Zoom BFGoodrich's new cross-country rally tyre !

BFGoodrich's new cross-country rally tyre - the All-Terrain - is to equip the three Mitsubishi Pajero Evos and the two factory BMW X3 CCs entered on the 25 th anniversary Baja Espana where the discipline's benchmark tyre brand will be looking to pursue the new product's development as it prepares for the 2009 Dakar.

After dominating cross-country rallying for many years, and after winning over all types of surface and in all conditions - sand, mud, rocks, etc. - with the Rock T/A tyre, BFGoodrich has this year decided to launch a new cross-country competition tyre : the All-Terrain.

« Cross-country rallying is a fast growing sport contested by increasingly sophisticated and ever faster vehicles driven by extremely quick drivers. The pace is breathtaking and events are often won by very low margins, » says BFGoodrich Competition Director Frédéric Henry-Biabaud. « To match this evolution and to defend our number one status, we needed to bring out a new tyre, and that is the All-Terrain. »

The All-Terrain tyre made its debut on the Rali Transiberico at the end of May after more than one year of development and testing. With a score five fastest times to its name from the event's nine stages, its first full-scale litmus test proved particularly conclusive and the works Mitsubishi and BMW teams have chosen the All-Terrain again for the Baja Espana - round three of the FIA Cup for Cross-Country Bajas - to prepare for next January's Dakar.

« Since the Rali Transiberico, which was pretty muddy in many places, the new All-Terrain tyre has covered more than 3,000km in testing. Over the past year, it has totalled more than 10,000km and will cover several thousand kilometres more before the 2009 Dakar which is our chief objective, » explains Dominique Bravy, BFGoodrich Cross-Country Rally Technician.

BFGoodrich developer Michel Maraval describes the new All-Terrain's principal features : « Our job was difficult because we were expected to come up with a tyre that was more competitive than the Rock T/A which had dominated the sport for so many years. The All-Terrain's size, new construction and new tread pattern make it a more competitive package on sand and it is also 40% more durable than the Rock T/A. »

Like BFGoodrich, the Mitsubishi and BMW squads are contesting the Baja Espana as part of their preparations for the 2009 Dakar, since the Spanish tracks are said to be similar to those competitors can expect to find in South America.