Tyre News

Harris Brothers Tyres in Charity Fundraiser
Avon Confirmed as Official Morgan Aeromax Supplier
Credit Crunch Starting to Bite on Tyres
BFGoodrich Champions of Irish Tarmac Rally
Kingsway Tyres Present Cheque to The Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital Respiratory Unit
Tyre Safety Concerns Raised by 'Black Hole' of Foreign-Registered Cars on UK Roads
Stoke is Home to the Darkest Museum in the Country
Hankook Tyre Check Bonus for Southampton Motorist

Harris Brothers Tyres in Charity Fundraiser

Harris Brothers Tyres pulled out all the stops at the Pembrokeshire County Show to help raise money for local charity, the Paul Sartori Foundation. The three days of events raised a total of £814 for the charity, which provides palliative care for patients with life-limiting conditions, both from the hospice based in Haverfordwest and for patients at home.

Harris Brothers Tyres, part of Bridgestone's First Stop network of tyre dealerships, showcased Bridgestone's stunning Formula One car and Formula One simulator at the show. Staff from the dealership, which has four branches across South Wales, were also on hand to offer product and tyre safety advice to visitors to the stand.

Show goers were invited to have their picture taken by the Formula One car and test their driving skills on the simulator - both for a small charity donation. During the event budding racers were competing to set the fastest lap on the simulator for a Bridgestone Motorsport jacket, with the winner being Jamie Lee Thomas from Kidwelly, Carmarthen. Other winners on the day were Colin Mason from Haverfordwest who won an exclusive tour of the Williams Formula One factory in the prize draw along with Tim Williams from Milford Haven and Ann Nicholas also from Haverfordwest who scooped a selection of Bridgestone merchandise.

Avon Confirmed as Official Morgan Aeromax Supplier

The new Morgan Aeromax has been unveiled as the latest in a long line of British sports cars to use Avon tyres as official tyre supplier. Classic British manufacturer, Morgan, chose Avon's ZZ3 as the perfect choice for their brand new 362bhp, 170mph machine, which has a 0-62mph speed of just 4.5 seconds.

The Aeromax will be Morgan's flagship model as the marque heads into its 100th anniversary year in 2009. The Avon ZZ3 was selected because of its excellent road holding in both wet and dry conditions and its predictable high-performance handling characteristics suit the powerful car perfectly.

The Aeromax will use Avon's 225/35 R19 XL 88Y XL ZZ3 at the front and 245/35R19 XL 93Y ZZ3 on the rear. Morgan also chose the Avon ZZ3 as an OE fitment for the revamped Aero 8 sports car in 2006, along with Connaught for its Type-D GT Syracuse.

Credit Crunch Starting to Bite on Tyres

New car sales in the UK are already being affected by the credit crunch and there is now mounting evidence that motorists are delaying replacing worn and defective tyres. This false economy is putting drivers, passengers and other road users in danger of an accident or the potential for prosecution.

Research by Protyre, the independent tyre dealer network, has revealed that over three quarters of motorists visiting their 31 outlets had at least one defective or badly worn tyre, up dramatically on a year ago. Surprisingly, Protyre technicians have also discovered that drivers of family cars seem to be more responsible than owners of premium vehicles, with a lower percentage of family cars having more than one defective tyre compared with premium models.

Motorists driving a vehicle with a defective tyre face possible prosecution risking a fine up to £2,500 and three penalty points on their licence per tyre. Bald tyres also compromise safety, offering less grip in the wet and with the UK going into what is predicted to be one of the wettest autumns for many years, the dangers are all too obvious.

Commenting on the Protyre findings, Adrian Walsh, director of RoadSafe, the road safety partnership of leading industry bodies, government and road safety professionals said, "This research is worrying. Clearly drivers are delaying the replacement of worn tyres which is a false economy and will place drivers at greater risk of having an accident".

BFGoodrich Champions of Irish Tarmac Rally

BFGoodrich driver, Eamon Boland, has won the coveted 2008 Global Group Irish Tarmac Rally Championship title with an impressive display of driving that secured him the honours with one round of the series left to contest. In becoming the first Republic of Ireland driver to win the Ulster Rally, he proved himself and his BFGoodrich tyres to be the winning combination.

Three consecutive wins during the season at the Circuit of Ireland, the Rally of the Lakes and the Jim Clark event put Boland in pole position for the title before he starred at the penultimate event in Ulster. With a steady drive all that was needed to clinch the crown, Boland used the new BFGoodrich M01 wet tyres on his Don Buckley-prepared Subaru WRC when the rain started to fall. His nearest rival and favourite for the event, Kevin Lynch, was never a concern for the BFGoodrich man who impressed spectators and the Irish rallying fraternity to come home outright winner of the event - and the series Champion.

Tom Halliday, BFGoodrich supplier to Boland commented: "The M01s have been very successful in Irish rallying this year. The technology incorporated in the tyre really gives drivers confidence to tackle the wet tarmac stages of the championship. Great performances like this prove that our tyre technology works, technology that transfers to our tyre designs to give everyday road users that winning performance and safety."

