Despite the April 1 date of announcement, the Volkswagen Polo was nobody’s fool at a press conference hosted by Bridgestone Corporation along with the New York International Auto Show and BASF SE – the German hatchback was declared 2010 World Car of the Year. The Polo was chosen from an initial entry list of thirty entries nominated by fifty-nine jurors from twenty-five countries.
On March 31, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship officially confirmed that 23 cars are lined up to compete in the 2010 season. Despite the current economic climate, this is more than was announced at the start of 2009, and this year’s contingent includes a number of new teams, drivers, models of cars and big name sponsors. In total, seven different manufacturers, with nine different models, are represented on the grid, namely: BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, SEAT, Vauxhall and Volkswagen.
Pirelli has launched its new Scorpion Verde tyre, developed to meet what the company perceives as the SUV market’s need for increased fuel efficiency. With more than just one eye on upcoming tyre labelling regulations, Pirelli claims that the Scorpion Verde boasts greatly improved rolling resistance from previous high performance SUV offerings, making it “the first high-performance eco tyre for vehicles with the highest environmental impact – SUVs and Crossovers.”
Hankook has announced the promotion of Dr Claus Oberbeck to head of development at the company’s European Technical Centre. Oberbeck has a strong history of technical research and development in ultra-high performance tyres having worked most recently as the head of an international project team developing new concepts and putting those concepts into practice in series production. His appointment provides further evidence of the company’s continued strengthening of its UHP tyre position, with an engineering team now numbering over 40 members.
Despite what it describes as a “severely deteriorating market”, Conti reports that over the last year its original equipment passenger car tyre market share within the European Union region remained unchanged. With a production figure of 24.4 million units, Continental was able to maintain its market share of 32 per cent, and new original equipment supplies have been arranged with, amongst others, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz AMG, Ford and Renault.
Avon Tyres’ latest high-performance tyre, the ZT5 has been designed with what the company calls “the latest ‘pitch technology’ to reduce road noise for a quieter ride and to ensure that the new tyre conforms with EU noise legislation.” The ZT5 also possesses what Avon calls an “innovative tread design, which offers optimum road grip when wet”. The tyre caters for a wide range of popular small, medium-sized vehicles, such as the Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Polo, Vauxhall Corsa, Citroen C3 and Peugeot 207.
As a provider of advanced wheel alignment systems to the UK market, Northamptonshire-based company Pro-Align stresses the advantage of cutting edge equipment from the point of view of both service quality and commercial opportunity. Its latest product from US garage equipment manufacturer Hunter – the Hunter CodeLink – fits this bill, both catering for models in the Audi, BMW, Lexus, Chevrolet, Mini, Toyota and Volkswagen ranges and anticipating the increase in popularity of Electronic Stability Control in new cars; a system that will become a requirement in all new cars from 2012.
You may not have heard of him before, but tyre maker JK Tyre is backing Aditya Patel as a driving “prodigy and India’s most promising driver.” JK Tyre’s comments come in advance of the forthcoming VW Scirocco Cup that starts in April 2010 in Germany. 21-year old Aditya will also be the first Indian to drive a Green Racing car as the Scirocco runs on ERD Bio gas, something which is said to be global first.
JK Tyre, which has been supporting Aditya in his professional training and participation in various national and International motorsport events, is also one of his lead sponsors in this endeavor. The Scirocco Cup will be held as the partner series of the hugely popular DTM in its 2010 debut season. Staged as the most eco-friendly one-make championship in the world, the sporting equipment: the racing version of the Scirocco is powered by an innovative biogas engine that achieves an 80-per cent reduction of CO2 emissions compared with conventional engines.
Sales of the Veco brand, available from automotive parts distributor Universal Automotive, are reportedly “growing steadily”, with year-on-year sales predicted to increase by 10 per cent in 2010. According to the distributor, this growth is to come from garages looking to their suppliers to provide “reliable products with matching OE quality, but at competitive prices” – the company says that the Veco range “ticks all of these boxes”.
Volkswagen has released its latest Polo BlueMotion, an 80.7 mpg fuel economy wonder, to order from Volkswagen Retailers. Prices start at £14,445 on the road, but the main news is the fuel economy and its subsequent low emissions.
The new Polo BlueMotion features a new 1.2-litre TDI three-cylinder common rail diesel engine offering 75 PS, and 133 lbs ft (180 Nm) of torque available from 2,000 rpm. The new engine, combined with longer gearing through the five-speed manual gearbox, regenerative braking and an automatic start/stop system, help the new Polo BlueMotion emit just 91 g/km of CO2 while returning an impressive 80.7 mpg on the combined cycle. This grants the new Polo BlueMotion a theoretical range of over 800 miles on one tank of diesel.
One of the more widely anticipated effects of the car scrappage schemes popular in Europe as stimuli for the industry in 2009 was the increase in market share of A and B-segment small cars (exemplified by Ford’s Fiesta and Ka, Fiat’s 500 and Panda and Volkswagen’s Polo and Fabia). Data released by Deutsche Bank analysts shows that the predicted swing transpired to a significant degree – these small cars comprised 45 per cent of 2009’s registrations in the zone, compared with 39 per cent in 2008. In terms of passenger car tyres, it seems the trend must follow in Western Europe, though we predict the general growth in small car rim-sizes will mitigate this factor somewhat.
The 10 millionth Hankook tyre rolled off the production line at the company’s Rácalmás, Hungary production plant in January 2010. According to the company, a Hankook Ventus V12 evo was the ‘anniversary’ tyre that came out of the heating mould, which is fitting because markets for UHP and environmentally friendly tyres have reportedly shown particularly strong growth in Europe.
Continental is setting up a management structure in its home market with a stronger gearing towards customer and regional demands. The company says its Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH operation will “step up its exploitation of the experience gained in the passenger tyre industry and trade business, with the aim of more fully satisfying the needs of business partners.” Several new key appointments will facilitate the company’s plans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the three lands serviced by Continental Reifen Deutschland.
Starting on December 16, 2009, Volkswagen’s sports-oriented ‘R-Line’ version of its Passat CC is leaving the factory fitted with tyres featuring Continental’s ‘ContiSeal’ technology. The size 235/45 R 17 and 235/40 R 18 self-sealing ContiSportContact 3 tyres featured on the Passat R-Line are capable of closing off punctures up to five millimetres in diameter, and thus Conti believes around 85 per cent of all tyre failures can be resolved through this technology.
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Corghi has released the passenger car tyre changer it hopes will “widen the success of the Artiglio 50,” the Artiglio 500. The new model has been improved on the basis of feedback from the market, resulting in what Corghi hopes will be received as “an even higher performance product.” It will be demonstrated by Apaseal at Brityrex on the 5-7 October, 2010, and will be available from February. The company will continue to provide its “Blue Light” system for wheel balancing.
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