Secret's out - Our tires that made EVERYONE fall over - - -

[Matt Vassallo]

For Immediate Release KUMHO Tire USA

KUMHO debuts red smoke tire for drifting competition

FONTANA, CA…In the last few years, KUMHO Tire has achieved a number of firsts: the first company to make a 26-inch light truck tire; the first company to produce a 28-inch light truck tire; a class win in the company’s first race in the American Le Mans Series. And now, KUMHO has another first: a tire that produces red smoke. This special version of KUMHO’s ECSTA MX ultra high performance street tire--dubbed the ECSTA MX-C--will make its public debut with Enjuku Racing at the Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta on May 6 and 7.

http://drift411.com/images/news/RED_TIRE.jpg

Enjuku tested the MX-C for the first time the week of April 18, and it literally left the team’s members speechless. “When we saw the red smoke boiling off the rear tires, we just stood there and stared in awe,” said Enjuku lead driver and team captain Matt Vassallo. “I think people will be blown away when they see this.”

The ECSTA MX-C was developed at the KUMHO Technical Center in Akron, OH. “At a product meeting here late last summer, several people were talking about the sport of drifting,” said Guy Edington, manager of the Technical Center. “While watching a drifting video, someone opined that it would be cool if the tire smoke coming off the cars was colored.”

From there the idea blossomed, and Jim Palombo, KUMHO’s senior product chemist, and Gary Bradnick, lead lab technologist, set about looking for a way to make colored smoke. They developed the right mix of chemicals and now have a patent pending for their colorful compound (they’ve also developed a compound that produces blue tire smoke). Following successful testing, KUMHO produced a limited number of the tires.
“We don’t intend to sell the ECSTA MX-C to the general public,” said KUMHO brand director Rick Brennan. “We built them to demonstrate our forward thinking, technical capabilities and ability to respond quickly to the market. Like our race-winning ALMS tire, the MX-C was developed in a very short time―about six months. And like our 26-inch and 28-inch light truck tires, the MX-C gets attention by charting new territory that no other tire company even thought about entering.”

Enjuku’s Vassallo agrees. “With the car show market and drifting scene ever-expanding in the U.S., the constant effort to make your vehicle stand out in the crowd is the ultimate goal,” he said. “KUMHO has upped the ante with the ECSTA MX-C.”

Established in 1960, KUMHO TIRE CO., INC., of Seoul, South Korea, had 2004 sales of $1.6 billion. KUMHO manufactures and distributes a complete line of tires for passenger cars, light trucks and heavy duty trucks. KUMHO has manufacturing facilities in Korea and China and operates technical centers in Birmingham, England, and Akron, Ohio. For more information, visit the KUMHO TIRE USA Web site at www.Kumhotireusa.com.


SO we unleashed the secret weapon come qualifying on Friday. What a blast, is all I can say. ALthough I did not make top 12 to move on to the next day, I can say that the powers up above came though for our team. One competitor that was a non seeded driver who made top 12 was running on toyo RA-1's up front (R compound illegal), and another seeded driver had been ignoring SCCA safety rules and was disqualified. This put me into the main even on saturday with my teammate, Rob.

Saturday's practice went awesome, had alot of run, Rob and I both ran the tires, had a freaking blast with them, and come time to qualifying, we gave it what we had.
The guys that had run the course last year definitely knew what they were doing. The judging was what to expect from a subjective sport, and we were very happy finishing 16th and 17th. We had a car into the final 16th (Rob's car) in only our second pro event ever. Rob and I have always considered ourselves to be very close in skill, and very close in style. The fact that we finished 16th and 17th kind of shows that the judges were at least being accurate I guess? Maybe If my front lower control arm ball joint did not break on my 2nd qualifying lap I would have had a slightly higher score as I was going a little faster, but I was very happy with what I got!

Highs:

Meeting Ranzo, shooting some ideas with one another, getting to talk and what not

Meeting Ross Petty, VERY friendly guy! His team was not that friendly towards me however, but Ross himself seems to be a good guy.

Rhys coming up to our team after my qualifying runs and going " You stole my idea! I had a meeting with Yokohama two weeks ago about this!" Sorry, Rhys, we were on this a year ago ;-)

Using the rest of the bottled water we had in our truck support vehicle at the top of the staging area to pour onto Taka's corolla to try and help him cool it enough to beat that goddamn viper

Overall having a good time. On Friday I was fuming, I thought I was screwed on judging. Then on Saturday I ended up 17 out of 55 when it was all said and done - I am happy with what I have, and I will just get better with experience.



