In a press release that avoids mentioning the recent Park family tussle, Kumho Asiana has announced the official inauguration of the group’s fifth chairman. Chan-Bup Park, who is no relation to San-koo and Chan-koo Park, began in his official capacity following an inauguration ceremony in Seoul on the morning of July 31.
When Ford decided they needed a tyre to back up its Fusion S model’s claims of best-in-class fuel efficiency from its six-speed transmission and 2.5-litre engine, it decided the best way to go for that positive reinforcement was Goodyear’s new Assurance Fuel Max, as original equipment for the 2010 iteration. The tyre, which claims fuel-efficient properties through a compound designed to yield less rolling resistance, will be sized P205/60R16. The 2010 Fusion S is in production and has begun arriving at US dealerships.
The Assurance Fuel Max features, alongside its energy-saving compound, wet and dry tread zones to enhance all-season traction. The wet tread zone features dual “aquachannel” grooves to help evacuate water when driving on wet roads. The dry tread zone helps enhance handling and grip in the dry. The tyre is also available on the replacement market.
This season, two new tyres are being added to the Bridgestone Blizzak line: the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 and LM-60, each suited for vehicles ranging from light trucks and SUVs to sports cars and sedans. The Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 will be available in 46 R-speed-rated sizes ranging from 15 inches to 22 inches and 75-45 series. Replacing the DM-Z3, the DM-V1 is designed to disperse surface water and improve grip. A directional tread pattern and 3-D sipes enhance dry performance and continuous lug design and center tread grooves increase traction in the snow and ice, according to Bridgestone.
Designed in response to unique road conditions in the US and Canada, the Blizzak LM-60 incorporates continuous lugs and zigzag sipes to improve snow and ice traction. Circumferential grooves channel water out of the tyre’s footprint area to resist hydroplaning and a directional tread pattern and 3-D sipes enhance dry performance of the LM-60, Bridgestone said. Available in 34 H-speed rated sizes from 17 inches to 20 inches in the 60-35 series, the LM-60 consolidates existing Blizzak tyres into one H-rated tire line. This consolidation includes the Bridgestone Blizzak LM-18, LM-22, and the LM-25. (Tire Review/Akron)
A survey involving 14,500 AA members has indicated that the most irritating habit of road users is that of tailgating. 36 per cent of the sample group told Populus, in conjunction with the AA, that “close following” was the worst of the idiotic pieces of driving seen on Britain’s roads. The survey heralds the arrival of the latest drive to improve the standard of driving in the UK, the Autocar/AA Drive Better Campaign.
The AA’s president told Autocar that tailgating was also a very dangerous bad habit: “Survey respondents were spot on to highlight their irritation with tailgaters. Data reveals that leaving pure human error aside tailgaters fall just behind ‘loss of control’ as the major cause of crashes. It’s a problem not only on motorways but also on dual carriageways, country lanes and in road works. Some tailgate to bully drivers out of the way, others because they just don’t think of the potentially tragic consequences of their actions.”
Permatex Inc., a key player in automotive chemical technology maintenance and repair, has launched an in-game publicity campaign for its “No Touch Seriously Wet Extreme Tire Shine” inside leading race titles Need for Speed, Burnout Paradise, GRID, and Dirt. According to the company, the opportunity was developed in conjunction with strategic video game partner Engage In-Game Advertising and Permatex marketing partner, Mintz & Hoke Communications Group.
“Promoting No Touch products with in-game advertising is a creative opportunity to introduce and reinforce our brand and tire dressing products among our target audience, who we refer to as members of the ‘Best Dressed Nation,'” said Permatex senior product manager, Diane Nesprido. “By placing our ‘Get Wet’ messaging and positioning our NO TOUCH(R) Seriously Wet Extreme Tire Shine within the action of games, we hope to increase our reach and encourage people who want their cars to stand out and shine to try our products.”
The Mercedes SL65 Black was described by opinionated blowhard, Jeremy Clarkson as “the most uncomfortable car in all of human history” during last Sunday’s Top Gear programme, though the public at large seemed to enjoy the car’s aesthetics as it was displayed in the Dunlop Drivers Club Stable Yard at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
At regular intervals between the celebrity interviews, Dunlop’s presenters had ‘pitched’ each of the cars Top Trumps-style to the crowd, asking them to choose a favourite. On two days out of the three, the public voted overwhelmingly for the Mercedes. Clarkson did concede that the car was “good looking” and referred to its stats as “mind boggling.”
A HiQ franchisee raised more than £2000 for Breast Cancer Care at the Goodwood Festival of Speed recently. Richard Whittemore, who runs 10 HiQ centres in the south of England under his Elite Garages Group company, helped to generate £2,075 at the event, while checking hundreds of motorists’ tyres in an attempt to eliminate illegal tyre usage.
Richard took a team of fast fitters around the festival to check hundreds of tread depths and in return, visitors donated money to Breast Cancer Care – HiQ’s chosen charity for 2009. The initiative took place at Goodwood after a recent survey claimed that more than 3 million UK motorists are currently driving on illegal tyres.
