Tires

A good set of tires has always made a big difference in safety, fuel economy and handling, but one area that is getting new attention is the quality of tires to reduce or increase the amount of noise a vehicle makes. Tire manufacturers are racing to develop tires that reduce noise, aiming to meet tough new standards mandated by European and Asian nations that want to reduce noise pollution. Though U.S.

A horse few believed in. A jockey with little big-time experience. A very accomplished trainer who had never won a Triple Crown race. All that's changed is I'll Have Another shocked an incredibly competitive field to win the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby. On a day when speed was holding up, the Southern California-based horse blew past a tiring Bodemeister in deep stretch to win by 11/2 lengths. It was the third time jockey Mario Gutierrez, 25, has ridden the colt, having previously won the Robert B. Lewis and Santa Anita Derby.

Bridgestone/Firestone announced a recall Thursday of about 490,000 Steeltex tires linked to sport utility vehicle crashes in which five people were killed. The move headed off an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of Firestone's Steeltex Radial A/T LT265/75R16 Load Range D tires, which have been linked to six crashes, three of which involved fatalities. The tires, manufactured in Canada, were made for use on 2002-03 Ford Excursions and some early 2003 models.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will still be on GOP ballots and will continue to ask Republicans for campaign donations, but even Gingrich now appears to concede what has been obvious for weeks: He's no longer a viable candidate. On Fox News Sunday, Gingrich talked about his campaign in the past tense, saying, “It turned out to be much harder than I thought it would, but it was [the] right thing for me to do. I have no regrets.” And he conceded that Mitt Romney was “far and away, the most likely Republican nominee.” Nevertheless, Gingrich continues to hope that his ideas will find their way into not just the party platform - after all, who reads that?

Car-crazy California is naturally the nation's biggest tire market, where hundreds of dealers vie for a chunk of the state's roughly $1.3 billion in annual replacement-tire sales. Yet even in this crowd, one man is more familiar than most. He is Sam Winston, the chairman, majority owner and lead pitchman of Winston Tire Co., which operates 158 stores in California. Winston has become a household name after years of starring in his company's TV commercials ("Put Sams on Your Car!").

Re "Tire Fire Casts Worrisome Pall in Central Valley Town," Oct. 1: If memory serves me well, there have been experiments in the past in grinding up old tires and mixing this with asphalt to build roads. Why are we building mountains of discarded tires that breed dangerous insects and are an invitation to mischief and fire? Beverage containers in many states carry a mandatory deposit, and programs are legislated to deal with this problem. We are recycling garbage; why aren't we recycling old tires into something more useful and less dangerous?

Re "Tire Fire Sets Legislative Wheels Turning," April 23: Anyone who has driven in Baja California has seen one creative use for old tires: Cut in half, painted bright yellow, they are stood on their cut ends to use as we use orange traffic cones. They are clearly visible, last a long time and will not harm a vehicle that hits them. MICHELE HART Hollywood

Reader Philip Rask from Newport Beach (Letters, Feb. 26) is exactly correct in his mathematical calculations, that if Oxford Energy burns tires at the rate of 500 per minute to produce the electricity at its new Modesto plant, the electricity would only last 55 1/2 days. Unfortunately, a typographical error appeared in the news article, which created a lot of unnecessary work for Rask. Our $41.5-million plant, the first plant in the United States that will burn whole tires to generate energy will be burning 50 tires per minute to create steam for a turbine to provide power for 14,000 homes--not 500 tires per minute.

A White House official Saturday defended President Obama's decision to levy steep tariffs on tires from China, denying that it was an act of trade protectionism, as Chinese officials charged, or was intended to make a statement about the administration's broader strategy on trade policy. "This is certainly not an action directed against globalization," said the official, who requested anonymity when discussing White House thinking, a day after Obama moved to add a 35% duty on automobile and light-truck tires.

The auto industry's efforts to increase fuel economy and reduce emissions may pay off with the development of self-inflating tires. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said it was experimenting with what it calls Air Maintenance Technology, which will enable tires to remain inflated at the optimum pressure without the need for external pumps or electronics. All components of the AMT system, including a miniaturized pump, will be fully contained within the tire. The company said Thursday that it had a $1.5-million grant from the Department of Energy to launch a demonstration of the system in commercial truck tires.

