) races for its customers, staff and suppliers. The idea is to host an ongoing competition that replications the season’s tour of real-life F1 circuits in the virtual world. Autogem is offering prizes for the 2008 championship, which is totally free of charge.
As Autogem’s managing partner Prashant Chopra explained: “We already have a select number of colleagues and friends within the industry that go absolutely bananas racing so we thought we’d put together a championship of our own and have some fun. Each race will coincide with actual races in the season and we already have a good online turnout. With prizes on offer and bragging rights to win for, come online and see if youre really as good as you think you are!”
According to the content of a statement released by Bridgestone on February 12, the company’s internal inquiry into the now well known international marine hose cartel has uncovered a number of occurrences of what Bridgestone calls “improper monetary payments.” These payments were made to foreign agents, including government officials. Other “possible forms of improper payments” were also reported.
The European Commission, US Department of Justice, the Fair Trade Commission of Japan and other authorities have been investigating Bridgestone Corporation since last May due to suspicions of the company’s involvement in the marine hose cartel. Bridgestone, in its February 12 statement, wishes to clarify that the act of making improper payments to foreign agents, which will possibly be paid to government officers and other customer representatives, is a serious violation of its compliance rules. “Such acts betray the confidence that customers, shareholders and business counterparts have in our company,” declares Bridgestone. “We solemnly apologise for all such acts.”
Australian Rally Commission (ARCom) chairman Colin Trinder has announced that a control tyre will not be adopted for the 2008 Australian Rally Championship competition season. The Commission initially sought expressions of interest from tyre suppliers and other stakeholders last October, and Mr. Trinder states that the decision not to pursue an arrangement similar to that adopted by numerous other championships was only taken after extensive consultation with all relevant parties.
Mr Trinder said Rallycorp received “some very attractive offers”; in spite of this he states that the complexity involved in implementing a workable scheme in 2008 meant there was insufficient lead in time to fully explore all the options in detail for the upcoming season. “Moving to a strict control tyre regime simply cannot be rushed and unfortunately all the necessary moving parts required to reduce the overall cost of tyres for all competitors in the ARC could not be brought together in sufficient time for the 2008 season,” he said.
Toyo has introduced two new sizes of its Proxes R888 D.O.T.-approved tyre specifically for fitment on both the Lotus Exige and Elise automobiles. These are the first D.O.T. approved competition tyres that Toyo has offered in sizes suited for the Lotus, the sizes being 195/50R16 front and 225/45R17 rear.
Launched in mid-year 2007, the race-winning Proxes R888 features a semi-slick shoulder area and stiff sidewall. The result for the already capable Lotus cars is racecar-like handling which is ideal for road racing, track days, driving schools and performance street driving.
On January 15 Michelin announced the 2009 theme for its global vehicle design competition, the Michelin Challenge Design (MCD). As part of the latest competition, the French tyremaker is asking entrants to explore the future of transportation and share their vision of ‘America’s Next Iconic Vehicle.’ Designers this year are asked to render unique vehicle concepts that demonstrate emotional appeal, design courage and technical execution when reviewed by a jury of transportation industry professionals, whose names will be announced later in 2008. Additional consideration will be given to entries with attributes that benefit safety and the environment and include a separate rendering of the tyre and wheel component assembly.
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