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| | | | Yokohama Rubber to Enhance Tire Evaluation Function in Europe | | Agreement Reached with Spanish IDIADA for Prior Use of Test Track | | Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., today announced that the Japanese tire maker signed a contract with IDIADA Automotive Technology SA, a Spanish company, to allow Yokohama Rubber to preferentially use IDIADA’s new test track under construction with its scheduled start of operation for April 2008. The term of the contract is 15 years from 2008 through 2023. While Yokohama Rubber has been evaluating its tires in Europe, it aims to achieve better evaluation performance and faster tire development for European markets by securing a test track that can be used to evaluate tires even in winter.
IDIADA Automotive Technology is an engineering company, settled in 14 countries including Japan, devoted to vehicle development. Its main Technical Center, located 70 Km southwest of Barcelona (Spain), includes a comprehensive proving ground equipped with 11 different test tracks for high-speed, fatigue, braking, handling, dynamics and off-road driving.ĦĦThe contract signed by Yokohama Rubber covers the preferential usage of a 1,760-meter wet handling track to be constructed within the proving ground with partial straight and circling tracks for hydroplaning tests. Yokohama Rubber plans to use the new test track mainly for the evaluation of tire compounds and tread patterns.
Yokohama Rubber is enhancing its capability of evaluating tires in response to an increasing sales volume of tires around the world. In Japan, the company already has a comprehensive proving ground and a proving ground specialized in the test of winter tires. In addition, it is constructing a comprehensive proving ground with its targeted completion within a fiscal year ending March 31, 2009 in Thailand.
Yokohama Rubber is a world-class tire maker with sales subsidiaries in 10 European countries including United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Russia for distributing tires for passenger cars, trucks and buses, and other vehicles. Yokohama Rubber is making a particular effort to improve its corporate awareness and emphasize its image as a supporter of motor sports by supplying tires to World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and other important races, thus strengthening sales of its high-performance tires including ADVAN, the global flagship tire brand of the company.
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