New H-, V- and W-rated summer tyres for 14" to 17" rims:

Launch of the Uniroyal rallye 550

Hanover, March 2004. Uniroyal's new summer tyre is the benchmark for performance in the wet, ensuring safety on the road. Advanced materials and computer-optimised tread patterns enable this tyre to achieve exceptional performance on both wet and dry roads. The Uniroyal rallye 550 replaces the 540 and will be available from spring 2004 in numerous 14" to 17" sizes for speeds up to 270 km/h (168 mph).

Here you can download the press release as a doc-file (4,2 MB).

The H-, V- and W-rated tyre sector (for speeds up to 210, 240 and 270 km/h respectively - 131, 150 and 168 mph) boasts tyre sales figures of over 60 million for 2002 and is therefore not only extremely large, but continues to show strong signs of growth. These tyres can be fitted to cars in the lower, medium and luxury range. 

The new Uniroyal rallye 550 range encompasses tyres with nominal widths from 175 to 225 millimetres and 65% to 50% aspect ratios for rims of 14", 15", 16" and 17" diameter. The range starts with the size 175/65 R 14 H and goes up to 205/50 R 16 V and 225/55 R 17 W, making it suitable for cars like the Alfa Romeo 145 and Ford Fiesta as well as for the BMW 5 Series, Lexus GS 300 and the Mercedes E-Class.

To efficiently cover the enormous bandwidth of the targeted sector with the dynamic performance of the new Uniroyal tyre, the developers had to design in all three different tread pattern variations for the rallye 550. In the shoulder section, they look alike - where they differ is in the number of grooves in the tread pattern centre.

The single groove version was designed for 175 and 185 format tyres with 65 and 60 per cent aspect ratios. The two-groove option is available as a 175, 185, 195 and 205 tyre with an aspect ratio of up to 55 per cent. For tyre widths of 215 millimetres and over, the tread pattern features the two wide central grooves plus a further groove 4 millimetres wide in the central tread rib.

The following special features distinguish the Uniroyal rallye 550:

• Hydrodynamic tread pattern design with double sipesin a V-shaped arrangement for great aquaplaning safety. Water is dispersed quickly and effectively from the contact patch.

• A specially developed tyre contour provides theenlarged ground contact patch and ensures good grip.

• A particularly advanced compound concept for thetread strip improves grip in the wet, ensuring very short braking distances on wet roads.

• The large number of tread grooves providesnumerous tread edges, ensuring good grip on wet roads.

• The computer-optimised tread pattern design meansthe tread maintains consistent, even contact with the road. At the same time the noise level is very low, ensuring particularly good driving comfort.

Certain characteristics on the Uniroyal rallye 550 have been noticeably improved, when compared with the tyre's predecessor, the well-proven rallye 540. Braking performance on dry roads is 2% better, the tyre is 3% quieter, handling in the wet is 3% better, with a 6% improvement in longitudinal aquaplaning. Braking in the wet is now 7% better and aquaplaning safety in bends has been improved by a full 15%. Despite this clearly enhanced performance, the same level of mileage and handling on dry roads has been achieved as on the rallye 540.

The Uniroyal rallye 550 will be available in the following sizes:

______________________________	______________________________
65 Series:	60 Series:
175/65 R 14 82 H2	185/60 R 14 82 H
185/65 R 14 86 H	195/60 R 14 86 H
195/65 R 14 89 H2	185/60 R 15 84 H2 3
185/65 R 15 88 H	195/60 R 15 88 H and V2
195/65 R 15 91 H and V	205/60 R 15 91 H and V
205/65 R 15 94 H and V	225/60 R 15 96 V2
	225/60 R 15 96 W2
55 Series:
185/55 R 14 80 H2	50 Series:
195/55 R 15 85 H and V2 3	195/50 R 15 82 H and V
205/55 R 16 91 H and V	205/50 R 16 87 V2 3
215/55 R 16 97 H2 3XL
215/55 R 16 93 V2 3
225/55 R 16 95 V2 3 and 95 W
225/55 R 17 101 W2 3XL
2 Anticipated production start June 2004
3 New size in Uniroyal range

The Belgian rubber goods manufacturer Englebert began producing tyres in 1895 and customers included Continental AG. From 1958, when the company merged with US Rubber, it became known as Uniroyal Englebert. In 1979 Uniroyal, the inventor of the rain tyre, became a European brand of Continental AG in Hanover, Germany.

The Continental Group is a leading supplier of tyres, braking systems, suspension components and technical elastomers. In 2003 the company achieved a turnover of 11.5 billion euros and currently employs some 69,000 staff worldwide.