Slower August for UK new car market – registrations drop 6.4 per cent
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has reported a fifth consecutive month of decline in the UK new car market. August registrations fell -6.4 per cent, following 2016’s record August. The SMMT remained sanguine about the decline, pointing out that, at 76,433 new cars registered, it is still the third-best August in 10 years. The year-to-date has remained broadly in line with full-year expectations, down 2.4 per cent, with 1,640,241 new cars joining British roads in the first eight months.
Goodyear’s credit controller braves the shave for Macmillan
A Goodyear Dunlop UK employee has marked her fifth anniversary of being cancer free by shaving off her hair and raising almost £2000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Linda Clarke, a credit controller at Goodyear Dunlop, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma six years ago at the age of 42 and underwent a year of intensive chemotherapy at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
China starts anti-dumping probe into EU rubber imports
At the end of August China’s Ministry of Commerce began a year-long anti-dumping investigations into imported hydrogenated butyl rubber from the European Union, the United Sates and Singapore.
Rubber, plastics and composites testing specialist Smithers Rapra recently ran training at the Tire Technology Training Course, which was organized by The Rubber Institute of Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China along with the Beijing University of Chemical Technology.
MRF has launched the Perfinza range of tyres. According to the company, the new tyres have been developed to focus on ride comfort. To this end they are aimed at luxury and premium segment cars and are currently available for over 60 models on sale in India. Autocar India reports that the range retails via “all MRF exclusive outlets across the country and will be released for export markets later”.
100 downloads for MWheels wheel safety white paper
MWheels’ white paper, ‘Evaluating commercial vehicle wheel safety - how to keep safe and stay compliant’, has been downloaded more than 100 times. The wheel distributor states that UK original equipment manufacturers, commercial vehicle fleet operators and senior personnel from armed forces, construction, emergency services and legal firms have taken the opportunity to learn more about wheel safety ahead of full implementation of the EU Roadworthiness Act on May 20, 2018.
Bill Bailey has been confirmed as the celebrity guest speaker for the 101st Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Annual Dinner, to be held on Tuesday 28 November 2017 at Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
Automechanika Birmingham switching to biennial format from 2019
After a successful show this year, and with 300 exhibitors already booked for 2018, Automechanika Birmingham has announced that the event will switch to a biennial format and run every other year from 2019.
“I just don’t get China!”, “As a foreigner, how do you get anything done in that country?”, “How can you trust the Chinese?” Having worked with China for nearly two decades now, I get many of these questions from friends and colleagues. They realise the need to do business with China and are having some trouble navigating the choppy waters. So here are some of my thoughts - in the hope I don’t offend any of my Chinese friends!
Dunlop has extended its partnership with the BMW M235i Racing Cup, described by product manager Dunlop Motorsport EMEA, Alexander Kühn as “the perfect entry point into the VLN.” The Cup began in 2014 and regularly features more than 20 cars battling in the most heavily occupied and extremely competitive class in the VLN and the 24h race on the Nurburgring. All BMW M235i Racing cars have competed for four consecutive seasons on the toughest race track of the world, racing exclusively on Dunlop racing tyres in the dimension 265/660 R18.
Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 at Monza F1, as Ricciardo tyre gambit pays off
Mercedes, led by Lewis Hamilton, took the top two podium steps at Monza’s Italian grand prix as nearly every driver chose a one-stop supersoft-soft strategy. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo adopted a different strategy, starting on a soft and moving to the supersoft for the second stint to move 12 places up from his starting position of 16th on the grid – the result of penalties. The Australian also set the fastest lap of the race, which was two seconds faster than last year’s equivalent, using the same tyres.
Triple win and one-make GT podium for Dunlop at World Endurance Championship
Some of the closest World Endurance Championship racing of the season was witnessed at the 6 Hours of Mexico, as Dunlop supplied the tyres to the winners of all three classes in which the brand was present. In addition all three steps on a GT class podium were claimed by Dunlop drivers for the first time since the WEC was formed in 2012.
Eifel classic requires correct tyre management: DTM tyre supplier Hankook
The Hankook supplied DTM championship enters the final third of its 2017 season at the Nürburgring this weekend for races 13 and 14. The tyre manufacturer and exclusive DTM partner states that the correct management of the race tyre and a pit stop strategy tailored to the racetrack and the car set-up will be keys to success in the Eifel Mountains. In the last meeting at Zandvoort, discussed in the video below, this was exemplified by Loic Duval (Audi), who climbed from 13th on the grid to finish runner-up, completing 26 of the 37 laps on one set of the Ventus Race – the longest stint by any of the drivers, and one that earned him the first podium of his DTM career.
Falken wins a place on the podium at Grenzlandrennen VLN race
Falken has returned to the Nürburgring podium at the 40th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen, with the tyre brand’s Falken Motorsport team’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Martin Ragginger and Klaus Bachler following up victory for the BMW in July. In changeable weather conditions familiar to the Eifel region Ragginger/Bachler brought the Porsche over the line in third place at the second VLN Endurance Championship race of the season at the circuit.
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