Known for its style, speed and performance marketing values, Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational company based in Milan, Italy, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, with a temporary privatization period by the consortium led by the Chinese state-owned enterprise ChemChina.
Pirelli has finally acquired its own Formula One test car, though the supplier is still yet to announce who will be driving it. The car in question is Renault’s 2010 R30, which Pirelli will adapt to simulate the latest technical and aerodynamic regulations, as it develops future tyres. Pirelli states that a test driver will be appointed later in March.
Nissan’s decision to produce its new Invitation model at its Sunderland, UK plant is likely to create 2000 jobs at the company and its suppliers. Production of the Invitation, which is a project totalling around £125 million, is due to start in 2013. Nissan says it will produce 100,000 of the cars a year when manufacturing gets underway.
The internet was rife with theories about why some of Pirelli’s Formula One tyres at the Circuit de Catalunya appeared without the usual colour-coded sidewall markings. The favourite was that at the final test before the first Grand Prix in Australia teams would be keen to keep their testing programmes and therefore potential tyre strategies from other teams. The real reason was much less clandestine – Pirelli’s Motorsport manager, Paul Hembery explained to French magazine, Auto Plus that the tyres had been manufactured at a site other than its usual F1 manufacturing plant in Izmit. The tyres were provided as prototypes to test Pirelli’s ability to provide current F1 rubber if Turkey’s output was compromised by natural disaster.
The UK’s largest motorcycle and scooter tyre wholesaler, Cambrian Tyres, has just released its 2012 price catalogue – a whopping 192 page tome that list the full ranges available from Avon, Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Metzeler, Michelin and Pirelli, as well as a full selection of inner tubes and accessories. Completely re-written for 2012, the price list also features an enlarged fitment guide to aid dealers in selecting the correct size tyres for almost 2,500 different motorcycles.
On 29 February Pirelli & C. Spa and Russian Technologies finalised the transfer of the Voronezh tyre plant from Russian petrochemical company Sibur to the Pirelli-Russian Technologies joint venture. All payments under the deal will be made before 30 March 2012. Yesterday’s transaction follows the December transfer of the Kirov tyre plant from Sibur to the joint venture. In total, the joint venture has invested 222 million euros in the transfer.
The final four days of practice before the second season of Pirelli’s Formula One tyre supply tenure begin tomorrow in Barcelona. The tyre manufacturer believes the session will be one of the most crucial tests of the season, with teams seeking to gain the best understanding possible of how the P Zero and Cinturato tyres work with their new cars before racing begins in Australia. In the long-term, Pirelli says that non-stop development means that the cars will change considerably as the season goes on. Additionally, an intriguing aspect of practice is the way teams will want not to show their full potential, and the desire not to tip their hands while finding the true potential of their cars on the new rubber is a key aspect of reading test times. Eight different drivers have recorded fastest times during the eight days of testing in Jerez and Barcelona underlining how difficult it can be to draw concrete conclusions.
Pirelli announced last month that Benfleet Jet Wheel and Tyres was its 2011 Pirelli Performance Centre of the year. The Essex-based branch was presented with the prestigious award at the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team’s Operations Centre in Brackley on 14 February. Pirelli’s 83 Performance Centres are audited high-performance tyre dealerships, allowing Pirelli to direct owners of high performance cars in confidence.
Pirelli has announced that it will sponsor this year’s Village on the Curves at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Formerly known as the Porsche Owners International Village, the Village on the Curves is situated at a spectacular vantage point on the 8.5 mile Circuit de la Sarthe. The cars enter the Porsche Curves in fifth gear, which is a fast but narrow complex of sweeping bends at the very end of the lap with little run-off, making it one of the best places to watch the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Pirelli Tyre’s UK motorsport manager believes that Dorset and Hampshire’s Rallye Sunseeker “marks a new beginning for the British Rally Championship”. While Ford announced that it would join the manufacturers’ championship, the tyre-maker was providing tyres to two-wheel drive vehicles – the only cars eligible for points in this year’s series for the first time since the 1990s. Ireland’s Mark Donnelly took the spoils at an enthralling curtain-raiser, set in the Wareham and Ringwood forest complex close to the rally base in Bournemouth, Dorset.
Two Tyrespot customers have enjoyed an all expenses paid trip to Milan, thanks to a joint promotion run with Pirelli. Graham and Sheila Patterson from Chester-le-Street, County Durham won the prize, including flights, hotel, transfers and tickets to Pirelli-sponsored Inter Milan, having entered the competition by buying Pirelli’s premium tyres at the largest independent tyre supplier in North East England.
2011’s Rally of the Year, Rallye Sunseeker in Dorset marks the opening round of the 2012 MSA British Rally Championship. The rally begins with a ceremonial start at Poole Quay at 18:00 on Friday 24 February, with the main action taking place on 25th, during which crews will tackle 12 stages over 66 miles in the Wareham and Ringwood Forest complex. Pirelli, the official tyre sponsor since 2007, will supply asphalt and gravel specification tyres to the Ford, Citroën, Renault and Skoda crews throughout the prestigious six-round championship.
The latest tyre tests produced by German motoring association ADAC, in partnership with OAMTC (the Austrian equivalent) were dominated by tyres produced by Continental. But there were also surprisingly strong performances from emerging and second line brands such as Apollo and Barum set against a disappointing result for Infinity.
There was a time when four-wheel drive vehicles were direct descendants of hard-nosed ‘working’ and agricultural vehicles – so the choice of suitable tyres was pretty straightforward. These days, though, drivers are faced with what can be a bewildering array of specialist tyres for specific types of 4×4 and SUV – and for an ever-widening range of applications – which makes it challenging for the retailer to stock the answer to every request they’re likely to hear from their 4×4 customers. Stapleton’s seeks to answer these questions with what it describes as one of the widest ranges of on and off-road 4×4 tyres available.
Pirelli has launched its fifth year of partnership with the GT Cup at Brands Hatch. Drivers used Pirelli’s intermediate tyres in damp conditions on the day, using the Indy circuit – the shortest configuration of the track – to test high-speed stability in fast corners such as Paddock Hill Bend and traction coming out of the slow hairpin at Druids. The GT Cup’s first round takes place at Donington Park from 28-29 April.
A recently published report by TechSci Research suggests that the Brazilian replacement tyre market will grow as the country’s increasing prosperity encourages drivers away from retreaded tyres. Karan Chechi, research director with TechSci Research argues: “The Brazilian tyre market is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 13 per cent for the next five years. It is forecast that its replacement tyre market will grow at a much faster pace than anticipated earlier due to the increasing number of automobiles on Brazilian roads, [which is expected] to reach 63 Million units by 2016.”
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