By Denna Bowman

The introduction of new legislation aimed at limiting the sound levels from tyres has been postponed in the UK until next year, according to reports.

The S-mark legislation was due to come into effect on 1^st October, however, it has been delayed until March 2010 after the Department of Transport reported delays with setting up a system to enforce the new law.

According to the report in the National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) e-zine, the government department admitted there has been “a delay in putting into place the statutory instrument which is required for the new s-marking regulations to become law.”

However, while this loophole provides further time to clear stocks of non-s-marked tyres, the new deadline really is seen as the last chance for suppliers to prepare for the new EU rules.

The Vehicle Certification Agency and Trading Standards will be vigorously enforcing the law, which has penalties of up to £5,000 fine on each tyre sold, from March 2010.

Formula One championship leader (though for how much longer nobody’s sure!), Jenson Button will be meeting fans and signing autographs at a driving roadshow tomorrow.

Bridgestone tyres has confirmed that the Brawn GP racing ace will be turning up on the second day of the launch event of its UK Driving Nation roadshow.

The official tyres supplier to the world of Formula One announced that the Driving Nation roadshow starts today in Birmingham’s Centenary Square and runs for two days from 10:00 to 16:00.

By bringing together the nation’s collective opinions on driving, the Japanese tyres manufacturer is aiming put the pleasure back into motoring by reminding UK drivers and car enthusiasts how great it can really be.

After continuing his pursuit of the World Championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix - and another disappointing result - button will be flying in on Thursday 30 July to sign autographs and greet fans from 12:00 onwards.

Alex Kapadia, Operations Team

By Denna Bowman

Nearly one in four members of Germany’s largest motoring organisation would choose Continental tyres, according to the latest ‘Tyre Monitor 2009′ survey.

Around 4,000 ADAC members were polled and Continental was also the best known tyres brand, taking first place.

The editorial team at the German motoring magazine ‘ADAC motorwelt’ carried out a survey of 4,000 ADAC members for its ‘Tyre Monitor’.

The survey checked the consumers’ brand awareness, brand preferences (’This is the brand I would choose’), summer and winter tyre expertise, and acceptance of the brand advertising.

For the members of Germany’s largest motoring organisation Continental came top not only in terms of awareness of the brand, but also for its expertise in summer and winter tyres (’The brand leads the field in …’).

Hanover-based Continental also came first amongst the tyre manufacturers in acceptance of its advertising messages, which focused on the European Football Championship.

Continental is Europe’s market leader for car tyres. In the Original Equipment sector, over 30% of all new European cars leave the factory on Continental tyres.

The Tyre Divisions are an Official Sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South AfricaTM.

Goodyear tyres are calling on amateur photographers to get snapping in the Peak District and have their pictures published in a new calendar.

The tyres manufacturers has teamed up with the Peak District National Rescue to invite people to submit their best outdoor photographs.

The pictures will form Goodyear’s 2010 calendar, which will raise funds for the Peak District National Rescue charity,
whose GPS navigational equipment is paid for by the firm.

Goodyear’s Anna Stanley said: “As people take to the countryside, we’re asking them to remember their camera to ensure that the hidden gems of the Peak District earn their place in this special calendar.”

Mountain Rescue works 24 hours a day, seven days a week but does not receive government funding and relies entirely on donations.

Mountain Rescue spokesman Andy Simpson said: “This calendar is a fantastic way to draw people’s attention to our organisation.”

Photographers should submit pictures to photography@htpr.co.uk. The deadline for entries is September 30. Visit www.mygoodyear.co.uk. for details.

Denna Bowman, Head Office

By Alex Kapadia

Jenson Button fears that his world championship lead will be wiped out in only a few races unless his Brawn GP team gets to grips with the problems they are having with the tyres.

The Formula One driver had hoped hoped to put his tyres woes behind him and that the tight Hungaroring track and the warm weather of the weekend would help him fight back against the resurgent Red Bull Racing outfit.

But for the third consecutive race, the teams problems with the tyres left Button on the back foot and he struggled home seventh.

And with Red Bull’s Mark Webber taking third place to cut into Brawn’s ever decreasing championship advantage, Button is now very worried about the state of affairs.

Button said: “I have lost 15 points to Webber over the past three races, and that is massive.

“It’s five points per race. It means he will be in front of me in four races time, and there are seven races left. So it is for sure not comfortable, but I cannot do anything about it at the moment except we just need to go through the data, which is annoying as we have to wait for two weeks [because of the factory shutdown].”

He added: “We have to sort it out because we are leading the championship, but it is inevitable they are going to overtake us if the Brawns keep going like they are.

“It is nice leading the championship, but it won’t be the case in the next three or four races if we have the performances like we have had in the last few.”

Button says his team has no answers at the moment as to why its early season dominance has come to a halt – but he has faith that the team will come up with the answers he needs to keep his title challenge on course.

He said: “We are running at 60C with the tyres, which is out of their working range. But how do we get them in their working range? That is what we need to work out.”

It’s being billed as the Japanese reinvention of the wheel – this time with orange peel!

Yokohama has started selling tyres that use orange oil extracted from rinds in place of petroleum to make rubber.

The oil for the tyres is extracted from the peels in much the same way as if it were being used for more traditional applications such as pesticides or cleaning products.

