WTCC: Yokohama to supply Eco tires

WTCC Press release

Yokohama announced that it would supply ECO racing tires to the FIA World Touring Car Championship from 2010.

The Japanese manufacturer, appointed by the FIA following a tender as the official tire supplier for the next three seasons, has developed the ECO racing tire using a revised mixture of oil and rubber that replaces with low polycyclic aromatic (PCA) the aromatic oil used so far, which will be banned in Europe from 2010.

Orange oil - already used by Yokohama in its "DNA Earth-1" tires for passenger cars - is also used in the production of the new ECO racing tires. Orange oil makes the rubber flexible and improves grip, but with reduced environmental effects.

Under a basic policy of asserting world-class strengths in technologies for protecting the environment, as stated in its "Medium-Range Management Plan: Grand Design 100", the Yokohama Rubber Group aims to make all its products "environmentally sound" by 2017. The development of the ECO racing tires for WTCC is part of that effort.