There is a real buzz around the series and racing this year more than ever before and I think it has a lot to do with the Championship being a lot closer, due in part to the rules around the Dunlop tyre use.

The V8 Supercars tyre allocation has changed again this year with a focus on formats designed to really mix up the racing. While Adelaide, Phillip Island, Sandown, Bathurst and Sydney will feature only the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx ‘Control’ hard-compound tyres, and the Gold Coast to be the sole round to feature just the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx ‘Sprint’ soft-compound option, all other rounds will feature a mix of both ‘Control’ and ‘Sprint’ tyres.

The mixed tyre events will now see the soft tyre become the ‘norm’ and a single set of hard tyres also required to be used in each race.

The dual compound racing tyres concept is now in its fourth year in the series and it seems as though the teams who came to grips with the model early in the piece have come back to the field a bit now. It is going to be a great year and I think that everyone will really enjoying the spectacle, so credit to the V8s and Dunlop for keeping it going!

Until next time, drive safely.

New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment has pledged $135,000 to fund research into tyre recycling options. Environment minister Nick Smith announced on March 14 that the money will go to the Product Stewardship Foundation, who will utilise it through Tyrewise, a product stewardship programme it has established.

Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres has already given its support to the Product Stewardship Foundation and is an active member of their working committee. The expected result of the funding is a more robust tyre collection and tyre recycling industry in New Zealand.

Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres representative on the Product Stewardship Foundation working committee, Bill Prebble, welcomed the announcement as big step forward for the industry.

“Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres fully supports the announcement and looks forward to working closely with the Product Stewardship Foundation in identifying the best way for New Zealand to find a viable recycling solution for end of life tyres,” Mr Prebble said.

“Many countries have product stewardship schemes that enable a high proportion of used tyres to be recycled into alternative products such as road surfaces, rubber matting and floor tiles. Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres already has a policy whereby used tyres within our business are collected and processed by the country’s leading tyre recyclers, but there is no current obligation for the industry to do this.”

“This project is about trying to find a cost effective and more environmentally friendly solution to tyre waste for all, which can only be of benefit to the community and industry in general. Goodyear is committed to protecting the environment, as well as the health and safety of our associates, our customers and the communities in which we operate.”

The New Zealand government says it expects to receive the report detailing preferred options to implement by April 2013.

Mitch is a part of the JAXQuickfit Tyres family as his father, Robert Cooper, is the owner of our Caloundra store on the Gold Coast.

In an Australian first, Mitch, aged just 17, made his professional debut whilst also wearing the Gold Coast United captain’s armband.

According to Sky News, the idea for Mitch to captain the side was a ‘symbolic gesture’ from the Gold Coast United’s owner, Clive Palmer, who apparently said that if they will be playing with such a young team on the weekend, they may as well let one of them be captain for the weekend.

Whilst Gold Coast United FC went down to Melbourne Heart 1-0 at AAMI Park last Friday night, Mitch has been earmarked as a star of the future and we wish him the best of luck from all of us at JAXQuickfit Tyres!

The arrival at the milestone was celebrated by company management, workers and invited guests; with the tyre at the centre of the festivities, a Bridgestone Dueler A/T RH-S, signed by all who attended the celebration and will be displayed in the plant’s lobby.

“Our teammates here in Aiken are dedicated to making the best products possible every day,” said plant manager John Stewart at the commemorative event.

“It’s a reflection of our company’s global philosophy, which we call the Bridgestone Way. We have upheld the same commitment to excellence now for 100 million tyres, and we plan to do the same for 100 million more.”

The Aiken County facility began operations in 1999 and currently employs 950 workers. In 2011, the company announced two phases of expansion for the plant; representing a capacity increase of 37,750 tyres per day or 13.4 million tyres annually and an increase in employment with more than 300 additional full-time and contractor jobs available when fully completed in 2015.

Milan, February 20, 2012

But this is the first time that the definitive 2012 specification tyres, as tested in Jerez a fortnight ago, will run on the Circuit de Catalunya. As well as being familiar territory for Pirelli, the track is very well known to the teams, who will be able to use all the circuit data they have accumulated over the years to judge the progress they are making with their 2012 cars.

In total, Pirelli will bring 367 sets of tyres to Barcelona for the four-day test from February 21-24: 73 more sets than were brought to Jerez. The teams are allowed to choose which compounds they want to use out of the 100 sets they are allocated per car for testing purposes each year, and – just as was the case in Jerez – the P Zero White medium has proved to be the most popular choice for Barcelona, with 110 sets selected.

The medium compound has been designed by Pirelli to work well in a wide variety of track conditions, guaranteeing a high level of performance together with greater durability. This is one of the reasons why Pirelli has nominated the medium tyre for the first three grands prix of the season, together with the soft tyre (in Australia and China) and the hard tyre (in Malaysia).

The P Zero Yellow soft is the next most popular choice for the forthcoming test, with 82 sets making the trip to Barcelona. In addition, Pirelli will bring 69 sets of P Zero Silver hard, 36 sets each of Cinturato Green intermediate and Cinturato Blue wet, and 34 sets of P Zero Red supersoft – which is set to make its track debut, after none of the teams chose it for Jerez.

