Goodyear partners on record-breaking attempt across three continents

ERJ staff report (TP)

Akron, Ohio – Goodyear’s Wrangler HP tires will be used on an attempt to drive a Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI across three continents in record-breaking time.

Rainer Zietlow, a multiple world-record holder in extreme continent-spanning journeys, will depart from Nordkapp, Norway with his Challenge4 team on 21 September bound for Cape Agulhas in South Africa, more than 17,000 km away.

In order to do this, Zietlow’s Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI will be fitted with Goodyear Wrangler HP tires for SUV and 4X4 vehicles.

The world record attempt is expected to take around 10 days to complete and will see Zietlow and his Challenge4 team passing through 19 countries: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. To reach the African continent, the team will fly from Adana, Turkey to Cairo, Egypt.

“The Goodyear and Challenge4 teams worked hard to ensure we are delivering the right tire for the right job,” said Hans Vrijsen, marketing director EMEA at Goodyear. “Rainer’s journey down to South Africa will primarily be on hardened roads, but he will also encounter thousands of potholes, roads in disrepair and at certain times, he’ll need basic off-road capabilities. Goodyear’s Wrangler HP tires will meet all these challenges while at the same time ensuring a comfortable ride. As a result the team will be able to focus on the task at hand, to break a new record.”

Rainer and his team have “already extensively tested the tires, with success”. The car will carry a total of six tires, four fitted and two spare.

Other partners of the Cape-to-Cape challenge include Volkswagen, Allianz, Glysantin, Liqui Moly, 3M, BORBET, Champion, Dynaudio, Exide, Ferodo, Getac, Hewlett Packard, Inmarsat, Kuehne + Nagel, Rollei, TÜV Nord, and Dometic Waeco.