Official VFACTS data released recently by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries shows that 76,783 passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles were sold in January (up 4.3 per cent or 3,199 vehicles compared to the same month in 2011).

“This is an encouraging January sales results and provides a good start to 2012,” FCAI Chief Executive Ian Chalmers said.

“It’s mostly being driven by private (27.7% or 2,533 more than Jan 2011) and business (32.3% or 2,233 more) buyers of SUVs and car rental companies updating their passenger car fleets (up 55.6% or 838 compared with Jan 2011). This number of private buyers for passenger cars declined by 8.4 per cent (2,314) compared with this time last year,” he said.

Queensland continued the strong sales growth it displayed at the end of last year, with new vehicle sales in that state up by 18.3 per cent or two and a half thousand vehicles compared to the same period in 2011.

Toyota was the best performing brand in January with a market share of 18.3 per cent, followed by Holden with 11.8 per cent and then Mazda with an 11 per cent share.

Source: FCAI

Certain stages of the 2012 Rally Monte-Carlo starred the studded MICHELIN Pilot Alpin WRC which was specially designed and developed for the season’s opening clash. Competitors on Rally Sweden will run the MICHELIN X-Ice North. We have compared the two types of tyre…

MICHELIN‘S RESPONSE TO THE DIFFERENT DEMANDS OF RALLYING IN WINTRY SWEDEN AND IN THE FRENCH ALPS…

In association with CEERTA, MICHELIN will provide competitors on Rally Sweden with a tyre fitting service. Seven specialist fitters will work out of the workshop, plus a coordinator and manager. Three technicians have been delegated to work with MICHELIN’s partners CITROEN, FORD and MINI.

The company says it has spent the last few months completing a programme of intensive development, and the tyre evaluation performed around the world over the next two months will be used to gauge perception among the riders.

Six lap records were set on Bridgestone tyres last yet, but feedback from riders suggested that additional safety features needed to be built into new tyres, and Bridgestone Motorsport general manager, Tohru Ubukata says this is where the focus has been.

“To achieve this target, our technical aim for the new specification tyres was to make their grip characteristics easier to manage, improve warm-up performance and increase their operating temperature range. The positive reception our new tyres received at the Valencia post-season test showed we are well on track with development, and we have continued our progress over the winter break,” said Ubukata.

“At Sepang we will introduce new specification tyres for testing, while for the Valencia test we will continue to evaluate the tyres we debuted there last November. Apart from examining performance data during the tests, we will work closely with safety advisor Loris Capirossi and the riders to gauge their perception of the new tyres. This is all part of our goal to ensure optimal tyre performance for all motorcycles on the grid in 2012.”

Bridgestone has made these tyre compounds available in Sepang and Valencia:

• Sepang – Front: Hard & Extra-Hard; Rear: Medium & Hard; Rain: Hard
• Valencia – Front: Soft & Medium; Rear: Medium & Hard (asymmetric); Rain: Soft

To provide on-site support at each of the tests, Bridgestone has sent technical engineers to both Spain and Malaysia. Aside from providing technical support, the engineers are focusing on the acquisition of tyre data and rider feedback, all of which will be compiled and sent back to Bridgestone’s Technical Centre in Japan for further analysis.

The complete MotoGP test schedule for 2012 is as follows:

• Valencia (Private test), 30-31 January
• Sepang (IRTA official test), 31 January-2 February
• Jerez (Private test), 20-22 February
• Sepang (IRTA official test) 28 Febraury-1 March
• Aragon (Private test), 8-9 March
• Jerez (IRTA official test), 23-25 March

The Italian wheel maker has served as a supplier to many top Formula 1 teams for a number of years, but this is its first Ferrari engagement.

In announcing its selection of OZ wheels, Ferrari described the 1971-established wheel maker as “an Italian company that is a world leader in the world of competition and the motor industry in general and in the field of alloy wheels.”

“We are proud to welcome OZ to the group of suppliers to the Scuderia,” said Scuderia Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali.

“The brand from Padua is synonymous with quality and reliability and along with these characteristics comes the ability to meet the demands of its customers who, in an environment as competitive as Formula 1, are always looking for maximum performance. This collaboration in Formula 1 will further strengthen the ties that have linked for many years the Prancing Horse and OZ in the world of road-going cars.”

“We are proud that Scuderia Ferrari has placed its trust in us,” commented Claudio Bernoni, president and managing director of OZ, who described the company’s selection as an “important recognition” of its work.

“OZ wheels have been successfully used in Formula 1 since 1988 – numerous race victories and championships underline OZ’s motorsport performance. This partnership with the best known and most famous Italian team represents for us the start of a new chapter in the OZ success story. Technology for the Formula 1 Ferrari was developed by OZ in partnership with Ferrari’s engineers. The wheels were optimised down to the minutest detail and achieve outstanding performance. With the historic yellow OZ logo we wish to provide a reminder of our first championship successes in the 1980s – a homage to motorsport fan and aficionados.”

The analysis from Encircle Marketing, which continuously monitors brand recommendations, found that Pirelli came top with 6.7 per cent of all recommendations.

Dominic Sandivasci, managing director of Pirelli UK, was reportedly delighted with the result and keen to recognise his team’s hard work.