The 4.65-kilometre Circuit de Catalunya, the venue for the second official test of the year that starts tomorrow, contains long straights and varying corners, making it the ideal place to assess a wide range of parameters over a distance. The winter tests in Barcelona last year were affected by cold weather – and this has a significant impact on the behaviour of the tyres.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “Everyone will be hoping for warmer and more consistent conditions in Barcelona this week, which we didn’t get in Jerez. Nonetheless, the message from the first test was very positive, with drivers generally happy with the warm-up, performance and durability of our new tyres, which have been specifically designed to the 2012 regulations. Barcelona is a very different type of circuit to Jerez, which puts quite a lot of stress on tyres in general because of its high top speeds and the front-left in particular, due to the large number of right-hand corners. The emphasis for the teams will once more be on development, as they ramp up the learning curve with their 2012 cars and assess how the chassis interacts with the new tyres.“

Milan, February 20, 2012

But this is the first time that the definitive 2012 specification tyres, as tested in Jerez a fortnight ago, will run on the Circuit de Catalunya. As well as being familiar territory for Pirelli, the track is very well known to the teams, who will be able to use all the circuit data they have accumulated over the years to judge the progress they are making with their 2012 cars.

In total, Pirelli will bring 367 sets of tyres to Barcelona for the four-day test from February 21-24: 73 more sets than were brought to Jerez. The teams are allowed to choose which compounds they want to use out of the 100 sets they are allocated per car for testing purposes each year, and – just as was the case in Jerez – the P Zero White medium has proved to be the most popular choice for Barcelona, with 110 sets selected.

The medium compound has been designed by Pirelli to work well in a wide variety of track conditions, guaranteeing a high level of performance together with greater durability. This is one of the reasons why Pirelli has nominated the medium tyre for the first three grands prix of the season, together with the soft tyre (in Australia and China) and the hard tyre (in Malaysia).

The P Zero Yellow soft is the next most popular choice for the forthcoming test, with 82 sets making the trip to Barcelona. In addition, Pirelli will bring 69 sets of P Zero Silver hard, 36 sets each of Cinturato Green intermediate and Cinturato Blue wet, and 34 sets of P Zero Red supersoft – which is set to make its track debut, after none of the teams chose it for Jerez.

The 4.65-kilometre Circuit de Catalunya, the venue for the second official test of the year that starts tomorrow, contains long straights and varying corners, making it the ideal place to assess a wide range of parameters over a distance. The winter tests in Barcelona last year were affected by cold weather – and this has a significant impact on the behaviour of the tyres.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “Everyone will be hoping for warmer and more consistent conditions in Barcelona this week, which we didn’t get in Jerez. Nonetheless, the message from the first test was very positive, with drivers generally happy with the warm-up, performance and durability of our new tyres, which have been specifically designed to the 2012 regulations. Barcelona is a very different type of circuit to Jerez, which puts quite a lot of stress on tyres in general because of its high top speeds and the front-left in particular, due to the large number of right-hand corners. The emphasis for the teams will once more be on development, as they ramp up the learning curve with their 2012 cars and assess how the chassis interacts with the new tyres.“

A good quote engine doesn’t just provide you one option from one rental provider. Instead you would be given a list of cheap Gold Coast car rental services that would meet the needs of your travel. It is important however, to have some of the basic details of your trip ready and on-hand so that you can pull up the best services for you.

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Research and development is an ongoing process at MICHELIN and several factors played a part in the development of the tyres we have produced for this year’s World Rally Championship.

The first is the enormous amount of data our engineers were able to collect at each round of the 2011 championship which marked MICHELIN’s return to the WRC after a five-year absence. This valuable information included the degree and type of wear, running temperatures and an analysis of the carcasses as a function of each stage’s profile, surface type and prevailing conditions.

This work was done in collaboration with our partners, and we have worked with them closely to match our tyres to the latest-generation cars which are both powerful and highly demanding, yet also very different in terms of their design and handling characteristics.

The dialogue between our technicians and the drivers at every event during 2011 proved invaluable, too. It’s as though each one of the latter was a MICHELIN test driver. They all brought their ideas and recommendations to the table, based on their personal experience and individual driving style.

This feedback served as a treasure-trove of information which was fed into the design of our new tyres as a function of the latest WRC regulations. Indeed, the new year brings with it a reduction of almost 20 percent in the number of tyres that crews may use during an event, and that’s no mean challenge!

Priority 1 and 2 drivers will only be able to use five tyres per tyre-change opportunity (instead of six previously), plus a further five for shakedown. For example, on an event which provides six tyre-change opportunities, plus a pre-start shakedown session, the total quantity each WRC driver will be able to use has come down from 42 to 35 tyres. This measure will reduce the number of tyres that will actually be used over the year by an estimated 3,000 units. That’s a huge saving in terms of natural resources and energy, as well as a big reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their production and transport.

In 2011, MICHELIN signed a partnership agreement with the FIA which included a review of the WRC’s carbon footprint, and this factor was taken into consideration during the development of our range for the 2012 championship. Compared to last year, the latest MICHELIN tyres stand out through their longer durability, greater robustness and enhanced performance.

Melbourne, Victoria’s most populous place is a bustling city of shuttles, buses and taxis to take around from point to point. However, cheap car hires can give so much freedom to explore the majestic gifts found in Melbourne. Though there a lot of cheap car rentals, not all of them can give you quality, safe and wonderful experience that you and your company of friends deserve in getting an easy life around.

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Well, there are so many interesting places where cheap Melbourne car rental can drive you around.