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Norio Karashima, former president and CEO of Yokohama Tire Corporation, is returning to the US-based manufacturing and sales operation as executive advisor. Karashima will commence in this role on 1 April and be based at the company’s headquarters in Fullerton, California.
Audi Sport made Michelin Green X Challenge history at this year’s Twelve Hours of Sebring race in the US, becoming the first hybrid powered vehicle to claim victory in the country’s premier environmental motorsports competition. The Audi R18 e-tron Quattro driven by Marcel Fassler, Benoit Treluyer and Oliver Jarvis – a prototype that previously won both last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and FIA World Endurance Championship – added a third feather to its cap on 16 March.
Yokohama Rubber’s tyre plant in China, Hangzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd., has benefitted in RMB 13.47 million (£1.4 million) in grants from Hangzhou City and the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone (HEDA). The grants cover the period between December 2012 and March 2013 and the Japanese manufacturer says they were given in recognition of the company's economic and environmental activities. The grants awarded to Hangzhou Yokohama are said to represent the largest amount awarded to a single company (as opposed to a group of companies) amongst the 340 or so located in the HEDA.
Subaru of Indiana Automotive, the US-based plant that produces some 250,000 Subaru and Toyota vehicles each year, has named three tyre makers as recipients of its annual Quality & Delivery awards. At an awards ceremony on 13 March, the company presented awards to 33 parts suppliers, including Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations and Continental Tire the Americas.
In the introduction to Lanxess AG’s 2012 annual report, Board of Management chairman Axel Heitmann comments that “when Lanxess became an independent company eight years ago, few people believed it would have a successful future. That’s why I can look back on the 2012 fiscal year with particular pride. There is hardly any other year in our history that demonstrates more clearly just how successful we have become since 2005, despite many predictions to the contrary.”
Goodyear has revealed details of its latest efforts to take a lead in the post-labelling era of tyre development, refreshing its passenger car range with the launch of the Efficient Grip Performance. While the tyre is inched out of the highest possible European Tyre labelling score (AA), with the 205/55 R16 tyre scoring AB 68dB it is not far away at all.
Leeds City Council fitted GT Radial’s Champiro WinterPro cold weather tyres to its Community Meals fleet this winter on the recommendation of its tyre partner, Earthmover Tyres. Thanks to the addition of seasonal rubber, the Council said its 16 Citroen Berlingos delivered more than 420 meals safely every day across the city, regardless of the inclement weather.
Speaking as principal guest at the opening of Tyrexpo Asia 2013, the secretary-general of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) has predicted strong global demand for tyres through the coming decade. Dr Stephen Evans said that large scale Chinese and Indian car registration growth is projected to help increase the world’s vehicle pool by more than 50 per cent in the next decade. The ninth staging of the show opened in Singapore on 19 March, with more than 250 exhibitors in tyre, rubber, equipment, machinery and accessory suppliers participating.
Michelin has announced that it will fit its specially developed Pilot Super Sport ZP as original equipment on the full 2014 range of Chevrolet Corvette Stingray models. Michelin reveals that the deal has come about as a result of its relationship with Chevrolet at the American Le Mans Series. The French tyre giant previously gained fitments for the 2009 Corvette ZR1 and 2011 Corvette Z06.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries high performance tyre brand Falken is to supply its ZIEX ZE912 tyre to two grass roots motorsport series in the northwest of England, after agreeing to a new sponsorship and support scheme. Drivers in the Association of North Western Car Clubs (ANWCC) K11 Micra Challenge and the Under 17 Motor AutoSOLO Championship for Standard Cars will have access to free and subsidised tyres to qualifying competitors and others involved with the championship respectively.
With much of the grid employing different tyre strategies at the season-opening Australian grand prix, Pirelli’s Motorsport director Paul Hembery believes that the winning drive by Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen displayed the best understanding of the “deliberately bold” selection of rubber. Raikkonen won the Australian Grand Prix using a two stop strategy, having started the race on the P Zero Red supersoft tyre and then completing two stints on the P Zero White medium tyre. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the Finnish driver’s closest rival used a three-stop strategy, as did the rest of the top six.
The Isle of Man TT, Post-TT races and Ulster GP and North West 200 are amongst the racing activities Metzeler has planned for its anniversary year. The tyre maker, which started in 1863 as a firm selling rubber and elastic goods in the German city of Munich, says it will hold a ‘Road Racing’ summer spectacular to mark its century and a half.
It’s taken almost 49 years, but on 14 March Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Texarkana factory in the US state of Arkansas produced its 350 millionth tyre. The tyre maker says 7 million tyres are produced in Texarkana every year these days, giving the plant an annual output that’s a far cry from the early years; the first tyre was produced at the factory on 16 April 1964, and it took 24 years before the millionth tyre was manufactured.
According to the China Rubber Industry Association, the 43 major tyre companies belonging to the association’s Tyre Branch increased their production by an average of two per cent in 2012, producing a total of 325.5 million tyres, 287 million of which were radials. Sales revenue for the 43 companies was RMB 205.6 billion (£21.9 billion), a 0.3 per cent year-on-year increase.
Add Harrods to your list of Pirelli retailers – the famed department store will display the Italian brand’s P Zero spring/summer clothing range at a pop up shop there throughout March.
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