Nick Harley, previously sales director at BP Castrol Lubricants, has joined Goodyear Dunlop UK & Ireland as director, Consumer Tyres. Harley, who was responsible for UK, Ireland, France and BeneLux markets at BP Castrol Lubricants, as well as Key International Accounts in Europe and Africa, will lead Goodyear Dunlop’s consumer business across all brands, reporting into UK and Ireland managing director, Erich Fric
Dunlop has announced a softer set of compounds than in 2012 for the Japanese Moto2 and Moto3 races. The announcement comes one week after the Australian grand prix at Phillip Island, where the new aggressive track surface led to shortened races in both the Moto2 and Bridgestone-supplied MotoGP.
We’ve found a forwarding address for Mr. and Mrs. Fussy: According to the results of the J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2013 Japan Original Equipment Tire Customer Satisfaction Index (OE-TSI), vehicle owners in Japan expect the tyres that come with their new vehicle to be “perfect”. J.D. Power shares that “even a single problem with their factory-equipped tyres has a significant impact on their satisfaction.”
The Duke of Cambridge and family may be hogging UK headlines at present, but others may be more interested in a duke set to enter the realm in December. The recently unveiled KTM 1290 Super Duke R, dubbed ‘the Beast’ by its manufacturer, features a 1,301cc, 2-cylinder engine that delivers 180hp, paired with a weight of just 189 kilogrammes. KTM describes it as “hottest street-legal naked bike around.” And all this power will roll on Dunlop’s SportSmart2.
Shinji Aoki, manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department, explains that the “rear slick tyre allocation we supplied for the Australian Grand Prix experienced extreme temperatures which affected their durability.” The race was reduced from 27 laps to 19, including an enforced pit stop at half way after Bridgestone data from practice showed the hard rear slick should do a maximum stint of 14 laps. The tyre supplier of the supporting Moto2 race Dunlop encountered similar issues, with its race also run over a reduced distance.
Unusually for endurance racing, the latest round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji saw qualifying become more important than any of the teams could have estimated. However, as rain and fog compromised race day, there was virtually no scope for changes in the order, Dunlop reports. The tyre manufacturer supplied tyres to the top five qualifiers, and as a result the #35 OAK Racing Morgan of Baguette, Plowman and Gonzalez leads the LMP2 Championship with two more stints of six hours to go.
The Formula 1 Era Superbike champion has been crowned, and Stephen McKeown was helped to his title by Avon Tyres, the sponsor of the series. McKeown took the Irish and Ulster Championships of the series on his Aprilia RSV1000 Mille, with eight wins and two second places during the season. This marks the first time a major international series has been won on Avon tyres since the 1990s.
The Dunlop Sport BluResponse is a finalist in the ‘Green Steering Wheel 2013’, an annual competition held by leading car publication AutoBild in Germany.
What’s in a name? Keeping a good name means as much in business as in life. When it comes to online marketing it arguably means even more. For the last nine years Tyres & Accessories has surveyed the prominence and sentiment of tyre brand names in the online world. We’re not experts in the very specialist and highly technical research field so we have spent all this time partnering with a company in silicon fen, which knows a whole lot more about this than we do. Previously our research partners were known as Envisional, but in the year since our last report the company has re-branded itself as NetNames. Nevertheless it is the same system and therefore it continues to be comparable with our data archive.
At the end of the Silverstone meeting there are five drivers in contention for the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. While Andrew Jordan is in command after extending his advantage, two wins for Jason Plato and another for reigning champion Gordon Shedden kept their respective title hopes alive. Two other former champions in Matt Neal and Colin Turkington are also in contention in the final three races of the season at Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time.
The sequel, or successor if you prefer, to Dunlop’s Winter Response is now available throughout the UK following its recent launch. The new Winter Response 2, designed for small and compact tyres, picks up where the Winter Response left off and is described by Dunlop as the “perfect complement” to its high-performance SP Winter Sport 4D. The Winter Response 2 is available in 22 dimensions from 155/65 R14 to 195/65 R 15.
As work on Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ tyre plant in Brazil nears completion, groundbreaking was held for the company’s second tyre factory outside of Asia. On 18 September, a groundbreaking ceremony was conducted at the Sumitomo Rubber AKO Lastik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (SAT) factory site in Turkey’s Cankiri Province.
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has shared details of its latest long-term supply contract. The company will provide new and retreaded tyres to Czech Republic carrier Travel Service Airlines’ fleet of 23 Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft, as well as to the four Boeing 737 Next Generation planes flown by its low-cost subsidiary SmartWings. The supply deal includes nose and main wheel tyres.
This year, German motoring organsiation the ADAC got together with its Austrian and Swiss counterparts, the ÖAMTC and TCS, to produce its winter tyre test. Two sizes – 185/60 R15 T and 225/45 R17 H – were tested, and in both size categories Continental and Michelin received a “good” recommendation with their ContiWinterContact TS 850 and Alpin A4. Four products were rated “inadequate” by the testers.
A £1.5 million government grant is winging its way to Dunlop Aircraft tyres. The grant was awarded by the Government’s Technology Strategy Board and the funds will aid the Birmingham-based company in its development and testing of tougher, lighter aircraft tyres.
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