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Well, what do you guys think? Colored smoke in drifting? Americans bringign something new to the table? Is this good or bad ? I think it's just tons of fun, and one more thing to laugh about! Let me know gang!

[John]

45 1 70ld y0u b3f0|23, 7h15 7h1|\|g 15 g01g|\| 70 537 d|21f71|\|g 0|\| 17'5 34|2! C0|\|g|2475 0|\| 7h3 57|20|\|g f1|\|15h, 4g41|\|!

[Durdan]

matt, if only you could have seen tarzan standing on the table at the top of the grandstand giving two thumbs up and his tongue hanging out! i love 'em man! you guys did so well, we are all proud... jealous... but proud none the less!!

[Mars_302]

Heres a teaser shot from Atlanta for you Matt ;) 2000 photos were taken expect the full series to be up in about a day.
http://www.tamparacing.com/photopost/data/500/medium/enjuku.jpg

[0HP930]

Thats cool shit, and congratulations. :bigthumb:

Is that car using one of the blocks I machined for you?

[Jordan Y.]

Cool shit. I always thought it would be neat if they could develop some sort of colored tire compound.

[paul kersey]

http://www.allstarz.org/tomcruise/thunder.jpg

"see cole, tires, is what wins a race"

[Matt Vassallo]

Thats cool shit, and congratulations. :bigthumb:

Is that car using one of the blocks I machined for you?


Tony,

Actually, that car is using Enthalpys' motor.

Rob's engine is using SR20 066576W that you machined for me.

SR20 124966W had a ferrea valve spring break while driving to the alignment shop at 2000 rpm. Total engine loss, block and cylinder head.

[Boostin97SE-R]

http://www.allstarz.org/tomcruise/thunder.jpg

"see cole, tires, is what wins a race"

:lmao:

I am not into drifting in the least bit but great job guys! :bigthumb:

[0HP930]

I heard about the dropped valve but not the cause since it was still unknown when Scott told me about it.

Damn, a total loss? Sorry to hear about that.

[RoadRacer]

Matt, I am glad to hear these tires kicked ass.

[turbo-max]

great job matt & rob & the rest of the team!!!

[Hoonta]

Totally awesome show.
You guys did awesome.
As soon as I saw you start your burn out at the top of the hill.. the red smoke.. it all just clicked.
Red MX tire tracks on the shirt.. "What's your favorite color", hearing word of "special compound tires" when at dday.. lots of hints as to what the secret was going to be..

I can't wait to see what Enjuku and Kuhmo did to drifting ;)
And as Taylor said.. the judges went totally crazy.

Though, I was hoping to see Rob do a standing/rolling burn out in the horse shoe when it was his time to show off. That would have been cool.

Either way.. congrats on getting the enjuku name, and showing what florida has to offer to everyone.

[AbortRetryFail]

hehehe rice for your tires :D

[_Charles_]

Though, I was hoping to see Rob do a standing/rolling burn out in the horse shoe when it was his time to show off. That would have been cool.



Yes, I too was dissapointed. Take a hint from some of the other drivers. When in the top 16, and they are doing introductions.....that's the time to 'show-off'. Many drivers got out, threw shirts into the crowd. Some took the horseshoe backwards, or did donuts, or standing burnouts.

I know Matt is more concerned about 'technical', while Rob is a little easier going...but remember, in the end, it's a show. Give the crowd what they want, and the Top 16 introductions is the percfect time to 'go wild'.

Had both Matt and Rob made the top 16 (hint for Houston ;) ) I would have loved to have seen both of the twins together (like alex and ??? did).

Build up the excitement, bask in the glory, and show'em how we do it in Florida!

Charles

[Hoonta]

As lame as it sounds.. things that would be rice on the streets, are actually pretty cool out on the track.

Like those flashy led valve stem caps.. they totally matched and looked awesome on the G35.

[agemomai]

Yes, I too was dissapointed. Take a hint from some of the other drivers. When in the top 16, and they are doing introductions.....that's the time to 'show-off'. Many drivers got out, threw shirts into the crowd. Some took the horseshoe backwards, or did donuts, or standing burnouts.

