Hanover, October 2009. The Snow Grabber from General Tire is a new addition to the company's portfolio of winter tires for all-wheel-drive vehicles and SUVs. The American General Tire brand will be launching its new dedicated winter tire this autumn and the initial five sizes will already cover a fair number of the appropriate vehicles in this sector. From autumn 2010, a further nine sizes will also be manufactured. The new Snow Grabber is asymmetric in design and approved for speeds of up to 210 km/h (131 mph).

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In the development of this tire, the focus was on braking and starting off in typical wintry conditions and on rain-soaked roads. For this purpose an asymmetrical tread pattern with functional divisions was developed for the tire.
The shoulders provide high braking performance on all road surfaces whilst the centre section of the tread was designed for grip in snow.
This is why the centre section of General Tire's new Snow Grabber comes with 'snow pockets', which capture the snow, thereby achieving greater snow-on-snow friction.
As a result, the Snow Grabber offers high traction and precise handling. The Snow Grabber will be available from the tire trade this autumn as 65 to 55 Series tires for 17" to 18" rim sizes in widths from 225 to 255mm.

Size range:

• 225/65 R 17 102 H
• 235/65 R 17 108 H XL
• 245/65 R 17 107 H
• 235/60 R 18 107 H XL
• 255/55 R 18 108 H XL

For more information on the Snow Grabber, click here.

General Tire – tires since 1915

Since being founded in 1915, General Tire in Akron (Ohio, USA) can look back on a long history, with tires for all types of motor vehicle being produced right from the firm's very early days.

In 1987 the company was taken over by Continental. In addition to selling tires for cars, trucks and industrial applications worldwide, General Tire now also produces dedicated tires for 4x4 vehicles.

With sales exceeding €24 billion in 2008, the Continental Corporation is one of the top automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of tires, brake systems, systems and components for the powertrain and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics and technical elastomers, the corporation contributes towards enhanced driving safety and protection of the global climate. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. The corporation currently employs approximately 134,000 at nearly 190 locations in 37 countries.

Continental is Europe's market leader for car tires. In the Original Equipment sector, over 30% of all new European cars leave the factory on Continental tires. The Tire Divisions are an Official Sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa^TM. For further details, visit www.ContiSoccerWorld.com.