It was one of those crazy, hard-to-figure-out Sundays for the Hendrick Motorsports team at the Auto Club 400 in Fontana. The literati of the NASCAR crowd might even say it was the best of times, it was the … no, let's stick to racing. So, the star of the Hendrick team on Sunday was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. , whose wise pit management allowed him to steal a third-place finish. He employed a strategy called short pitting, where he comes in earlier than he might otherwise for fresh tires to gain track position when everyone else is running on slower tires.

Midas Inc., the operator of its namesake and SpeeDee automotive service centers, agreed to be acquired by tire supplier TBC Corp. for about $173 million, joining a group that includes the Tire Kingdom chain. The cash offer of $11.50 a share is 75% higher than Midas' closing price Aug. 11, when it announced that it was exploring options such as a possible sale. The transaction includes the assumption of $137 million in debt and pension liabilities, the companies said Tuesday. The purchase gives closely held Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based TBC a chain with more than 2,250 franchised, licensed and company-owned Midas shops in 14 countries.

Reporting from Las Vegas -- NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave his many fans a thrill Sunday by taking the early lead at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he couldn't stay in front. Earnhardt, seeking his first win in more than three years, put his No. 88 Chevrolet in first on the opening lap and led a total of 70 laps in the Kobalt Tools 400. But then his crew changed four tires while others took two, dropping Earnhardt to 16th. He then struggled to regain spots before finishing 10th.

"You're not going to believe what happened last night," Jeff Galfer said as he opened the door to his Atwater Village apartment. "I got another ticket. " Galfer and I had been talking for weeks about his Kafkaesque battles with the Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau. Galfer would contest what he thought was an unfair parking citation, and the bureau would tell him his fine was on hold while the appeal was under review. The next thing he knew, a letter would arrive saying he owed not only the original fine, but late fees and penalties.

Travelers interested in participating in the TSA's expanded pre-check screening , which pre-approves some passengers to pass through checkpoints without removing shoes and belts - should click here  for information. The expanded program was announced Wednesday . . . . Hawaii hotel revenue rose 12.7% last year , according to a report by Hospitality Advisors LLC and Smith Travel Research. Occupancy was 73.4%, up from 70.7% in 2010. The average daily rate was about $189.62, up from $174.84 the previous year . . . . Nationwide, only New York City has higher room rates than Hawaii , Smith Travel Research says . . . . The 20th annual Zinfandel Festival takes place in Paso Robles March 16-18 , featuring wine from more than 50 vintners. For info or tickets, go to www.pasowine.com . . . . Northern California's Mendocino County hosts three Whale Festivals this March : Mendocino Village (March 3-4)

On Feb. 21, it will be two years since Antron Brown and Susan Zimmer never met and became joined forever. It was Brown's 200th-something National Hot Rod Assn. event, Zimmer's first. Brown is a drag racer, one of the best on the NHRA circuit. He drives in what is known as a top-fuel dragster, the sexiest class of racing on the 23-event national circuit that begins this weekend at Fairplex in Pomona, and will end with its grand finale right back there Nov. 8-11. The top-fuel dragster is long and skinny, with a 7,000-horsepower engine behind the driver's cockpit.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. offered exchanges for certain tires sold for use with minivans and small trucks but said the decision was not a recall because no defect was found. Goodyear believes that tread separation can occur in some of these tires under adverse conditions. It offered to exchange P215/70R14 tires sold under 23 private-label names, including Douglas, Kelly, Mohave and Republic, in the U.S. and Canada.

General Motors Corp. announced Wednesday that its Chevrolet division is recalling about 1,600 1990 Geo Prizm subcompact sedans to check for a gradual loss of air pressure in the tires. GM said the tire bead, the part that connects to the rim, may have been damaged during mounting at the factory.

There's one question director Ry Russo-Young expects to be asked about her new sunshine psychodrama "Nobody Walks": How much of herself, a New Yorker who came to California to make a movie, is in Olivia Thirlby's character of Martine, a New Yorker who comes to make a movie in California? The film opens with Martine's arrival in Los Angeles, where she lands at the tastefully bohemian Silver Lake home of the couple (Rosemarie DeWitt, John Krasinski) she is going to be staying with while she works with the husband on a film project.

A few days into 2012, ABC's cross-dressing disaster "Work It" managed to claim Worst Comedy of the Year, but surely CBS' "Rob," which debuts Thursday, comes in a close second. Created by comedian Rob Schneider and based, apparently and tragically, on his own life, "Rob" takes a classic "Bridget Loves Bernie" setup — Anglo man marries Mexican American woman after whirlwind romance and now must meet her family — and manages to make it weirdly offensive to just about everyone, especially comedy lovers.