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The German retreading industry has, for some time now, been concerned about when and how the ECE regulations 108 (passenger tyres) and 109 (truck tyres) would eventually be transferred into mandatory national law. In fact concerns over how the regulations will affect the German retreading market have been lingering since they were put into place in Geneva in June 1998.
Continental’s Hanover headquarters have denied claims that the company “will do anything to win magazine tyre tests.” The company’s rebuttal follows motoring journalist Robert Collin’s accusations that the company manipulated test results by providing specially produced products rather than the series units they should have. Furthermore, the Swedish Aftonbladet magazine article suggested that Continental had a “secret test tyre department” whose role it was to produce such tyres.
In a statement issued by the manufacturer’s head office, Continental “emphatically denies” the claims. “We don’t have a secret department that produces special tyres to be used in tests,” added Rainer Strang, Continental corporate spokesperson. He also pointed out that the company’s good reputation was confirmed by its market success in addition to its “consistently outstanding test results.” “Continental tyres undergo months and even years of rigorous testing and development with the world’s leading car manufacturers,” he added.
Ducati Corse CEO Claudio Domenicali has announced that it is to set-up a special tyre test team in collaboration with Bridgestone, reports MotoGP News.
The MotoGP project will see Japanese rider, Shinichi Itoh, become the official test-rider alongside a group of technicians, including a Ducati Corse engineer.
Well-known motoring journalist, Robert Collin, has accused Continental of doing “anything to win magazine tyre tests.” In an article published by the Swedish Aftonbladet magazine, the journalist suggests that the company has won tests by supplying “special” tyres.
The apparent motivation for the alleged underhanded behaviour is simple. Winning a tyre test can mean an increase in sales and is therefore big business. The Aftonbladet reports that this effect is particularly marked in countries like Germany and France and so the temptation for manufacturers is great. From a magazine’s point of view, the problem is that when the latest tyres are reviewed, they are generally not available in the shops and so testers have to trust manufacturers when they provide tyres for testing.
Autocar magazine has published its annual tyre tests this week, with Goodyear dominating the results. The independent tyre test compared five leading tyre brands in the UK, across two categories of car.
Auto Express has completed its longest and largest ever test, confirming Vredestein as the number one, for the third year in a row.
The assessment put 16 different brands of tyres to the test, and nine different aspects of tyre performance were measured, including wet and dry braking characteristics, rolling resistance, cornering ability and resistance to aquaplaning.
The well-known motoring magazine described Vredestein’s Sportrac 2 as a “superb wet weather all rounder”. The tests confirmed that from a speed of 62 mph a car on Vredestein tyres stops quicker than any other and that on a wet road the Sportrac 2 beats the poorest performer by four car lengths.
“We are extremely proud that Vredestein tyres have again been shown to be the best quality tyre on the UK market,” commented Vredestein UK’s MD, Bert Stellinga. “It’s great to see the result of all the work that our engineers, our product development people and our partners Giugiaro Design have done in developing the Vredestein range of tyres.”
The magazine did not hide its surprise that the tyre, which performed so well in wet conditions could also perform well in the dry, writing: “It was a shock to see wet weather ace Vredestein at the top again.”
The September edition of the German magazine “Transporting” has tested whether or not using super single tyres instead of conventional dual tyres on trucks can save fuel. Examining the effect that a lower rolling resistance has on reducing fuel consumption was not the only idea behind the comparison of both tyres. The testers also wanted to check if and how, the driving characteristics of a truck are influenced by the reduced weight of the super broad tyres. And the results – they found that utilising super singles on the rear axle “recognisably” deteriorates the spring/damping characteristics. However, there were no differences found between the two types of tyres with regards to lane keeping and traction. But, in accordance with expectations fuel savings of around four per cent were recorded during the tests.
The Internet’s largest compilation of Tyres Tests is now available online. The tests, which cover more than 940 tyres from across the UK and Europe have been collated and published on the Tyres & Accessories for the first time. Each entry contains a brief profile, review and a reference to the original source.
In order to navigate this huge database, products can be searched in terms of brand, model, year, width, height, diameter or speed index.
The test database is regularly kept up-to-date and will include the results of the new winter tyre tests when they come out in early October.
To visit the tyre test database click here or look out for the ‘tyre tests online’ animation.
Renault’s F1 test driver Franck Montagny accomplished Michelin tyre tests this week in Barcelona. At first the Michelin tyres were only tested regarding compounds, later different tyre constructions were added to the programme. According to chief test engineer, Christian Silk, a few improvements were found in the tyres.
