Will Demand for Premium-Class Tire Grow?
Several years ago tire experts pointed to the phenomenon of desegmentation on the tire market, the situation, when cheap tire are highly in demand. Now, when the financial crisis is almost gone, premium-class tires are more and more frequently asked.
All in all, the demand for premium-class tire on the European market has grown by 5 per cent while at the same time In North America it dropped down by 2 per cent. The growth is more visible in truck tire segment rather than among passenger tires. Still, the coming fall with show the true state of things.
Bridgestone say that they didn’t manage to satisfy the demand for 500,000 passenger tires on the OE Japanese market. Two month ago the same statement was brought out by Renault Company. That’s why the analytics think that there’s no need to worry about prices on tires as they are in demand now.
Market tendencies may lead as well to a certain decline in sale amounts. Such predictions are caused by concerns about the reduction in gross domestic product in Europe rather than about the state of tire-making companies.
However, tire market is changeable and new tendencies appear. For instance, the experts are sure that the demand for premium-class replacement tire will grow in the nearest time, which is the consequence of increasing demand for premium-class cars.
Pirelli has already claimed that they are going to sell more premium-class tire this season than standard ones. Morgan Stanley experts agree with the company and point to the fact that it is the best situation for the company to benefit from the world-wide tendency for premium tires.
Cover Your Roof with Used Tires
Used tires are often used as raw material for completely new products. While Israeli road-makers build roads from old tires the European Euroshield company, a well-known roof-maker launched the new eco-friendly shingles. The shingles is made from processed tires and includes 75 per cent of them in its structure.
Euroshield advertizes its new shingles as a powerful alternative to a standard one. Its excellent durability makes it a profitable investment into the safety and a long life span of your house.
With its new shingles Euroshield contributes to the reduction of environmental pollution as nowadays most of the used tire is thrown away. Yet, the company doesn’t stress the “green” character of its new product, unlike, it point to its high quality and exceptional durability. In this way the company maintains that any product must comply with strict ecological norms and mustn’t inflict harm either on the environment or on human health.
Firstly, cord is removed from used tire. Secondly, the tire is crumbled into large pieces. Thirdly, rubber pieces are covered with slate powder and heated in special forms to reconstruct shingle texture. Then every piece is equipped with a dedicated holder so that the shingles could be fixed to each other. Each shingle measures 90*90 cm. You need 600-1000 such shingles to cover a standard roof.
Euroshield is going to launch three variants of its rubber shingles, slate-, concrete- and wood-like. In comparison with standard roofing materials, the new tile isn’t subject to cracks, cuts, decay or deformation. Of course, the shingles isn’t cheap at all as the company spent more than ten years to create such a thing. On the positive side, the company grants the shingles a fifty-year warranty on. Furthermore, the shingles can be totally processed after its service term comes to an end.
Auto Bild Tests 225/40 R 18 Summer Tires
On the threshold of the new season the Auto Bild magazine conducted their regular summer tire performance tests. This time they compared 225/40 R 18 tires, the size being standard for numerous sports cars and tuned vehicles. The tires were mounted on Mazda MPS.
The Auto Bild tested as many as 10 tires during these tests, namely Hankook Ventus S1 evo K107, Pirelli PZero, Continental ContiSportContact 3, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric, Uniroyal Rainsport 2, Bridgestone Potenza S001, Dunlop SP Sport Maxx T, Michelin Pilot Sport 3, Falken Ziex ZE 912 and LingLong L688.
The best wet performance is shown by Hankook Ventus S1 evo and Goodyear F1 Asymmetric as their steering response is perfectly precise while their braking distance is exceptionally short. At the same time, the cheap Chinese LingLong tire disappointed the testers by its poor handling and rather a long braking distance. The affordable Falken tires also proved the fact that it’s better to decide in favor of a higher price tag than to compromise on safety.
The best dry handling is to be found with Pirelli PZero and Continental ContiSportContact 3. Uniroyal Rainsport 2 is not very good in this respect, but it is made designed specially for wet roads. Pirelli and Bridgestone deliver the shortest braking distance in the dry.
Uniroyal and Bridgestone provide for the best hydroplaning resistance in this group while LingLong shows the poorest wet performance despite its V-shaped tread pattern. Pirelli and Hankook deliver the shortest braking distance in the wet. Hankook and Goodyear show the safest maneuvering in the wet while Michelin and Falken would be slower in this respect.
You shouldn’t wait extra smooth ride from you sport utility vehicle, yet Bridgestone and Uniroyal tires absorb road irregularities comparatively well. The stiffest tires are LingLong and Falken. As to noise build-up, all the tires don’t differ much unless you have a sensitive ear.
To colclude with, it should be said that it is Hankook S1 evo and Pirelli PZero that were called the best tires as a result of the Auto Bild summer tire tests.
Avon Tyres Equip Catherham Seven Supersport Car
It’s common knowledge that an old friend is better than two new ones. So, to continue a long-term collaboration, the British Catherham Car company and Avon Tyres decided to equip the latest Catherham Seven Supersport model with 13-inch Avon CR500 tires.
The new sports car is based on a racing Caterham Supersport vehicle and sticks to the concept of miniature cars with excellent overall handling and performance.
The Avon CR500 is designed to match the needs of lightweight yet powerful Caterham sports cars. At firth, the tire was created specially for an exclusive Superlight R500 vehicles, but later they became used as Original Equipment for the entire Superlight car line-up.
The CR500 highway tire benefits from all the advanced Avon technologies and ensures optimal wet traction thanks to excellent water removal from under the contact patch area while retaining reliable traction as load increases.
The Supersport measures just 520 kg in weight. Its 1.6-liter Ford Sigma engine provides the car with the ability to speed up to 62 mph for 4.8 sec while the maximum speed equals to 125 mph. When equipped with CR500 tire the car can be used on both public roads and racing tracks.
AvonTyres maintains that they are proud to collaborate with Catherham Cars. The cars from the Seven line-up are getting better and better, so Avon is pleased that Catherham as well as extreme driving lovers confine in their tires.
