MOTORSPORT
Hyundai Motor has sold six million cars to European customers since the company began sales in the region in 1977. It took the company 19 years to sell its first million cars in the region. Since then it has taken less time to reach each subsequent milestone, with the latest one million cars sold in just over two years.
On Sunday the first race of the 2014 MotoGP gets underway at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit, and Bridgestone says it “has not forgotten the growing army of fans attracted to MotoGP” in its sixth year as official series tyre supplier. To aid spectator involvement, the tyre maker has introduced a new sidewall colour marking system into the series and will debut this in Qatar.
Top-ranking Goodyear executive Darren Wells was parachuted into the leadership of Goodyear Dunlop Europe Middle East and Africa EMEA in October 2013. Having come from the position of Goodyear global CFO, the move was pitched as something of a reshuffle of the company’s global leadership. Set against the backdrop of the recent Geneva motorshow, Tyres & Accessories talked profitability, strategy and efficiency with the newly installed president.
Yokohama HPT Ltd, the UK distributor of TSW and Victor Equipment wheels announced that the two wheels brands have added nine new wheel styles. All are available in the UK now.
This year marks the debut of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, and Cooper Tire Europe has been appointed exclusive tyre supplier. Under the terms of three-year agreement signed with the ‘FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy’, or World RX for short, Cooper will supply tyres to drivers for all 12 rounds of the 2014 season and also over the coming two years. This year’s championship begins at the Pista Automóvel de Montalegre in Portugal on 3 May.
Toyo doesn’t produce aviation tyres, but this doesn’t stop its products getting airborne from time to time. On Sunday 16 March, a Toyo-shod vehicle will have a shot at the Guinness World Record for the longest car ramp jump; it’ll need a good run-up, as the record currently stands at 332 feet/101.19 metres.
Dmack’s drivers have shown excellent pace among WRC 2 runners at Rally Guanajuato Mexico. Estonian Ott Tänak set fastest times on every stage he completed at round three of the FIA World Rally Championship, but missed out on victory after an early accident. Heading the Drive DMACK World Rally Team, Tänak set the second fastest overall time on the opening run through the Monster Street Stage in front of tens of thousands of spectators on Thursday evening.
Pirelli is beginning its second three-year stint as Formula One’s exclusive tyre supplier in Melbourne, Australia this weekend, having deemed its new P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft compounds the best suited to the street circuit. Slightly harder and more durable than their equivalents last year, Pirelli believes the tyres will offer decreased degradation, having supplied the new tyres to three winter tests in Spain and Bahrain, but conservatively predicts that most cars will stop two-to-three times.
This week Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe is offering the industry a glimpse at the future of tyre technology, exhibiting its “chip-in-tyre” sensor technology at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. As you would expect the technology is designed to enhance the cornering, braking and stability performance of the car. What’s new is the extent to which the Dunlop chip-in-tyre offers direct link between its microchip, the car’s on-board computer and even the increasingly common infotainment screen.
Entering its seventh year as series title sponsor and tyre supplier, Toyo Tires says the BRSCC Porsche Championship has seen an encouraging amount of pre-season registrations promising capacity grids for 2014. Using Toyo’s R888 as control tyre for all competitors, the Toyo Tires BRSCC Porsche Championship sees Boxsters and classic 924s battling for supremacy on […]
Pirelli has announced its first batch of 2014 season Formula One tyre compound allocations following the conclusion of its preseason testing schedule in Bahrain. The P Zero White medium tyre and the P Zero Yellow soft tyre will make four and three appearances respectively, while the P Zero Orange hard tyre will come into play in Malaysia only. The softest tyre in the range, the P Zero Red, designed to be at its most effective on the more twisty circuits made from public roads, will not be used until later in the season.
Pirelli has announced the expansion of its Star Driver Scheme, which has previously helped up-and-coming talent such as Elfyn Evans reach the top of world rallying. In a change to the previous on-event selection process, the 2014 MSA British Rally Championship’s Pirelli Star Driver nominations will be awarded to each of the BRC’s five category champions at the end of the season.
Pirelli recently took its Formula One simulator, designed to replicate a Formula One driver’s grand prix experiences, to Bryn Gwalia County Primary School in Mold, North Wales. The exclusive tyre supplier to the series decided to give eight-year-old Lauryn Robinson, who has been diagnosed with leukaemia, the chance to try out the simulator after watching […]
Dmack has appointed Greg Graham as its new sales director, tasked with building on the brand’s establishment in motorsport, epitomised by its supply to the FIA World Rally Championship, to generate interest in the road-going passenger car tyre range. Graham has moved to Dmack after working for eight years as Marangoni’s sales & marketing manager […]
On 14 February 2014 Brian Smith unofficially broke the production car land speed record with a 270.49mph run on Florida’s Space Shuttle landing runway, according to Top Gear magazine. Before now the fastest was the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which managed 269.86mph on the Ehra-Lessien test track in 2010.
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