SEAT has announced the relaunch for 2009 of the company’s SEAT Leon Supercopa Challenge. The contest will race at Britain’s top circuits and the new championship organizers, Racempower, have chosen Dunlop as the exclusive tyre partner for the one-make series.
This partnership continues the technical collaboration that began in 2007 between the SEAT UK supported championship and Dunlop.
Financial analysts have cut their 2008 operating income estimate for Michelin from 1.15 billion to 1.05 billion (-37 per cent compared with 2007). Deutsche Bank’s reduced estimate comes off the back of sharp falls in tyre demand in mature markets.
According to the analysts, mature markets (such as Europe and North America) represent 70 per cent of Michelin’s volumes. “We estimate tyre demand fell sharply in the fourth quarter (-15 per cent) both in OE and in replacement – in passenger as well as truck markets. We believe this weak demand, coupled with a destocking effect, led to a high 25 per cent production cut in the fourth quarter,” the analysts commented, explaining that the magnitude of this volume drop is not sustainable:
Battery manufacturer Johnson Controls has undertaken a four-year test to confirm that its PROmotive range of calcium-silver alloy premium quality truck batteries provides greater performance than traditional lead acid batteries.
The test programme involved commercial vehicles fitted with PROmotive and traditional batteries, operating in the harsh cold climate of northern Scandinavia and also in southern Europe. Demanding CV applications were chosen, ranging from typical delivery truck stop start and tail lift cycles giving little time for batteries to recharge, to long distance haulage with trucks equipped with numerous heavy power consumers.
Special hand-finished racing tyres manufactured in Birmingham by Dunlop are continuing to be popular, despite the difficult financial environment and the knock-on effect this has had on motorsport. According to the tyre manufacturer more people race on Dunlop tyres than any other brand in the UK and the company’s continue to be shipped around the globe as they have done since 1888.
Fort Dunlop produced over 200,000 specialist high technology tyres in 2008 and is set to build on this in 2009. Dunlop race tyres are used in many race championships for cars and motorcycles including the prestigious Le Mans 24 hour race and the famous Isle of Man TT races.
Maxxis says it plans to continue its aggressive growth strategy for the UK motorcycle market, and to do so is this year introducing two new products aimed at budget conscious consumers. The company plans to further support tyre retailers through an ongoing marketing support strategy that includes the continuation of the brand’s presence in the British Motocross Championship, British Superbike Championship, Premiership football matches and many consumer focused events thought the country. All this comes, says Maxxis, on top of a sustained advertising and public relations campaign with leading consumer motorcycling publications.
On January 2 Bridgestone Europe NV/SA announced it has assumed full control of Bandag EMEA through the purchase of all of the shares in that company from Bridgestone Americas.
Bridgestone Corporation reports that the financial crisis and resultant global economic slowdown has created a necessity for it to revise the consolidated financial projections for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008 that were originally announced on August 8. These downward changes have mostly been caused by decreasing tyre sales in Europe and North America, the company says.
In early December, Avon Tyres announced the launch of a new sports tyre range. As with most of the company’s product range, much of the work that went into developing and testing the new VP2 was done right here in the UK, and the man responsible for the tyre’s design is confident it delivers marked advantages over its predecessor.
The name VP2 stands for Viper 2, and as the moniker implies the product is an across the board replacement for the Viper range launched in early 2005. “We chose to call it the VP2 for strategic reasons in our global markets, however,” explains Avon Tyres’ product and design manager Peter McNally, who designed the VP2. To cater to the demands of today’s multi-discipline riders and the vast array of performance machines available, the VP2 is available in three different types – Sport, Supersport and Xtreme. All three varieties come in a number of popular fitments.
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Vipal have moved to a new premises, a move they say has followed their growing presence in Europe. As of now the company’s new address is:
VIPAL EUROPE S.L.
GENERAL URRUTIA 75- 10-B
46013 Valencia
Spain
The company adds that its phone number +34 963 81 11 81 and fax number +43 963 28 16 83 remain unchanged. Vipal’s distribution centre in Valencia also continues to operate at its existing address.
Delticom AG’s client base may grow by as much as a quarter in 2009. In an interview, company CFO Frank Schuhardt said that Delticom’s retail customer base could reach three million by the middle of the year, compared with 2.4 million at the end of September 2008. Sales at the German company for 2008 will be “in the middle” of a range of 240 million euros to 260 million euros, he added.
According to data released by on December 16 by JATO Dynamics, the European new car market fell by 25.3 per cent (313,361 units) during November 2008, when compared to the same month last year. Total sales for the month now stand at 924,936 units, down from 1,238,297 in 2007.
This further decline in the market, which has dropped consistently over the past seven months, sees an increased year to date deficit figure in comparison to 2007. The total number of vehicles sold during the first 11 months of 2008 is 13,556,052 units – 7.1 per cent (1,030,584 units) less than during the same period last year.
According to his own words, Hans-Rudolf Hein – in charge of tyre and wheel development at BMW – will after 32 years turn his back on the automobile industry to join Bridgestone Europe at the start of next year. While he cites private reasons for the change, he also states that he’s always wanted to know what it’s like to work for a tyre manufacturer. Among other things, Hein will in his new position be responsible for representing Bridgestone’s point of view in various committees and organisations.
Schaeffler Group needs somewhere between 4 and 7 billion euros of new share capital, Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Friday 12 December. According to a Perella Weinberg study presented to Continental’s supervisory board, Schaeffler has net debt of around 11 billion euros (six times annual EBITDA), Handelblatt reported. The newspaper’s banking sources said at the end of November no changes would be made to Schaeffler’s 16.1 billion euro syndicated loan before 2009.
At the same time as Handelblatt published its story, Wall Street Journal Europe reported that Continental is in talks to restructure the multi billion euro loans it arranged for the purchase of Siemens VDO Automotive. However, Reuters reported that Continental is not trying to restructure these “at this stage.” Quoting a source familiar with the matter, the newswire said it may have to do so next year if Schaeffler increases its stake to a majority shareholding or if the economic environment worsens dramatically.
In December production of the European specification Nissan GT-R gets underway at the company’s Tochigi factory in Japan, and the manufacturer reports a number of small but significant changes have been made to the car. Furthermore the Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST tyre, previously available as an option on the GT-R, will be standard fitment on the performance Nissan when it arrives in European showrooms.
The tyre, comments Nissan, was developed specifically for the GT-R and it combines grip and durability, as demonstrated during its ‘time-attack’ lap of the Nürburgring, which yielded a time of 7 minutes 29 seconds. And the manufacturer adds that, just to improve the ride performance even further, a modification has been carried out to the suspension spring rate settings. The Dunlop tyres are matched with a gun metal grey coloured Rays seven-spoke alloy wheel design for the standard and Premium Edition GT-Rs, while the Black Edition will be fitted with the same design but, appropriately, in black.
Sales of new cars in the UK plummeted in November to 100,333 units, a decrease of 36.8 per cent on last year’s figures. These dismal results, released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), represent the greatest monthly drop since June 1980. During the year to November, car sales totalled 2,023,104 units, down 10.7 per cent on the first 11 months of 2007.
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