Cooper Tire Europe will support its ambassador Xavier Foj, supplying Discoverer STT Pro tyres to Foj Motorsport for his 27th Dakar Rally. The Foj Motorsport Cooper Tire team has completed a series of rigorous test sessions in the run up to what is considered the toughest endurance event in global motorsport, taking place on 2-14 January 2017 in Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia.
Cooper Tire Europe has opened a new 211,000sqft UK warehouse, with the capacity to store 400,000 tyres, in Swindon. Cooper stores Cooper and Avon brand tyres at the Spectrum Building, with the new facility already being fully operational. The Spectrum Building, designed by British architect Norman Foster, first opened in 1982 and was used as a backdrop in the James Bond film A View To A Kill in 1984.
In 2016 Cooper Tire continued to support the World Rallycross Championship and European Rallycross, also providing tyres to Dakar Rally veteran Xavier Foj, who has taken on the challenge an impressive 26 times. Meanwhile, Avon Tyres burnished its reputation as master of classic motorcycle race tyres, underlined in the Isle of Man this year with victories for Avon in both the Senior and Junior Classic TT races, for John McGuinness and Michael Dunlop respectively.
EKS has clinched the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Teams’ Championship as team-mates Mattias Ekstrom and Topi Heikkinen racked up enough points during qualifying in Argentina – the final round of the season held last weekend – to scoop the coveted title ahead of Team Peugeot-Hansen.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has completed its purchase of a 65 per cent interest in China-based Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co., Ltd. (GRT). GRT produces truck and bus radial tyres for global markets and will manufacture these to meet Cooper’s customer needs in North America, as well as in Asia and other markets. In the future, passenger car tyres may also be manufactured at the one-million-square-foot GRT facility, which has room for further expansion.
With just one round to go in the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship, Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom has been crowned the new champion after scoring enough points on Cooper tyres last weekend to secure the title. Driving for his own EKS rallycross team, Ekstrom finished fifth at the German RX round in Buxtehude, and is now 30 points ahead of two-time World RX champion Petter Solberg in the driver standings. Even if Ekstrom does not complete the final round of the championship in Argentina in five weeks’ time, a maximum score for Solberg would only draw the Norwegian level and Ekstrom would still win on the countback of victories.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (@CooperTire) has regained first place in Tyres & Accessories’ annual global tyre social media ranking. The US-based tyre manufacturer topped the chart in 2014, with a score of 84. However, the company’s score decreased to 78.3 in 2015 and the firm fell back to third place. Nevertheless, this year’s score of 81.7 is enough to return Cooper to the top of the tree, with 9.65 points of clear water between it and last year’s winner Pirelli.
The FIA World Motor Sport Council has selected Cooper Tire Europe as the Official Tyre Supplier and Associate Partner to the FIA World Rallycross Championship for the next three years. The new deal begins in 2017 and sees Cooper, who has been associated with World RX since its inception, continuing supply to the championship.
The Cooper Tire & Rubber Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, has established a new scholarship in recognition of soon to retire chairman, chief executive officer and president Roy Armes. The fund is known as the Roy V. Armes scholarship and is designed to assist the children of Cooper employees in the USA who intend to read either business or engineering at an accredited four-year college or university. The first Armes scholarship will be awarded in 2017.
Cooper Tire Europe has announced its headline sponsorship of Rallyday 2016. Europe’s premier rally car show is an annual event held at Castle Combe Circuit in Wiltshire, taking place this year on Saturday 24 September. The show features star drivers and cars, entertaining thousands of fans in the paddocks, 4×4 Zone and on the track for the 16th year running.
Avon Tyres has launched two new winter tyres developed to provide a wide range of motorists with 13-18 inch fitment options: the WV7 and WT7. The Avon WV7 is a performance winter tyre, with increased sipe density to improve traction in snow, ice, slush and wet weather.
Arsenal FC sponsor Cooper Tire has been named official tyre partner of Germany’s 1. FSV Mainz 05, and the tyre maker describes this new arrangement with the club, which plays in the top-level Bundesliga, as a long-term partnership. The sponsorship deal gives Cooper Tire, amongst other benefits, exposure on LED advertising boards visible to both spectators at the club’s home ground and those watching televised matches.
Cooper Tire Europe has launched the Cooper Discoverer A/T3 Sport, an all-terrain 4×4 tyre. Designed specifically for the European market, the A/T3 Sport is available now in a range of sizes for light trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Manufactured in Europe, the Discoverer A/T3 Sport is a 60 per cent on-road and 40 per cent off-road tyre developed for optimum performance across varied terrain and in all conditions.
Cooper Tire Europe has opened a new European Fulfilment Centre (EFC) located in Hamburg, Germany. According to the company, the EFC will “serve customers throughout Europe and Scandinavia”.
Recent initiatives to increase awareness of the Cooper tyre brand in the UK and Europe have yielded positive results, and therefore Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe not only intends to continue these efforts, it has begun extending them to the Avon brand. During Reifen 2016, Tyres & Accessories caught up with Jeff Schumaker, managing director and vice-president of the tyre maker’s European operations, and discussed where Cooper Tire Europe is heading with its two brands in regards to products, positioning and promotion.
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