Kingsway Tyres Present Cheque to The Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital Respiratory Unit

First Stop tyre dealership, Kingsway Tyres has presented a cheque for £331.38 to The Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital Respiratory Unit. The money was raised from a tyre safety road show which took place at Asda in Norwich, in conjunction with the Bridgestone worldwide 'Think Before You Drive' campaign, after research showed that 90 percent of drivers do not know their correct tyre pressure. Visitors to Asda had the chance to get a picture taken beside the Ferrari Formula 1 car and experience the Formula 1 simulator, all for a small charity donation.

Speaking about the event Peter Bowles, Sales and Marketing Manager, Kingsway said: "Kingsway Tyres enjoys taking to the road and meeting new and existing customers in a social environment. We hope all those who came to see us at Asda enjoyed the entertainment but more importantly learnt something about tyre safety which they can implement in the future. We thank them all for their generosity."

Tyre Safety Concerns Raised by 'Black Hole' of Foreign-Registered Cars on UK Roads

A 'black hole' of virtually untraceable foreign registered cars using British roads is fuelling concern over tyre safety standards, according to the country's leading tyre specialists association. The NTDA (National Tyre Distributors Association) says that the 140,000 foreign-registered vehicles using Britain's roads at any one time and the estimated three million that enter the country each year, fall outside of the UK's registration and MOT systems, which between them regulate vehicle safety standards.

"Our concern is that foreign-registered cars often come from countries which have less stringent testing and maintenance standards than the UK. Once they're in the country they can drive around with little risk of detection and without having to take an MOT test or even re-register with the DVLA, " said NTDA chairman Peter Gaster. Any car that stays in the UK for more than six months should be re-registered but in practice there is virtually no enforcement or tracking of the system. A black market of cheap used car sales that sees these vehicles change hands is thought likely to be compounding the problem.

"Tyre condition and good maintenance are absolutely crucial factors in road safety and our fear is that thousands of cars could be driving around with sub-standard tyres that are not being picked-up by MOTs or regular servicing," explained Mr Gaster. "In addition to tread depth and inflation pressures we are concerned about tyre ageing, in which older tyres can fail, despite appearing to be sound at first glance. Our members have already identified this issue in some foreign registered vehicles they have checked, so we know there is a potential problem that needs to be highlighted," he added.

The NTDA's anxiety has been further raised by statistics that show a 47% increase in the number of foreign drivers involved in accidents on British roads. The number of crashes involving Polish drivers has risen ten-fold in five years, from 361 in 2001 to 3,132 in 2006. Polish vehicles also make up the largest proportion of foreign registrations with 36% of the total, followed by French and German vehicles.

In a bid to encourage drivers to have their tyres checked, all 2,700 NTDA member centres are offering free inspections to identify potential problems with tread depth, tyre ageing and inflation pressures.

Stoke is Home to the Darkest Museum in the Country

In the furthest flung corner of Michelin's Campbell Road site there is museum that is home to the blackest collection of potentially deadly artefacts in the country. If misused (which they regularly are) such dark items can cause considerable damage, which is why these examples are assembled together in an educational exhibition.

So, what is this house of horrors? The Michelin Black Museum is an automotive anthology of the damage that can be caused to a vehicle's tyres. There are around 200 examples in what is believed to be the most comprehensive compilation of the potentially devastating causes and effects of mistreated and broken tyres in the UK. The Black Museum is part of Michelin's training centre, which offers courses ranging from time management for Company staff, to specialised programmes designed to teach Police Collision Investigators to assess how a tyre could have contributed to an accident.

Although interesting to everyone, it is this later style of course where the Museum really comes into its own. Richard Whitehurst, Commercial Training Manager at the Centre explains: "We have around two hundred car, van, bus, truck and motorbike tyres and tyre sections in our collection. They're not all ours, it's not a Michelin only collection. The point is that they have been damaged by a very wide variety of causes from under-inflation to mounting curbs to being slashed and just about anything else you can think of.

"We teach Police forces how to inspect a tyre, determine its condition and then identify what set of circumstances led to that condition. These are very highly trained professionals looking for subtle witness marks, scrapes, wear patterns and so on, to establish how a tyre has been used and to conclude how differently it might have performed with different treatment. It's an invaluable skill to have when trying to find out exactly how an incident occurred. The tyre tells a story and it never lies."

Hankook Tyre Check Bonus for Southampton Motorist

Neil Smith's vigilance in taking care of his car has paid dividends after the Southampton man won a top prize courtesy of Hankook. A trip to Southampton Tyre and Auto Centre produced more than just new tyres for Neil - he also won a brand new 40" LCD television. And the prize couldn't have been better timed for Neil and his wife Brenda who have been considering an upgrade for some time. "We are thrilled with this prize,'' said Neil. "Our old television was just about working and we now feel spoilt with the new one. I'm really pleased I made sure my tyres were up to scratch.'' And Nick Ripley from Southampton Tyre and Auto Centre in Burgess Road said he was delighted to hand over the final prize in the summer promotion by the tyre giant. "The Hankook promotion has been a great way to encourage more motorists to have their tyres checked and it was great to have one of the three summer winners.''