Officials won’t say exactly how many pounds of peels it takes to make a tyre, but apparently it’s a lot.

Orange oil not only saves petroleum used in producing tyres but can also improve fuel efficiency, Yokohama says. The orange oil in the tyre gives it a better grip, contributing to a 20% reduction in rolling resistance.

To show off the tyres’ durability, several racing teams are already using the racing version of the orange-oil tyres, including those at the American Le Mans Series at the Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City in May, where the teams drove Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars.

“Every gallon of gas saved by the tire means 20 fewer pounds of CO2 released into the atmosphere, and because [the tyre] is made from natural elements, most of its material is derived from renewable resources,” says Mark Chung, director of corporate strategy and planning for Yokohama.

He says the wearability on the tyre is comparable to regular petroleum tyres. The tyre is available in sizes mostly fitting a variety of hybrid and smaller conventional vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Honda Accord Hybrid, Nissan Versa and VW Golf.

By Denna Bowman

Motorists in the UK and Ireland are among Europe’s worst offenders when it comes to driving with dangerous tyres, according to a new survey.

That is the verdict of tyres manufacturer Michelin, which is embarking on its sixth year of running Fill Up With Air, a European tyre safety campaign.

Based on checks of 50,000 cars across 27 countries, only Latvia, Greece, Lithuania and Estonia have a worse record with Austria and Germany being consistently the most safety conscious.

Out of 5,000 UK cars surveyed by Michelin in 2007/08, more than 43 per cent were found to have “dangerously” under-inflated tyres, risking an accident (for the purposes of this campaign dangerous means between 8 and 14 psi off recommend pressures).

Highly respected motoring journalist Vicki Butler-Henderson, who advises motorists that they can save money and time by using etyres, the UKs leading online tyres retailer, is promoting the Michelin campaign.

She said: “Tyres are the only contact a vehicle has with the road and it always amazes me how little care we take as a nation in terms of looking after them. We have to remember that cars are potential lethal weapons and it is our duty to ensure that we make them as safe as possible and minimise the risk of potentially lethal accidents.”

The schools have broken up for the summer holidays - but here’s a valuable lesson for all parents who need new tyres.

You don’t have to ferry the kids down to a dirty, draughty high street tyres depot and subject everyone to up to an hour in the waiting room.

Just turn to eytres - you can order online or through our national call centre - and our mobile tyres fitters will come to you to replace your old tyres or repair your puncture.

We regularly get feedback from busy mums and dads who have discovered the benefits of using etyres and recommend us to their family and friends.

There’s no call out charge or hidden extras, and because we don’t have expensive depots, our overheads are low and therefore savings are passed on to the customer in the form of lower prices.

So it’s win-win all round, you get new tyres and the kids can stay at home and carry on playing!

Denna Bowman, Head Office

By Alex Kapadia

While Lewis Hamilton was celebrating his first win of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ross Brawn says his team must ‘work back and understand its problems’, particularly relating to tyres, after Jenson Button only managed seventh place.

Brawn admitted that the BGP 001 was not only graining its tyres but performing ‘differently’ to three races ago when Button was dominant in Turkey.

“This is a problem we have got to try and solve because again we struggled with tyre temperatures and graining in the race,” Brawn told the BBC. “There were a couple of points where we had the tyres on, we pushed hard and the laptimes started to come, but we just can’t do them consistently at the moment.

“It’s completely different to how it was at the beginning of the season.

“We have got to unravel perhaps what we have done in the last couple of races and understand if we have done something that has exacerbated the problem. Jenson was complaining about his tyres in the race again and it is very frustrating.

“We got away lightly today because obviously Sebastian [Vettel] didn’t finish and Mark [Webber] was third so we’ve lost a bit of ground but not catastrophic so… Nice challenge that.”

Asked if he thought the problems were related to the two updates the car has received so far this season, Brawn replied: “It seems to have changed from where we were three or four races ago. Monaco we didn’t have a tyre problem, Turkey we didn’t have a tyre problem. We have now had three races where we are really struggling to get the tyres to work.

“Obviously other teams have gone forward and your comparisons change but we are getting problems that we never saw in the early races,” he added. “But we have graining problems and other issues and we have got to work back and understand the problems.”

By Denna Bowman

Plans are well underway for the annual Tyre Safety Month which gets underway in October.

The message driven home by Tyresafe, the UKs leading tyres safety group, is “Look after your tyres….and your tyres will look after you”.

Vehicle owners are often guilty of neglecting their tyres, but the results of this can be fatal, the campaign will warn.

During 2008, 43 motorists sadly lost their lives as a result of an accident which involved an illegal, defective or under-inflated tyre.

And over 1,000 other accidents were caused by the same factor.

Throughout October, TyreSafe, which recently appointed a new PR agency to help orchestrate the initiative, will be working to get its message across to motorists.

The aim is to raise awareness of tyre safety issues and look to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities on the UK’s roads.

TyreSafe is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of the dangers of defective and worn tyres.

It has campaigned consistently to underline the importance of tyre safety for more than 15 years and was rewarded with the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2001.

The group receives positive support from many major tyre manufacturers and retailers, and has been credited with reducing the number of defective tyres in the UK over the past decade from 18 percent to 12 percent.