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The second year of short-listing for the Apollo Tyres’ “Mission 2018” tennis scheme concluded on the weekend of December 21-22 in Hyderabad, India, with the induction of 15 children from across the country. This number adds to last year’s 21 children who have been training over the past 12 months at the FIST Academy in Bangalore, taking the total number of Apollo Tyres tennis scholarships to 36.
Westfield Sportscars Ltd has welcomed the selection of the Caterham Superlight R500 as Top Gear’s Car of the Year 2008. Commenting on the announcement, Julian Turner, Westfield’s managing director said: “As a company already working intensively on the development of a lightweight electric race car, we welcome the recognition by the knowledgeable Top Gear Team of the significant potential performance of a lightweight vehicle powered by a smaller engine. The combination of smaller engines with the lightest chassis possible – without compromising safety, the use of alternative fuels and the application of eco-friendly methods of production; this approach should be a clear choice for the majority of manufacturers.”
On 18 December Continental Group opened its first Continental tyre shop in Amman, Jordan. The shop is located in Al Madina Munawra street in the western part of Amman. and was opened in partnership with Nasco Automotive, the exclusive importer of Continental products in Jordan since 2007.
Nasco Automotive offers all Continental summer tyres and General Tire-branded passenger and light truck, commercial vehicle and industrial tyres. The selected distribution channels in Jordan are wholesalers as well as retailers. “We have been carefully selected to represent some of the world’s most reliable and superior premium tyre brands to serve all the segments in the respective markets of Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq. And we are proud to be the exclusive partner of Continental in Jordan”, said Badie Dayeh who is business development and marketing manager of Nasco Automotive.
Leading US battery companies have teamed up with one of the country’s largest national laboratories to form the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture. The object of the alliance is to manufacture advanced lithium ion battery cells for transportation applications in the United States.
The founding members of the Alliance include 3M, ActaCell, All Cell Technologies, Altair Nanotechnologies, Dontech Global, EaglePicher Corporation, EnerSys, Envia Systems, FMC, MicroSun Technologies, Mobius Power, SiLyte, Superior Graphite, and Townsend Advanced Energy. Additional battery developers and materials suppliers are anticipated to join the Alliance. The US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, a national research laboratory and leading developer of new battery technologies, has been active in encouraging the Alliance and will continue to serve in an advisory role as the Alliance begins operations.
GPX says it has launched a company-wide initiative to improve its productivity and international distribution network. Due to what the company calls ‘unprecendented economic pressures in the market’, the company has conducted comprehensive reviews to help it determine where we can serve our customer base most efficiently. As a result, GPX intends to close its Hayward, California facility. Distribution operations will continue until March 1, 2009.
Statutory negotiations at Nokian Heavy Tyres were concluded on December 19 with the company taking the decision to lay off a number of employees for approximately six months. Nokian cites the decreased demand for heavy tyres demand caused by the financial crisis and a subsequent reduction in production, as the reason behind the lay-offs.
An international jury has awarded the “iF product design award 2009” to Continental for the design of its HTR 2 trailer tyre. The HTR 2 is a tyre, says Conti, that heralds a completely new generation of tyres to be launched over the next two years, and the manufacturer says the product range represents a quantum leap in terms of technology. Continental regards the tyre’s high mileage, patented “Airkeep System” that delivers 50 per cent improved constant tyre inflation pressure and low rolling resistance as the qualities that have secured its position of technical leader in its class within a short amount of time. The Continental tyre designers faced the challenge of creating a distinctive external appearance to match this technology and they also had to convey the quality of the product through the design.
Turkey’s Dogan News Agency has reported on around 1,000 Brisa employees barricading themselves inside the company’s tyre manufacturing facility in Izmit. The factory occupation and an associated halt in production is said to have taken place to protest the unexpected announcement of more than 30 job cuts.
Brisa announced on December 18 that it had terminated contracts of 32 workers at the plant due to falling sales figures and lower product demand. Executives of the employees’ union are said to have joined the protest.
The 2008 motorsport season for Yokohama HPT, the UK distributor for the Japanese brand, culminated in style this December. Hot on the heels of Yokohama-shod Tom Cave winning his class on Wales Rally GB, the some of the world’s leading motorsport drivers competed in the annual Race of Champions at Wembley stadium, driving, among other vehicles, the Yokohama-equipped RX150s built by Rage Motorsport.
The Race of Champions has become something of an institution as far as the motorsport season goes, traditionally closing the year’s activities by pitting a variety of drivers from all forms of motorsport against each other in a range of vehicles. In addition to crowning the champion of champions, the event also sees a Nations Cup being fought out over the circuit, with drivers from different disciplines but the same country competing side by side.
The British are known to be partial to a game of darts, but sometimes our love of the game goes too far. In the town of Totterdown, instead of holding a pint in one hand as they aim their ‘arrows’ with the other, local lads have been honing their skills on the tyres of parked cars.
Police suspect that scores of cars have been targeted in recent weeks by what the Bristol Evening Post describes as “a gang of teenagers”. The wayward youngsters are using a dart or a compass point to prick the wall of the tyres, causing a slow puncture.
South Korea’s Kumho Tires has appointed Byung Choo Kim to the newly created position of president of Sales and Marketing. BC Kim, a BSc graduate from Sopang University, commenced his career at Daewoo Industrial in 1978. A variety of international roles for the Daewoo Corporation then followed before he joined Kumho as head of its China Office in January 2007.
Continental today fell 6.5 per cent as stock brokers speculated the EU decision on the validity of the company’s proposed takeover by Schaeffler Group may be delayed. “These decisions usually come by noon (local time) and as there has been no accouncement yet, investors are getting worried that the decision may be delayed,” a Frankfurt-based told AFX news agency.
An amendment to Ontario’s regulation governing permissible truck axle weight limits has opened the door to single heavy truck tyres. The Canadian province now permits the use of these tyres at the same weights as conventional dual tyres – it is, however, only the second province, after Quebec, to approve this weight parity.
Regulation 435/08 will amend the current weights and dimension regulations to allow wide based single tyres to operate at weights up to 9,000 kilograms per axle and provide flexibility on vehicle track width so that retrofitting can take place. Previously, the Ontario weight threshold for single tyres was 8,000 kilograms per axle on a standard 53-foot tandem trailer.
The podium at the 2008 Baja 1000 ATV belonged to Maxxis, with its sponsored riders took the first four places. 21 November saw the 41st annual Baja 1000 – the world’s longest, continuous off-road race – and Wayne Matlock’s team, which included Wes Miller, Harold Goodman and Marc Spaeth, won the Pro ATV Class (over 251cc) in a time of 14:47:25 (42.69 mph).
Matlock and his crew crossed the finish line on their Honda TRX700XX nine minutes ahead of Danny Prather, Mike Cafro, Chad Prull and Levi Marana, also riding a Honda TRX700XX on Maxxis tyres.
The TIA has announced that, due to the current economic situation and other factors including the increased cost of shipping, it is regretfully cancelling the 2009 Retread Appearance Contest that was planned in conjunction with the 2009 TIA Commercial Tire & Retread Conference (CTRC).
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