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Our friends in the US are just a hop, skip and a jump away from their presidential election, but the absent minded amongst them need not write a reminder in reverse letters on their forehead and hope they encounter a mirror on election day – all they need to is go outside and stare at the sky. The Goodyear blimp has taken to the air to remind voters that November 4 is the day to remember.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the Virgin Islands government and other parties to clean up an illegal tyre dump on St. Thomas.
Some 870,000 tyres were illegally dumped near a landfill, the EPA said, determining that the Virgin Islands government, the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, A-9 Trucking Enterprise, and a private landowner handled tires in a manner that left them vulnerable to catching fire or providing ideal breeding grounds disease-carrying mosquitoes. EPA ordered the dump cleaned up and that the tyres be either recycled or disposed of properly. (Tire Review/Akron)
The Birmingham-based Kumho European Technical Centre (KETC) has won a major internal award for its work in relation to the Bowler Nemesis Rally Raid programme. The award was granted for the centre’s work on the 275/65R18 KL72 and KL73 tyres it has specially developed for the 500bhp Land Rover-based Bowler Nemesis 4×4 – the covers are the only ones of their size and type available for use in the world’s major rally raid events.
Despite announcing the need to idle workers at its Finland factory to adjust production, the latest financial figures for Nokian Tyres shows a company doing well in 2008. Results for the quarter ending September 30 show net sales, operating profit and net profit have increased both during the three-month period and during 2008 as a whole.
A new alloy wheel design, derived from the rims worn by the Porsche RS Spyder racing car, is now available exclusively for the 911 Turbo model.
This is a style of wheel that has been seen in all the right places recently – the Porsche RS Spyder sports prototype recently won all titles in the ALMS American Le Mans Series for the third time in a row. A further outstanding achievement of the Porsche RS Spyder is that it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in its class this year at its very first attempt and also brought home the winner’s title in the European Le Mans Series.
Cooper and Avon have shown particular strength in the field of motorsport, with more than 200 worldwide motorsport champions crowned on either tyre brand in 2008. One of the more impressive aspects of this record is the sheer variety of competitive motorsport championships and range of markets in which the manufacturer has enjoyed success.
In the US, Cooper continued its title sponsorship of the Cooper Tires Atlantic Championship powered by Mazda, where Finland’s Markus Niemela won the title in his rookie season. He held off challenges from second and third placed, Jonathan Bomarito and Jonathan Summerton, plus Greg and Leo Mansell, sons of 1992 F1 World Champion Nigel. From next year in Europe, Cooper Tire will also be the title sponsor for the UK’s premier single-seater championship, the British Formula 3 International Series.
The ContiTech Power Transmission Group has issued a new catalogue specifically for Asian vehicles. The range covers over 96 per cent of the Asian vehicle parc in Europe. The compilation helps workshops and dealers quickly locate the right belts as well as the range of deflection and tensioning pulleys and kits for Asian passenger cars.
Recent research suggests that the number of drivers 80 years of age is set to double in the next decade. Therefore one tyre manufacturer is seeking mature motorists to prove that performance really can improve with age. To coincide with the launch of the OptiGrip, a tyre designed to deliver exceptional performance throughout its lifetime, Goodyear has teamed up with the Institute of Advanced Motorists to appeal for drivers with the same ability.
Goodyear aims to dispel the myths commonly associated with older road users, says spokesperson Anna Stanley. “Mature motorists are often criticised for their driving. However, it is often these drivers with many years of experience under their belts that are able to react well and keep their cool in difficult situations.
A new user-friendly Autoglym Valet Workstation aims to improve the working environment and operational efficiency of professional valeters.
The workstation – developed for franchised and independent workshops, bodyshops and dedicated valet bays – neatly stores and presents nine Autoglym’s trade valeting products, the accompanying drying and polishing cloths and the firm’s specialist cleaning brushes.
Following an announcement from Cooper Tire that it would conduct a study into its US manufacturing facilities, local, state and national USW union leaders and about 80 others joined together in Findlay, Ohio to present their response – they want Cooper to continue production at its Findlay factory, and jobs should remain in the US.
Premier Distribution Partnership (PDP) has announced the launch of a unique E-Learning programme to the UK garage trade. The E-learning programme is a CD based comprehensive diagnostics training programme and is a development of the PDP’s Diagnostic Support Programme, a series of on site training courses lead by Frank Massey, which was launched in January 2008.
Tony Parr, PDP Chairman and Managing Director of PDP member BMS explained “The original Diagnostic support programme was launched in January 2008, to tremendous trade support and with over 2000 attendees at the regional launch evenings. The E-Learning programme now takes this one step further and is a full diagnostics training programme in DVD format, which allows mechanics to update their knowledge of the latest diagnostic techniques without having to leave their busy workshops, resulting in no unnecessary travelling, loss of income, or time away from the business. Frank Massey passes on his knowledge and skills built up over 38 years of running his own highly successful repair workshop, in an easy to understand and follow format, at a pace and time the viewer controls.”
