As of July 2011, Conti360° Fleet Services has extended its European coverage into Austria. This is the first addition to the German tyre maker’s service portfolio following its launch in eight core European markets – Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Czech Republic – and Continental now has plans to further expand the network into other regions.
Following the recent establishment of a new European management team based in Birmingham and headed by Martin West, Chinese-based tyre manufacturer Sailun reports that inroads have been made in the creation and development of a specialist European truck tyre distributor network. Appointments and partnerships have already been established in Spain (Grupo Soledad), Italy (Intergomma), United Kingdom (Kirkby Tyres), Ukraine (Shina Trading), Poland (Handlopex), Latvia (Lattakko) and Sweden (Dackarna).
A Bridgestone survey derived from 38,000 tyre safety checks carried out by Bridgestone in nine European countries suggests that 71 per cent of motorists are driving on under-inflated tyres. Almost 12 per cent are also worn down below the EU legal minimum of 1.6 mm tread depth. “These figures are particularly alarming at this time of year,” says Des Collins, vice president European Communications Office, Bridgestone Europe, “as families set off on long journeys with heavily-loaded cars. It is important for the safety of motorists that they check their tyres before leaving.”
Pirelli will introduce its new medium compound PZero White Formula One tyre in Valencia, Spain this weekend, following a testing period during free practice in Canada two weeks ago. The tyre is not quite as durable as the hard tyre seen during the first five Grands Prix of the season, but Pirelli believes it is quicker. Pirelli will also make the PZero Yellow soft tyre, which is the option tyre in Valencia.
Pellon Tyres in Halifax recently hosted Huddersfield Town footballer Scott Arfield, when he visited the branch for two new Kumho tyres to be fitted to his Volkswagen. The meeting came about after Pellon’s Eric Roberts, himself a life-long Huddersfield Town fan, was contacted by a friend to ask if he could help a friend fit a “couple of tyres” on his car.
After a year of rueing the misfortune of its main riders, Pirelli says that it will bounce back with a strong line-up for this year’s Isle of Man TT, which it hopes will be more competitive than ever. Two of Pirelli’s biggest hopes, Guy Martin and Conor Cummins crashed out of the final Senior race whilst in leading positions in 2010. Pirelli’s racing manager and Isle of Man resident Jason Griffiths lives and breathes the TT. Thirteen times a podium finisher at the TT, Jason said, “We didn’t have a lot of luck last year with our riders showing great pace but a series of technical and rider DNF’s, meant we didn’t see the top step of the podium. Guy is definitely in great form and we’ve carried out some interesting and positive tyre tests with him over the winter. There are a number of quality riders lined up this year and with Hutchy ruled out through injury it could go a number of ways for the main protagonists. Most of all we hope for good, safe racing and a continuing good spectacle for the fans.”
The UK distributor for Yokohama tyres, Yokohama HPT, has announced the addition of two more motorsport dealers to its network, dealing in both circuit tyres and the latest addition to its rally range, the A053. The new tyre has been used to great effect already by Tristan Pye and is now available in Northern Ireland from TMG Distribution and in the Republic of Ireland, from Murray Motorsport.
Sebastian Vettel held off a spirited performance from Lewis Hamilton to win the Spanish Grand Prix by 0.6 seconds, both drivers running the new harder compound PZero Silver tyre during the closing stages. The new Silver, which had its first outing in Spain, proved to be a central talking point, once again putting tyres firmly in the conscience of the sport’s followers. Though Lewis Hamilton had been vocal throughout the weekend in his reservations about the tyre, he found enough speed to challenge Vettel all the way to the line, also recording the Grand Prix’s fastest time on the Silver.
The results of Delticom’s ‘Tyres online 2011’ survey show a large minority of British drivers are willing to purchase tyres online. In the internet retailer’s survey of more than 5,000 potential tyre buyers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, 47 per cent of British respondents expressed their readiness to buy tyres on the web; this is, admittedly, far below the 74 per cent of French drivers willing to purchase online, but slightly more than Germany, where 40 per cent of those surveyed answered in the affirmative. In Italy and Spain, only around 18 per cent of respondents answered positively regarding internet tyre purchasing.
Demand for new cars declined in most European markets during April, with new registrations down 4.1 per cent year-on-year. The UK market drop was even more pronounced, with 7.4 per cent fewer registrations than in April 2010; France suffered an 11.1 per cent year-on-year decline while 23.3 per cent fewer cars were registered in Spain. The only major market to buck this downward trend was Germany, where 2.6 per cent more new registrations were reported in April 2011. In all, 1,089,118 new passenger cars were registered in the EU (including Romania and Bulgaria; data for Malta and Cyprus is currently not available); around one eighth of these were registered in the UK, which recorded a total of 137,746 new vehicles for the month.
Towards the end of April television viewers in the UK and several other European countries were amongst the first to experience the latest corporate advertising campaign produced by Bridgestone Europe. These television commercials form part of a new multi-prong advertising approach that also involves print, billboard and web advertisements. Bridgestone Europe says the campaign, which was produced in close cooperation with Bridgestone Corporation, will also be used in Bridgestone markets outside of our region.
The Portuguese Grand Prix represents the third round of the MotoGP season this year, with the event moved to 1 May from its usual October slot following heavy rain in 2010’s GP. With clear skies, Bridgetsone will be able to make use of its asymmetric rear slick tyres, which have been selected because of the imbalanced demands of the circuit. There are nine right-handed corners and only four lefts, and generally the right-handers are faster and generate higher loads, resulting in markedly higher tyre temperatures in the right shoulders of the tyres, especially the rears, as director of Motorsport Tyre Development Hirohide Hamashima explained.
This weekend Cooper Tire enters its 30th season as exclusive tyre supplier to the Cooper Tires British Formula Three International Series, as the formula begins its 60th anniversary season this weekend. The series’ more international flavour of recent years will be represented by its first round taking place at Monza, Italy: one of four held outside the UK. Britain will see six events.
Available in various fitments for 18 and 19-inch diameter rim sizes in the UK and mainland Europe from March 28, 2011 is the Avon ZZ5 ultra high performance tyre, following high speed durability testing at the Nürburgring, among other places. The tyre has what manufacturer Cooper Avon terms an “Intelligent Asymmetric Tread Design” and “Optinoise” technology for a quieter ride. The company says the tyre’s development on European roads and racetracks have given it improved handling and grip capabilities. The tyre is aimed at the small-medium high performance sector, typified by such models as the Audi S4 and Lotus Evora.
The Jerez circuit is the next to grace the MotoGP calendar, as Bridgestone moves to Spain after the season-opener in Qatar. Located near the southern Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, the Grand Prix is a classic event on the MotoGP calendar with huge crowds making the most of the Spanish sun to support their national heroes. It is also, in the words of Hirohide Hamashima – director, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development – “a technical circuit with a mix of fast and slow corners. It is a good test circuit because of the diversity of the corner layout and this means that we require a tyre with a very balanced character to provide good handling from low speed to high and from flat corners to changes in elevation.”
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