I know Matt is more concerned about 'technical', while Rob is a little easier going...but remember, in the end, it's a show. Give the crowd what they want, and the Top 16 introductions is the percfect time to 'go wild'.


it would have been cool to have him just sit and burn gobs of smoke, but they told us all specifically NO standing burnouts ANYWHERE on the track. yeah, we wanted to see it too, but rob held back out of respect for the track, even though not many other people did.

[craig_302]

W O W!

[Hoonta]

it would have been cool to have him just sit and burn gobs of smoke, but they told us all specifically NO standing burnouts ANYWHERE on the track. yeah, we wanted to see it too, but rob held back out of respect for the track, even though not many other people did.


Ah, that does make sense. - nothing like having melted pavement on a race track.

speaking of not respecting the word of the track.. did anyone else catch when Tarzan took the vakamon viper around the horseshoe... like 80 times where he pissed off the track flag waving guy, while making gobs and gobs and gobs of smoke ----- that was so awesome.

[_Charles_]

it would have been cool to have him just sit and burn gobs of smoke, but they told us all specifically NO standing burnouts ANYWHERE on the track. yeah, we wanted to see it too, but rob held back out of respect for the track, even though not many other people did.


that is understandable, and I know that most of you were up on the hill, but there are other things you could do to build the excitement....like having rob throw T-shirts to the crowd....They love that stuff.

Now if I could only talk the wife into letting me fly to Texas next month...

Charles

[Hoonta]

Now if I could only talk the wife into letting me fly to Texas next month...



I know i'm seriously considering going.

[Ronald Mcdonald]

the red tire smoke is awesome, and i am loving the new cars more and more everytime i see them. i cant wait til i get to actually see the cars live and in person

[Chin]

Deffinatl a new step in drifting very cool. You guys have been on top of your game as far as it goes, with more pratice enjuku will be a household name! hahahah maybe not, but still good to think outside the box

[Epstein]

I think the biggest thing with the red smoke is that, as long as drifting has been around in Japan, no one has done it. Way to innovate, and at the same time stick it to Rhys. That kiwi gets enough attention. hahaa.

I just watched the G4 wrap up of teh Wall, and now I'm really pissed at myself for not ditching work on Friday. So when is Houston?

[agemomai]

one month from now, june 11th - houston TX

[_Charles_]

one month from now, june 11th - houston TX

and with roundtrip tickets in the $250+ range (plus food, rental, and hotel), it's out of my $$$ range.

Charles

[Drag-KA24DE]

damnit i need a way out there... im over in dallas lol.

[Hoonta]

Or I may just save up some money and go to one of the events out in california..
like irwindale ;)

or sonoma.

[Trip]

Dude, Matt... Awesome man. Come a long way since the SS days bro, I'm just amazed sitting here watching as everyone does their own thing and doing it so well. As I was peeping the photo's I journeyed back to Enthalpy's 539rwhp days and following him back from track day in the rain watching the back end get squirly at the faintest touch of the throttle wondering where the motor is now, looking at that bad ass underhood shot. I'm glad to hear it's the newest power source for making red smoke ;) Just in awe man, wish I had moved up to something as radical.

Keep it up man!

[JoeCoolinATL]

haha people were calling my when this happened since i couldnt drive to the track cuz i had to take care of my mema, congrats tho!

[Aoshi]

though im not in to drifting or anything thats pretty cool, congrats on the tires and what not. are/can you patent them? i figure you could make a brand selling different colored tires to drifters at the track...and ricers everywhere else.

[_Charles_]

though im not in to drifting or anything thats pretty cool, congrats on the tires and what not. are/can you patent them? i figure you could make a brand selling different colored tires to drifters at the track...and ricers everywhere else.

Yes, Patent Pending on tires (kumho)...
Currently, market price for these tires is $2,000 per tire. Don't expect to see them on the street corner soon, although they may appear in some rap videos next year (the new bling-bling). Red and Blue smoking tires on an escalade rocking 24's? Hell yeah.

hehe...my imagination getting away from me again.

Charles

[99TL]

Sweet tires... congratulations on a good showing in ATL.

[TNathe]

Well, what do you guys think? Colored smoke in drifting?
one word, SICK! I always thought about colored smoke after the one tire company came out with the colored stripes that would leave color on the road after a burnout.

[Tom]

:jawdrop: :bling: !!! MEGA PIMP FACTOR PROPS....thats so bad ass!!! way bad ass...

