Tyres

How can you change a tyre when it will not come off the rear axle?

My 2004 Renault Clio Sport does not have a spare wheel, jack, wheel brace or toolkit, it has an aerosol tyre repair can. In the event of a puncture, will the tyre be repairable/serviceable after it is filled with the "get you home" goo, or will it deemed unroadworthy? My concern is that the Michelin tyres it's fitted with cost about $250 to replace, and from past experience with other cars, it's likely that I will have a puncture. Alternatively, I could buy a spare wheel, wheel brace and jack, and leave them in my garage. This would allow me to rotate tyres as they wear, and I may be able to get a lift home to pick up the spare and tools if I were to puncture. What do you think?

I have been maintaining the tyre pressure on my BF Series Falcon Futura at 30 psi as per the owner's manual, but recently I have found that the tyres were developing some uneven wear. My local Ford dealer said that I should maintain tyre pressure at 36-38 psi, as any lower pressure creates uneven wear on tyres, but when I queried this with Ford I was told that the pressure should be maintained as per owners manual. Who is right and what should I do?

My dad's 2006 Mazda 2 is due for its 40,000 service and the dealer has told him it is the big service and will cost $800 to $900, but shouldn?t the big one be at 90,000-100,000? The said dealer has also told him that the ONLY tyres he can have on his car are TOYO 175/65/R14. Is that correct?

My 2007 Ford Focus Cabriolet has gone through more than three sets of tyres and it has only done 52,000 km. I travel mostly on country roads. What do you recommend I do in relation to the tyres?

Q: I have a 2006 Toyota Camry Grande which is due for new tyres all round. It seems easy to get advice and reviews about the best tyres for performance and longevity, but a lot harder to get the same if you are looking for low road noise. That's what I want, what would you suggest?

The company is targeting ‘boy racers’ and track-day enthusiasts with one of the stickiest tyres on the market, the Ventus R-S3, to be released next month. With a wear rating of 140, it is the stickiest compound legally approved for much of the club racing circuit in Australia and the US.Hankook Tyre Australia managing director Paul Park says the motorsport-oriented tyre will improve their sales in the important ‘ultra-high performance tyre’ category which last year represented 2.35 million sales in Australia last year out of a total replacement tyre market of 11 million.  "The UHPT sector is enjoying a compound annual growth rate about twice that of the passenger car tyre market as a whole," he says.Hankook defines UHP tyres as those with sidewall profiles of 55-series or lower and speed ratings above 210km/h. "The growth of UHP sales reflects the after-market trend towards the fitting of wider, lower-profile tyres to bigger wheels - the so-called `inch-up' market," he says."The market is also being driven by the increasing tendency of manufacturers to specify UHP tyres for their vehicles. "Where the manufacturers go, the replacement market follows, and over the last two decades or more manufacturers have been moving towards lower-profile, higher-performance tyres."Hankook is Australia and New Zealand's fastest-growing UHP tyre brand with 15.3 per cent growth since 2003 and a 6.3 per cent share of the category. The company recently appointed independent retailers as Hankook Performance Partners to sell their UHP tyres which will also include their new asymmetric low-profile performance tyre targeted at comfort-oriented drivers.The Ventus ME01 (for maximum efficiency) will be launched late this year. The Ventus R-S3 replaced the R-S2 and features a "flame tattoo" 2mm logo on the tread. It took three years of development at the Geumsan research and development centre. It has a new racing-developed compound featuring racing carbon black and silica, a 3 per cent wider tread groove for more traction, a wider centre block for better steering control and a three-layer stiffer profile to prevent distorting under lateral forces.We tested the tyre against its predecessor on two BMW convertibles at Hankook's Geumsan proving grounds in Korea. The new tyre is a quantum leap forward with sharper turn-in, crisper change of direction, improved lateral support, less tyre squeal and reduced squirm under braking. It almost felt like the BMW on the old R-S2 tyres had sloppy suspension.Hankook Tyre Australia marketing and PR manager Jose Angeles says the tyre will appeal to "boy racers and enthusiasts who want to drive their car to the track, use it all day, then drive it home". He says they are "just about done finalising our price program", but it is expected to cost about $519 for the 245/40ZR18.This compares with the Bridgestone Potenza RE01R at $528 and Yokohama Neova AD08 at $520. The Ventus R-S3 will come in 15 to 19-inch sizes with 35 to 50 profile.

As the US next month makes tyre pressure monitors standard in all new vehicles, Hankook CEO Seung Hwa Suh declared they would make as significant an impact on road safety as seat belts, anti-skid brakes and airbags had."Tyre pressures are a major factor in safety, he said.  "We have to educate the consumer to check their tyres and we have to push car manufacturers to include tyre pressure monitor systems in their cars."Correct tyre pressures not only make the cars safer by improving handling and braking ability, but we also need to tell the consumer that it will lengthen the life of their tyre.While most tyre pressure monitor systems have sensors in the wheel, brake disc or valve, several tyre companies, including Hankook, are now working on embedding sensors in the tyre wall that relay information to the driver via the cars on-board computer.

Hankook chief financial officer Hyun Bum Cho said he had held talks with F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone about supplying tyres to the premier motorsport category.  "Bernie Ecclestone has had trouble with tyres and we have talked to him personally a few times, but we have decided not to go with the program, because it will take time and he needed a tyre very quickly," he said."But we had a very good talk and maybe we will participate in the future. But not more than in to two three years."  Cho, who launched the South Korean company's motorsport program 10 years ago, said the company, which spends about 3 per cent of its sales revenue on marketing, needed to become involved in the "top categories" of world motorsports."Right now we have a little Le Mans team and some rally teams here and there," he said.  "The worldwide motorsport market is about 2 million a year which is quite profitable because motorsport tyres are quite expensive."So we need to be in WRC, F1 or the top end of Le Mans.  "In future we need to be in those but it will cost a lot of money."He said Hankook was well poised to be in premium motorsport categories because it was the seventh-biggest tyre manufacturer in the world, most of the companies above it were either old or disinterested and the Japanese brands did not have the money to participate."So it is quite obvious that in the motorsport field we are emerging as a new rising star," he said.  Hankook Tyre Australia managing director Paul Park said the company was represented at the Bathurst 12 Hour race, where they finished fourth in difficult weather conditions."That race was the Australian motorsport debut of our Ventus TD semi-slick road-spec tyre," he said.  The same tyre was recently used by Dean Evans on his Mitsubishi Evo when he finished 10th outright at Targa Tasmania and scored a hat-trick of results when the United States race team Sierra Sierra finished second at the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney.Their fastest time was within a second of the Eastern Creek lap record for a V8 Supercar on full racing slicks.  "this motorsport expertise can be found in our new Ventus R-S3," he said.  "This is an example of the old saying that motorsport improves the breed."We believe it will also, ultimately, improve our sales in Australia."  Although the Korean giant now supplies tyres as original equipment to many of the world's luxury brands, don't expect to see their tyres on supercars soon.Hankook CEO Seung Hwa Suh said they had been approached by a supercar company to supply tyres, but they had declined.  He wouldn't name the company or either confirm whether it was Italian, English, Swedish, Japanese, American or German."It is a privilege to us (to have been asked), but we are not yet at that stage," he said.  "Profitability is good but the development costs are very high."