Geneva, Switzerland, February 28, 2006 Goodyear is proud to announce the launch of an additional version of its award-winning Eagle F1 GS-D3 ultra-high-performance tyre: the new Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV for sport utility vehicles (SUV). The new SUV tyre will premiere at the Geneva Motor Show, where it can be seen as original equipment fitment on the luxury Audi Q7, the first SUV to feature the tyre. The Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV guarantees optimum handling and performance without compromising on comfort.
The Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV ultra-high-performance tyre features Goodyear's advanced OneTRED design technology, which enables outstanding sporty handling. OneTRED technology is characterized by greatly extended and expanded V-shaped tread ribs. These originate in the solidly executed shoulder blocks and they extend without interruption right up to the solid center rib. This layout ensures that, in both straight driving and cornering, the high-performance tyre always has an "over-sized" contact area that runs uninterrupted from shoulder to shoulder, like on a racing slick. In addition, the Eagle F1 SUV features a rubber compound using advanced polymers developed in close cooperation with the Goodyear Racing division.
The continuous OneTRED design also permits an even distribution of the axial and transverse forces across the tyre tread, ensuring particularly well-balanced driving characteristics. In addition the Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV achieves top performance in braking and acceleration. The V-TRED profile design, characterized by an extreme extension of the V-shaped tread cross-section, ensures that water on the road is safely absorbed and channeled by the wide drainage grooves that are directed to the rear and to a lesser extent to the sides of the road contact area.
Uninterrupted tread from shoulder to shoulder and the solid and torsionally stiff center section, ensure a particularly direct and sporty steering behavior. The large shoulder area increases the tyre's aggressiveness in cornering, thus ensuring outstanding sports handling for the Eagle F1 SUV.
Sporty motoring without concessions on comfort is key in the design of the Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV. Tyre noise is a major parameter for driving comfort - the Eagle F1 SUV sets benchmarks in acoustic comfort. The extended tread grooves play a major role as they prevent the trapping and pressurizing of air between the road and the contact surface of the tyre. The solid closed shoulder of the Eagle F1 also reduces the evolution of rolling noise throughout the entyre tyre life. The Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV is not only an extremely well balanced and predictable top performer, it is also characterized by a long tread-life.
Paul Joosten, Goodyear's Director of Sales and Marketing, consumer tyres, European Union, states: "The new Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV has been specifically developed for high performance SUV vehicles such as the Audi Q7. It will offer SUV enthusiasts outstanding wet and dry grip without sacrificing on a smooth, quiet ride."
Goodyear's Eagle F1 GS-D3 SUV is available in sizes ranging from 235/60ZR18 to 275/45ZR20.
Available tyre sizes:
235/60ZR18 W XL EAGLE F1 GSD3
265/50ZR19 Y XL EAGLE F1 GSD3
255/55ZR18 Y XL EAGLE F1 GSD3
275/45ZR20 Y XL EAGLE F1 GSD3
About Goodyear
Goodyear is the world's largest tyre company. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, the company manufactures tyres, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries. It has marketing operations in almost every country around the world. Goodyear employs about 80,000 people worldwide.
Goodyear's innovations have set automotive standards for more than 100 years. Goodyear has been the pioneer of the innovative safety technology known as RunOnFlat, which allows a driver to continue on a journey with a punctured tyre. Goodyear is the world's leading manufacturer of runflat tyres, with applications on various BMWs, the award winning Mini, Mercedes-Benz high performance cars, on America's legendary sports car Corvette and other brands. Additional Goodyear RunOnFlat fitments are on the horizon, as the company's designers are working with multiple automobile manufacturers on more than 100 runflat projects. In 2005 Goodyear supplied more than 1.7 million RunOnFlat tyres.
For more information on Goodyear and its products, visit www.goodyear.com.
