AFS Z06 wheels/ Vredestein tires
I just rcvd my AFS c5 Z06 18 x 9.5 chrome wheels with the 275x35x18 Vredestein tires. Man are they nice. I'm really impressed with the tires and
I love the tread pattern. Don't have them on yet (Michigan) but I guess time will tell how good they are. Here's a writeup from a British Columbia article on the tire co. :
" Small Dutch tiremaker boasts wide range
Tony Whitney
Contributing Writer
Rated against the world's tiremakers - and there are over 160 of them in all - Dutch manufacturer, Vredestein, ranks somewhere in the low 20s.
According to most analysts, the top five tire manufacturers have around 80 per cent of the world market and the smaller makers battle for the rest.
Vredestein may not be playing up there with the Goodyears and Michelins, but it has a unique place in the tire industry scheme of things and offers a fascinating range of products that even includes rubber for vintage automobiles.
Vredestein is also the only tiremaker I've heard of that has consulted one of the world's automotive design gurus to enhance its products.
In Europe recently for the Frankfurt auto show and a couple of new vehicle media introductions, I took time at the end of the trip to visit Vredestein, which is located in the tranquil Dutch university city of Enschede, quite close to the German border. Driving near Enschede, I passed a beautifully-tended Second-World-War Canadian cemetery and one of the locals told me that people in the area stage a day of remembrance each year to celebrate their liberation from Nazi occupation by Canadian troops.
Vredestein Tire is hardly a "household name" in Canada right now, but the distributors have plans to change that and expand sales across the country. Products are sold mainly on quality and performance, rather than price, so Vredestein is best categorized among upmarket, premium tires.
Vredestein may not have cracked the tiremaker top 20 yet, but it boasts a range of products that belie its size. Apart from its fairly wide range of automobile products, the company produces tires for agricultural applications and also - perhaps unsurprisingly for a Dutch firm - for bicycles.
The Enschede plant is the largest of several operations in various parts of the world, including India. Bicycle tires - including some used by European pro race teams - are manufactured in Indonesia and Thailand.
Products are exported worldwide and the biggest market for performance automobile tires (41 per cent of output) is Germany - an interesting pointer, given that Germans are very picky about vehicle handling and also have many roads with no speed limit.
Most motorists know little about tire manufacture and some probably believe that tires are just stamped out in one piece, but this is far from the truth. In fact, tires are made up of many components - tread, carcass, bead, sidewall and other parts - which are "assembled" by skilled people using specialized equipment.
The compounds that make up the tread, a blend of natural and synthetic rubber, are carefully developed to provide an optimum combination of grip and wear resistance. Achieving a tread compound that will perform outstandingly in all kinds of weather while providing long life is a constant challenge to any tiremaker.
Like some of its rivals, Vredestein has installed automated, computerized, tire manufacturing systems at Enschede and many of the once-laborious processes have disappeared. Employees who once worked "hands-on" to build tires now program computers and monitor CRTs and banks of control panels to get the job done.
During my visit, I was able to try both winter and summer products from Vredestein using an Audi TT roadster. Since the Autobahn beckoned just across the border, I took the chance of some high-speed driving with Vredestein Ultrac summer tires and Wintrac winter performance tires. Even at speeds of 240 km/h, both types felt very safe and stable and the winter tires were surprisingly quiet given their grippy tread design. Note that both tire types were rated for high speeds - something all drivers should consider with high-performance automobiles.
At a test facility used by Vredestein, which included a high-speed banked oval as well as skid pans and handling courses, I was able to compare the winter design with a typical summer pattern on a super-slick track. Certainly, the winter tires had amazing grip on the wet, glazed surface and inspired a good deal of confidence.
Unique among tiremakers, Vredestein sought out one of the icons of automotive and industrial design to help develop a performance tire. Legendary Italian styling studio Giugiaro Design partnered with Vredestein in coming up with a tire line that not only functioned superbly, but looked good too.
I've discussed "tire styling" with tiremakers before and have been surprised at how important they regard the look of the product. Of course, functionality must always come first where a tire is concerned, but there's no reason why it can't match the looks of a high-performance automobile. Interestingly, the designs Giugiaro initially came up with were surprisingly adaptable to a functional tire tread pattern, according to Vredestein engineering people I spoke to. Certainly, the Ultrac Giugiaro Design is a great looking tire, but it performs outstandingly too - just like some of those Italian sports cars Giugiaro styled.
Vredestein has certainly answered a few prayers from tire-starved classic car enthusiasts by offering a fairly wide range of rubber for owners of vehicles with wheel sizes that have long gone out of fashion. The company lists a range of tires for early Jaguars, Porsches, Austin Healeys and other classic models. Tall, skinny tires have largely disappeared- replaced by low-profile, ultra-wide rubber. Of course, nothing looks worse than a classic car on tires like that, so the contribution of Vredestein to the collector field is most welcome.
Readers can learn more about Vredestein by checking its website at (xxx.vredestein.com). The tires are distributed in Canada by the President Tire chain.
Tony Whitney's column appears courtesy of the B.C. Automobile Dealer's Association (BCADA). "