“Results like this are extremely important to us at Pirelli. Our premium reputation is built upon high levels of customer satisfaction and the fact that our brand is spreading through word of mouth is fantastic for our growth,” said Sandivasci.

“We have to thank everyone who works at Pirelli for playing their part in developing and selling superb products, as well as offering such a high level of customer service.”

The Italian tyre manufacturer has made all four dry-weather tyres softer and reduced the differences between them, in the hope of producing even closer racing.

Pirelli introduced faster-wearing tyres last year, leading to tight races, and now aim to improve overtaking.

Pirelli president, Marco Tronchetti Provera said: “These changes will provide more opportunity for passes and help make a better show.

“After the positive experience of last year, the teams asked us to continue providing tyres with the charactertistics that contributed to spectacular races in 2011.

“And this is what we have done, optimising the compounds and profiles in order to guarantee even better and more stable performance, combined with the deliberate degradation that characterised the P Zero range from 2011.

“We’re expecting unpredictable races, with a wide range of strategies and a number of pit stops: all factors that both competitors and spectators greatly enjoyed last year.

“The development work on the new compounds took place throughout the 2011 season, thanks to the impressive learning curve and reaction times from our engineers, who are ready to continue those evolutions during the season ahead.”

Pirelli has also reinstated the Cinturato name from the 1950s, with all wet and intermediate tyres featuring Cinturato branding.

The conference, was entitled “Driving Sustainability: a safe road to the future” and marked Pirelli’s own Sustainability Day.

Pirelli says the agreement underscores its commitment to develop production systems and products that reduce environmental impact, while increasing quality and consumer safety.

It also states these ideas will help to increase its efficiency, with significant economic benefits and “an additional competitive lever on international markets, above all in those where these features are called for by law and appreciated by the consumer”.

“To speak of sustainability today,” said Provera, “means first of all to speak of technologies which permit the constant improvement of our quality of life. The ‘old’ Europe cannot compete with emerging countries from the point of view of production costs and internal demand, but something which can ensure our future, without doubt, is being more advanced in our search for sustainable models of industrial growth. In this sense, Italy and Europe have developed points of excellence which they export to the rest of the world.”

The conference addressed the theme of sustainability; understood, according to Pirelli, as “an indispensable condition for a company’s future, which thanks to avant garde technologies is able to develop more sustainable and efficient models of growth”.

The company said the debate also encompassed the theme of the consumer’s role within an economic system, which in recent decades has seen profound changes in the models of development and market dynamics.

For Economist Jeremy Rifkin, the “prosumer”, the new producer-consumer, is the figure who will become ever more prevalent thanks to “distributed” capitalism, a complex figure who incarnates different and apparently conflicting interests with which companies must more frequently engage. Reconciling these interests will be a stimulus for companies to identify new models of more sustainable growth.

For Pirelli, growth also means responsibility towards the consumer, both through the protection of the environment and the development of ever safer products. Safety was, in fact, one of the conference’s central themes, with contributions from senior institutional, association, academic and corporate officials.

Last year, the Van Den Borg compiled her unique upcycled rubber lighting, jewellery and furniture – including 3 metre tall rubber trees – in a solo exhibit entitled ‘Rubber, Recycle, Relove’.

Apparently every year in South Africa, approximately 11 million used tyres languish underneath the sun. So Van Den Berg, who is part of a new generation of local designers interested in using sustainable materials for art and building projects, decided to put the tyres to good use instead of letting them go to waste.

For further information and images of the ‘Rubber, Recycle, Relove’ exhibition, go to Rochè Van Den Berg

To counter this declining trend, it is reported that the Michelin Guide concept will shortly undergo a transformation. French newspaper Le Monde reports the famous ‘red’ restaurant guides will soon gain a new internet presence, with the new “Michelin Restaurants” website scheduled to go live in a few weeks.

Restaurants will be able to advertise on the site for 69 euros per month, and even those restaurants recommended by Michelin will pay for their online presence. However, those establishments favoured by Michelin will appear in a separate section of the site though.

A further feature of the site is that visitors will have the chance to rate restaurants – a feature that has not gone down well with some head chefs. “If they allow comments to be made openly, a cry of protest from the sector will be heard,” commended well-known chef Alain Ducasse to Le Monde. Michelin assures it will implement rules regarding how the comment function shall operate.

The UK sports car magazine, measured performance indicators including wet and dry handling, aquaplaning and braking using 225/40R18 sized tyres on a range of high-end cars.

Evo described Conti’s tyre as giving “an impressively complete performance”.

The magazine praised the ContiSportContact3’s abilities in wet handling and braking, with it taking top spot in both categories. Evo wrote the tyre’s wet handling was “masterful”, even amongst “some great performances on the wet circuit” by competitors.

The tyre set “the fastest lap time, [recorded] the highest lateral G, and [scored] the highest subjective mark, too – it wasn’t bettered.”

Evo summed up the tyre’s all-round ability: “Especially impressive was its stability – it barely acknowledged puddles that were registered by its closest rivals, and its traction was superb. “Amazingly surefooted and grippy; the limit is your nerve.”

Jonathon Hayter, product manager at Continental, said: “This additional win for the ContiSportContact 3 is an excellent endorsement for our product range. The ultra-high performance tyre has proven its worth yet again next to competitor products and has displayed its prowess in a number of disciplines including wet handling and braking.”