Yokohama upgrades orange oil-Infused race tire at Sebring

A little more orange oil means a lot less petroleum, according to Yokohama Tire Corporation, which introduced its upgraded environmentally-sensitive ADVAN ENV-R2 racing tire at a press conference today in Sebring, Florida. Yokohama's orange oil-infused racing slicks, which will campaign in two major sports car race series in 2010, utilizes sustainable resources such as orange oil and natural rubber to help cut petroleum use during manufacturing.

"Yokohama is the only tire company to have perfected this science," said Mark Chung, Yokohama director, corporate strategy and planning. "The ENV-R2 replaces the ADVAN ENV-R1, which debuted in 2009 at Sebring and became the world's first environmentally-friendly tire used in a racing series. Now we have the ENV-R2, which is faster, grips better and has even more orange oil and natural rubber in it, further reducing petroleum use in the tire."

Normal racing tires contain little or no natural materials. The ENV-R1 increased the renewable, natural content to 15 percent. The ENV-R2, the official spec tire of the Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama and the ALMS GT3 Challenge (GTC) Class races, increases it to 20 percent.

"Yokohama's best known for its ultra high-performance street and race tires," said Chung, "which are a result of our longstanding commitment to innovation, technology and the environment. Thanks to this pledge, all the Porsche 911 GT3 cars in the two sports car series will be competing on tires that are superior to regular racing compounds... and they are Earth-friendly. That's what I call eco-racing."