Pirelli’s P Zero Nero has emerged as the winner of a summer tyre test carried out by the German magazine auto motor und sport. Ten well-known brands in tyre size 225/45 R17 Y were tested. The Pirelli tyre was top points scorer in seven out of ten categories tested and performed particularly well in wet testing, scoring 99 out of a possible 100.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company plans to launch AVON Tyres USA, a new collection of performance passenger, light truck, sport truck and motorsport tyres. Completely new to the U.S. and Canadian markets, the AVON Tyres USA line is the first ever to have been designed and engineered from consumer feedback data. All data was collected and analyzed by The Tire Rack, the country’s largest independent tyre tester, through its web site, www.tirerack.com.
Consumer Association magazine, Which? put the leading UHP tyres through their paces recently with the Goodyear Eagle F1 coming top of its category
again. A convoy of cars were driven over 6,000 miles each in order to compile the results, with the spotlight turned on performance in both wet and dry conditions, ride comfort, noise creation, rolling resistance and wear. The Which? test saw the Goodyear Eagle F1 competing in the 17 inch category, a tyre that would normally be fitted on sporty versions of cars such as BMW 3 Series, Ford Mondeo and VW Golfs. The extensive testing saw the Eagle F1 given an impressive score of 70 per cent across all categories, with Which? reserving special comment for its grip in both wet and dry conditions, as well as declaring it the quietest in its section.
Reports from the annual tyre tests at Daytona Superbike trials have been called off due to a series of tyre failures. Dunlop is working frenetically to overcome the difficulties but leading racers are not blaming Dunlop for the failures but rather the condition of the banked Daytona circuit and the power of the Superbikes. “Tyre wear is not the issue or the reason why for the failures.” Said team manager Matt Mladin. “The problem Dunlop is facing is that they just don’t know why it’s happening. The bottom line is that the speeds and the forces generated on the banking, I don’t think can be replicated in a closed testing environment and that makes it hard. The banking does have what feels like very sharp holes, what would feel like stutter bumps on a motocross bike, but at 270kph, so is this additional load causing the tyre to fracture. That’s the thing at the moment, we just don’t know.”
The Vredestein Hi-Trac came out tops in the annual tyre test conducted by motoring magazine Auto Express. Ten H-rated tyres were put through a demanding series of wet and dry handling tests and the Hi-Trac emerged in first place, narrowly ahead of the Continental ContiEcoContact3 and the third-placed Toyo Roadpro R610.
Marangoni’s much delayed official launch of the Zeta Linea came at Italy’s Adria race Circuit at the beginning of June. Already, the Zeta Linea has been receiving considerable press coverage in Germany where tyre tests are popular features in motoring magazines, and with the tyre trade. In most tests the Zeta Linea is performing at least as well as the benchmark tyres from leading manufacturers and in some tests exceeding their performance. These test included excellent results from the ADAC UHP tyre test. The presentation of the tyres was led by Christophe Huss, Marangoni Tyre Export Manager. Mr. Huss began by highlighting the sluggish growth in the European tyre market over the past decade, an average of 3.4 per cent. Plant facilities had fallen in number from 111 to 83, a drop of 25 per cent. This he compared with Marangoni Tyre’s growth rate over the same period an average of 22.4 per cent; a performance that he put down to Marangoni’s specialisation in high value products; snow tyres, and UHP for example. Before taking the tyres to market they were thoroughly tested by TÜV in Germany, RDW in the Netherlands and by German tuning expert Franz Engstler. Marangoni tyres have also been used in the Marangoni Junior Trophy Championship on VW Polos racing in Italy. On the Scuderia del Portello Alfa Romeo in the Carrera Panamericana. The sporting heritage of the Marangoni product is growing rapidly alongside its market success in Europe. T&A has already discussed the marketing process using local dealers as equal partners in the marketing team in the November 2002 issue. However, to recap, some 200 local distributors and agents all take part in the decision making process with Marangoni. They have the close contact with the market and by listening to them Marangoni can work with the market, as it is developing. Angelo Priori, R&D Director for Marangoni presented the key PST issues, the tyre cavity design; processing development; and materials development. Mr Priori explained the new tyre profile with a narrower section and tread arc width for improved aquaplaning and more controlled progressiveness (the adaption to changes in road surfaces); reduced ply length for improved response, reduced weight and greater construction flexibility. A larger curing width to the tyre improves rim seating and minimises moulding defects. The deflection point in the side wall is also higher than before giving a larger response are. The tread has pitch sequence optimised for noise control, whilst the cap/ base is a combination of three compounds. A firmer cap layer to give the required characteristics for the tread pattern, a cushioned base layer for comfort and a wing compound to give the required shoulder and sidewall compounds. This required the development of tyre building machinery specifically adapted to the needs of Marangoni, and although the underlying tyre builder is one used by many tyre manufacturers, Marangoni’s equipment division has developed modifications to the plant to specifically handle the production of the new Vanto and Zeta Linea tyres.
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