A Bandvulc employee has scored the highest mark in the country for Retread Process Workship Practice. Justin Holloway was one of eight from the Ivybridge-based company that successfully completed the City & Guilds course. The eight employees started the course in September 2008 with weekly in-house tuition and self study covering all 12 sections of the syllabus. The course ran until April 2009 and included all areas within the retread process from initial inspection to final inspection, quality, health & safety and rubber technology.
Participants in these courses, which Bandvulc has run for the last 15 years, include employees from all areas of the company. As well as classroom tuition time is also spent on factory floor where they get ‘hands on’ experience in activities such as patch repairing a tyre. They also gain a greater understanding of damaged tyres, reasons for removal and load and speed ratings, to name but a few. Even those not directly involved in the retreading process benefit greatly from the course. For example, staff in Bandvulc Tyre Contracts find the knowledge they acquire about narratives and terminology enables them to converse more fully with service providers.
Goodwood Festival of Speed saw 20 per cent more people view the Dunlop Motorsport presence than previously. Dunlop reportedly “pioneered” a new concept at this year’s event with a media stage. Dunlop’s communications manager James Bailey commented: “More than 13,000 people have been through the Dunlop Drivers Club Stable Yard today, watching and listening to their motor racing heroes and looking at some of their cars. This is an increase of around 20 per cent on last year. The public have the chance to get up-close and personal with the people and machines that have made history over the years and who are making history right now. This is the first time we have thrown our efforts fully behind a media stage, and judging by public reaction on day one, it’s a winner.”
With its thick lugs that continue around the sidewall, the BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/AKM range clearly means business in an off-road capacity and now the tyre has been given a second generation for the European market. The new tyre is replacing the BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/AKM, which is both the market leader in the off-road category and the spearhead of the brand in Europe.
BFGoodrich says that the new Mud Terrain T/AKM2 provides off-road drivers with outstanding performance regardless of surface conditions, delivering enhanced strength, damage resistance and grip. It will be available in 16 sizes in 15, 16 and 17 inch diameters for tyre widths from 215 to 305 mm, in 85 to 70 series aspect ratios and with a Q speed symbol. The M+S marking on the sidewalls indicates that the tyre has been approved for use in mud and snow.
Riders choosing the Japanese tyre brand Yokohama have dominated timed practice for this year’s sidecar class of the world-famous Isle of Man TT races. Fastest in evening practice was last year’s double winner Nick Crowe, posting a time of 19min30sec to give an average lap speed of 116.03mph, just shy of the lap record. This year, 34 of the 47 runners and riders have chosen to use Yokohama tyres, which have experienced an unbroken run of 15 victories. Eight of the top ten riders are using Yokohama as well as customer service from dealer Express Tyres.
The number of vehicles utilising run-flat tyres is increasing year by year, and while typical application allows such tyres to be used for a set distance following a loss of air pressure, different issues come into play when run-flats are fitted to a vehicle that is towing a caravan or trailer. This warning has been voiced by Protyre, who says that while normally inflated run-flat tyres on a vehicle towing a caravan or trailer can be treated in the same way as a standard tyre, a deflated run-flat is only designed to cope with the demands of a solo vehicle. The additional mass of a towed caravan or trailer subjects the tyre to higher stress levels and impacts on the tyre’s in-built torsional and lateral stability. The consequences of this is, notes Protyre, that even when travelling at a restricted speed of 50 mph for 50 miles – the speed and distance recommended by most manufactures of this type of tyre – the additional flexibility of the deflated run-flat tyre may negatively affect the stability of the car/caravan combination.
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has executed an internal reorganization process that will take effect as of 26 June 2009. According to the manufacturer, the company’s Tire Group aims to improve its business efficiency and speed by shaping itself around six functional organizations: sales & marketing, production, technical, quality assurance, product planning, and logistics. The group says it also aims to form “an organization capable of developing and executing a global business strategy with the establishment of an integrated sales setup to cover both domestic and overseas markets and the enhancement of global functions in technical and production divisions.”
Dunlop Motorcycle in the UK has announced that it has extended its popular Roadsmart tyre range. Created to meet the needs of all-weather, year-round riders on sports-touring, naked street bikes and supersport machines, the Roadsmart range has been extended to provide tyres for the increasingly popular large capacity trail bikes used for road riding. The tyre is now available in sizes 110/80 R19 (59V) and 150/70 R17 (69V) to be fitted on popular trail bikes for road use.
Lisa Faulkner, motorcycle manager, UK and Ireland stated, “We’re very happy to be able to bring the Roadsmart range to even more riders. Large capacity trail bikes have become an increasingly popular choice for road use, Roadsmart is one of the best all round tyres and it was only natural that we would develop a tyre for these bikes.”
Semperit’s tyre, the Speed-Life represents the Continental second-brand’s affordable entry into the high performance market place. It benefits from an advanced generation silica compound, which gives the tyre better handling characteristics in the wet as well as reduced fuel consumption.
The use of offset tread blocks of varying sizes enables the contact between the tyre and the road to be staggered, this minimises the noise output to give a quiet and comfortable drive.
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