Hankook Tire reports its new European website is up and running in cyberspace. The multi-lingual site offers information on both company and product and Hankook notes that, thanks to the site’s flexible structure, news and facts tailored to the European market can be provided on a daily basis.
The laser etching process that Kumho showed off at last September’s Frankfurt Motor Show has landed the South Korean manufacturer an iF Product Design Award. The accolade from Germany’s International Forum Design, first introduced in 1954, is awarded upon the merits of a product’s design, technology, degree of innovation and brand value potential. A total of 2,486 entries from 1,081 companies in 39 countries were submitted for the latest round of awards. The awards are divided into 16 categories, and Kumho’s victory in the 2010 awards took place in the ‘Advanced Studies’ category.
The complete schedule for the Tire Industry Association (TIA) 2010 OTR Conference has now been posted on the TIA’s website, and the association reminds those interested in attending the conference in the US that the early conference registration deadline (January 13) and hotel registration deadline (January 18) are rapidly approaching. Interested attendees can view the schedule and register by visiting the "events" section of the TIA's tireindustry.org website.
With three new circuits on the calendar, 2010 promises to be an exciting year for Maxxis in its title-sponsorship of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship. Little Silver near Exeter is the first of the new venues and hosts the season opener at the end of February, while Leicestershire’s Mallory Park will stage a special double-header on March 21, when motocross action will be coupled with a road race. In August the series visits Farleigh Castle in Wiltshire, a circuit that has not been used for around ten years as a Maxxis Championship event.
After standing idle for more than a year, on December 2 Dunlop India’s Sahaganj factory in West Bengal resumed production. The facility had been closed since November 2008 and been the subject of first a lockout and then electricity connection issues, yet preliminary work to resume production has now began in preparation for an initial production of 40 tonnes of OTR tyres per day.
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The German based XING business network can be likened to a corporate Facebook, and over eight million members are already using the website to manage their business contacts. The service is very popular in German speaking regions, and to capitalise on this Continental AG has begun a one-year XING trial.
Kwik-Fit expresses concern that almost a third of car owning students would rather blow their budget on a night out than fix a tyre. Admittedly, finances are often tight while studying, but the fast fit giant points out it’s not just necessities such as books, rent and food that are taking priority over car maintenance. Kwik-Fit reveals the shameful statistic that 32 per cent of car owning students confessed that they’d choose to blow their last £50 on a big night out rather than replace an illegal tyre – even if it meant driving home on it the next day.
The Maxxis Babes have been cheering on Maxxis-sponsored teams, drivers and riders at the British Superbike Championship and Maxxis British Motocross Championship, drift events and tuning, styling and performance shows this season to the acclaim of motorsport enthusiasts up and down the country. Now they have their own website. “The Maxxis Babes have attracted a lot of attention over the past couple of seasons and are such a popular feature of our promotional activities now that we decided to elevate their profile to help us develop our presence in the styling, performance and tuning market,” says Maxxis International UK’s managing director Derek McMartin.
Michelin will look to “re-establish” its two-wheel motorsport involvement in the UK in 2010, with the manufacturer introducing The Michelin Power Cup having already achieved notable success in France, Italy and Spain with similar race series. The series offers motorcycle racers a welcome Power Pack valued at £700, plus unprecedented amounts of track time and prizes including cash and products. Commenting on the new series, Olivier Gros, head of Michelin’s UK motorcycle department says: “This is a very exciting opportunity for us to re-establish Michelin at the grass-roots of motorcycle racing in the UK. We want the Power Cup to stand out as offering the best value for money for racers both in terms of track time and prizes, and based on the calibre of sponsors we are confident that this will be the case.
With tyre manufactures increasing their interest in marketing their tyres through drifting as the sport grows in popularity, the Infinity brand is no exception. In Europe, the Moskou Drift Team has been using the company’s INF-050, supplied by Eurotyre. The Team Manager, Michael van Seggelen remarked, “We are very grateful for the support of Eurotyre and Infinity Tyres (Europe) – the tyres are very reliable and enhance the drifting effect – we would recommend them for any ultra high performance tyre experience.”
Grouptyre has announced the winners of its Red Letter Day promotion, a national initiative set up in conjunction with value brand Federal, for which it is the exclusive UK distributor. First prize of a £500 Red Letter Day goes to RIKFIT Tyres in Kings Norton, Birmingham, which is supplied by Grouptyre member Car Tyrestore. ETB customer Tyrecare of Kings Heath and Top Tread of Rotherham, supplied by NE Wholesale, each won runner up prizes of a Red Letter Day experience to the value of £250.
The competition to find the UK’s best mechanics, Top Technician 2010 has opened for entries and nominations at the website www.toptechnician.co.uk. The winner will be announced after three competitive assessment stages at Workshop 2010, the industry’s own parts and equipment exhibition, at the NEC Birmingham on 15 April, 2010. S/He will be awarded £2,500 tax-free, alongside thousands of pounds’ worth of prizes and – a press release for the competition states – “priceless publicity for you and your business.” Entrants must complete the initial online test by 8 January, 2010. The prize is sponsored by Blueprint, Comma Oil & Chemicals, Delphi, Euro Car Parts, Lemforder and Motor Codes.
Consumer choice for online tyre purchases has been broadened through the launch of a new website by Edinburgh based company MacSams. The macsamstyres.co.uk portal enables motorists to purchase new tyres online and have them fitted by a local garage, and MacSams Tyres says buying through its website offers savings of up to 45 per cent on the rates found at traditional fast fit centres. Indeed, the company expresses confidence it can offer “the cheapest online destination for tyres in the UK.”
Cooper Tires has launched a ‘cashback’ promotion for the final two months of 2009, offering customers up to £50 when they buy two or four qualifying tyres. The offer applies to the Cooper Zeon 2XS and Cooper Zeon CS6 performance car tyres, as well as the new Cooper Zeon 4XS, Cooper Zeon XST and Cooper Zeon XST-A range of 4×4 tyres. Products in the Discoverer STT and Discoverer S/T 4×4 line-ups are also included.
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