Cooper Tire & Rubber has entered into a two-year exclusive agreement with US wholesaler Tire Group International (TGI) to distribute Mastercraft brand tyres throughout Central America and the Caribbean. As part of the agreement, which runs until December 2014, TGI will also provide marketing and sales support for Mastercraft in the form of product promotions and dealer training.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Cooper Tire & Rubber and its consortium partners a US$6.9 million grant for research into the guayule plant. The grant covers a four year period and Cooper says research its research focus is on developing enhanced manufacturing processes, testing and utilising guayule natural rubber for use in tyres, and evaluating the remaining guayule plant biomass as a source of bio-fuel for the transportation industry.
Cooper Tire describes the X Games Rallycross Final in Los Angeles as the world’s highest profile Rallycross event, and the company was pleased to support the eventual winner, eight-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb, with its tyres on his successful debut. Loeb was invited to make a one-off rallycross appearance by US regular Travis Pastrana and took a crushing debut victory in front of the American crowd in his Citroën DS3, leading home the Ford Fiestas of Ken Block and Brian Deegan in second and third respectively.
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Several tyre makers have expressed their interest utilising natural rubber sourced from guayule and Russian dandelions, but Apollo Vredestein has announced it has actually produced tyres containing such materials. The company says the first tyres manufactured with European natural rubber rolled off its production belt this week.
Trayal may have sold its passenger car tyre operations and one of its two factories in Kruševac to Cooper Tire & Rubber, but it nevertheless appears to be making a comeback into the segment. Bloomberg reports that the Serbian company has entered into a cooperative agreement with Belarus-based Belshina JSC, and that under the terms of the agreement Trayal brand passenger car tyres will be produced using Trayal-sourced technology at Belshina’s Bobruisk plant. In addition, Belshina brand industrial tyres will be produced at Trayal’s heavy tyre factory in Kruševac. The tyres will mainly be sold on the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarus markets, Bloomberg writes.
The Starco Group reports it has established a new entity in South Africa. The Danish-based company shares that a partnership agreement was signed in July with Mac & Tirecity – a major South African distributor that operates three strategically-located distribution centres in the region.
Henry Gilbert extended his lead in the Pirelli-backed MINI Challenge at Snetterton 300. The MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S race cars raced over two classes at the fourth round of the seven-round series: the John Cooper Works (JCW) class and the Club class. The JCW class was provided with slick and wet options: the 225/625-17 DH slick and 225/625-17 WS wet tyre. For the second time this season, Pirelli DH slicks and N3 wets were available to the Club class.
All eight of Cooper Tire & Rubber’s global manufacturing facilities are producing to ISO 9001:2008 standard following the certification of the company’s subsidiary in Kruševac, Serbia. Certification of the former Trayal plant, which officially came into Cooper hands on 17 January, was described by Kruševac plant manager Peter Salmon as marking “another step in making Serbia a globally competitive manufacturing facility.”
North American semi trailer manufacturer Wabash National Corporation has approved Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Mastercraft-brand Roadmaster RM871(EM) as an original equipment option on all of its dry freight and refrigerated van models as well as on its Transcraft and Benson brand platform trailers.
Hubert Plouchart has joined the French subsidiary of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe. Holding a BTS in Management and a Masters in Business and Marketing from ESSEC, Plouchart was formerly head of National Sales of the glass repair department at Speedy France.
The winners of a Pirelli online competition have completed an exclusive McLaren Formula One team factory tour in Woking, Surrey. Bill Massey and Sarah Cooper were announced as the winners of the competition run on the official Pirelli Facebook page last month. Both winners were allowed to bring one guest for a tour of the team’s headquarters.
Cooper Tire and Rubber Company has entered into a new tyre distribution arrangement in Southern and Eastern Africa. Following the agreement, a newly established company called Top Draw Tyres will import the company’s full range of SUV, 4×4 and passenger Cooper manufactured products for sale Southern and Eastern Africa.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has launched a new addition to its performance winter tyre range, the WeatherMaster WSC – which stands for winter and snow confidence. The tyre’s directional tread design and high-silica polymer, low-modulus tread compound are designed to provide increased grip on icy, slushy and wet surfaces. It is launched in sizes suitable for SUVs and some passenger cars, including the BMW X3, Lexus RX350/450, Mazda 3 and 5, Toyota Rav-4 and Nissan Murano.
Cooper Tire has expanded its range of sizes for its latest high performance winter tyre, the WM-SA2, with the introduction of 15” to 18” H and V-rated fitments. The newest HP winter tyre is designed to offer increased performance on snow and slush with Cooper’s Tapered Alternating Groove technology and forward-facing shoulder grooves used to enhance braking ability. The tyre’s backward-facing centre groove works to improves traction.
The Cooper Zeon range features high performance tyres that are designed to give superior safety and performance levels across the board. Cooper Tire says this high performance range has been developed using the same principles and technology applied to the Cooper Motorsport range, and the result is that it delivers exceptional performance on both road and track.
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