Michelin’s financial results for the quarter ending September 30, 2008 show a slight increase in sales during the three month period. However, upon releasing its figures the company also warned that a drop in European and North American demand makes it unlikely that previously set targets will be reached. In July, the Michelin Group based its estimated result of around 8.6 per cent for the full year on the assumption that “second half markets do not worsen beyond estimated levels” forecasted at the time. It now reports the different trends recorded since early October point to a sharper deterioration of demand in most European and North American countries. If this trend is confirmed in November and December, Michelin should post 7 to 7.5 per cent operating margin before non-recurring items for fiscal 2008. The company’s 2007 operating margin stood at 9.8 per cent.
The news that Michelin has bowed out of MotoGP, after walking away from Formula 1 and WRC in the last few years, just goes to show how seriously the French tyre manufacturer takes motorsport. Competition and, of course, winning is a central tenet of the French manufacturer’s thinking when it comes to racing. Tyres & Accessories visited Silverstone at the culmination of the 2008 Le Mans series and met with Michelin competition manager (four-wheel activities) Matthieu Bonardel. Exhilarating bike series like MotoGP may not be in his remit, but when it comes to four-wheel motorsport, racing means business.
Nowhere is the competition philosophy more apparent than in the endurance racing series Michelin has dominated in recent years. After 4000km of competing on Europe’s finest circuits (including Barcelona, Monza, Spa and the Nurburgring) Silverstone hosted the final race of the 2008 Le Mans Series which also turned out to be the championship decider. Automatic entry into the 2009 Le Mans 24 hours was available to the top two in each category – and it showed. This year’s Silverstone event was as exciting as anyone could have hoped for with Le Mans Series organisers hailing the event as “the greatest race in the series’ history” with record crowds to boot. The end result was that after five hours of racing, Michelin-shod Audis achieved surprise wins in both the drivers’ and championship titles.
Michelin will no doubt be pleased that this year’s Le Mans series was so exciting. But a close finish like this only highlights how tyre selection can make a world of difference. Just 48 hours before the Le Mans Series reached its climax at Silverstone, Michelin showed T&A the lengths teams go to when it comes to selecting the right tyres and compound.
Michelin’s competition tyre “demonstration” meant being strapped into a Corvette C6R and taking Silverstone’s corners at break-neck speed, while attempting to simultaneously hold onto lunch and keep an eye on the telemetry set-up. After two comparative sets of three laps with different compound configurations in each, it was clear that using the soft compound on the front axle and the hard tyres on the rear was, subjectively, the best set-up. With hard tyres all round there was noticeably less traction requiring more over-steer from the driver and resulting in a slower corner. But here is the key point: teams like Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette don’t make their tyre and engineering decisions on subjective opinions alone.
That’s where the technology comes in. The equipment teams use to evaluate tyre performance is based on a GPS system wired up to sensors measuring G-force – in other words satnav with bells on. All this data is stored in a common or garden SD memory card and the fed into a computer for analysis. The resulting data showed the kind of accuracy that it would be impossible to “feel.” The two set ups produced an average difference in lateral acceleration of 0.4G when cornering, which resulted in a roughly two second difference in lap time. In short, the difference between winning and losing a race.
To put the scale of and event like the Le Mans Series into perspective, Michelin took around 2700 soft, medium and hard, standard, intermediate and wet tyres to Silverstone in September. All of these are inflated to condition specific air pressures (1.4 bar for slicks; 1.8 bar for wet and intermediate tyres) and all the front tyre/wheel assemblies are balanced. According to the technicians the tyres produced are so uniform that balancing is not always necessary, however, when this is required the tyre tech tent is on hand to apply the necessary weights, using the kind of Corghi tyre changing and balancing machinery that you might find in any number of high-performance tyre dealers across the UK. In the interests of fairness, each Michelin-equipped Le Mans Series team has its own technician and everyone draws from the same pool of tyres.
And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tyre for tyre…. Two men in the US city of Dallas have taken a biblical approach to their differences following an argument on October 27. According to Dallas Police, the gents were seen “arguing and getting angry with each other” in a car park at 7.30pm. The Police have released details of what followed.
While there are a few retail chains such as Dekkman and Vianor operating in Nordic markets, the majority of tyre sales are down to a considerable number of independent operators with one or two depots. For most of these as much as 60 per cent of annual tyre sales are compressed into the four month period leading up to the onset of winter. This figure is higher in the North, where the winter season is both longer and harder. High transport costs, extreme seasonal business and little chance of same day deliveries means that high stock levels are usually required at each retail outlet. Despite these difficulties the independents are generally faring better than the equity chains.
Increasingly, independent tyre retailers in Nordic countries are joining what is now recognised as the leading buying group in the region and one of the most progressive international tyre buying groups; Dekk Partner, founded in 1994.
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