[bottlefedLX]

Very cool....congratulations.

John

[driftchik]

I thought ROBS introductions was just fine!, way to make it as far as you did Rob, From the secod Tandem with you two, Rob you were spot on, right on that guys ass move for me.... ha the first round been dirfferent you would have gone forward.


Oh Man watching you two on the second day drive out together that was awesome!You both did so well, loved the tire smoke, like tay said I thought Tarzan was going to loose balance and fall into the crowed for jumping up as fast as h did when he saw that.



i tried to get on formula d tv, for being one of the girl drifters in the crowed,
but they wouldnt let me on because I only had your t-shirt to wear, and they wanted a drifting t shirt... I was like this is, this is a team thats out here today, and they said they wanted a shirt with the word drifting on it or some initial d crap no biggie, I was just trying to get on tv with your shirts on, =( I failed lol

[hachibill]

i think the tires kick ass, and the fact Kumho picked our boys from Florida to give the gift too, but i think i was a little disappointed. i guess i exspected something more. when Rob said their was something in the works i was thinking about rob and matt and all the stupid shit we used to do on saturday nights. i was thinking it was gonna be some outrageous skit or rob being pregnant and giving birth to a drift baby or some crazy shit like that. i guess i was exspecting a little more creativity from the 2 kings of gimiks, and iggie's.

[Zate]

kick ass guys :) you guys rock !

[_Charles_]

or rob being pregnant and giving birth to a drift baby or some crazy shit like that.

you are sick and demented Bill :tard:

Charles

[midorigreen]

Another pic I found
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/SoloTwo/Misc%20Crap/kumho.jpg

[accord95]

congrats mofos

[The Hedgehog]

I have never been to a drifting event, but i want to go bad....I think that is awesome that you guys got one for the americans.....Can you do different colors? That would be cool like at the air shows you know, but have one tire blue, one red, and maybe a little white smoke off the fronts if you know what i mean....This could go very far...CONGRATS

[TampaTSi]

this is a sport?!?!?!

just fooling w/ you guys!

does the coloring have any side effects on the stickiness of the tires?

[_Charles_]

this is a sport?!?!?!

just fooling w/ you guys!

does the coloring have any side effects on the stickiness of the tires?

Yes....it makes them stickier (hard to believe, isn't it!)

[Drag-KA24DE]

this is a sport?!?!?!

just fooling w/ you guys!

does the coloring have any side effects on the stickiness of the tires?

already been answered in this thread...

yes it does make them stickier but i dont think matt or rob cared at the time cause everyone was going ape-shit over the tires and smoke

[Drag-KA24DE]

Yes....it makes them stickier (hard to believe, isn't it!)

damn u... beat me to the punch

[marksaccord95]

fucking stole it from mario kart 64, except for they had Es for smoke.

[icantdrift]

already been answered in this thread...

yes it does make them stickier but i dont think matt or rob cared at the time cause everyone was going ape-shit over the tires and smoke


actually i think kumho adjusted the compound a bit, i don't think the extra stickyness was a result of the dye.

so matt, have you guys gotten the cars clean yet? ;-)

[thoraxe]

Colored tire compounds are used by BFG on the Scorcher T/A and by Michelin on some of their full-on racing slicks. It's been done in the past.

Dunlop had some green-smoking tires for NOPI last year, and Toyo actually knew what the "big secret" was and said they had talked about it years ago ;)

It was fairly unique, but not something the world has never seen before. People got a kick out of it but it seemed like no one cared really soon afterwards. There was a big cheer on Friday, but by Saturday evening it didn't seem to make a difference.

I don't really think that the tire manufacturers are going to jump on this bandwagon. The Scorcher T/A already went down this road and you can see how well those sell. It's not like everyone can go and use those on the street to impress their friends.

Will this motivate more tire sales of Kumho tires? Possibly, but most likely not. It takes more than colored smoke in this demographic to really steer sales. If they start to do some serious marketing happening behind just the colored smoke, they might have something.

But there's always the Scorcher T/A.

P.S. Tarzan always jumps around with his tongue hanging out. That's part of his character. It's like saying "OMG you drove by and Nomuken made the cat face!" :naughty:

[thoraxe]

it would have been cool to have him just sit and burn gobs of smoke, but they told us all specifically NO standing burnouts ANYWHERE on the track. yeah, we wanted to see it too, but rob held back out of respect for the track, even though not many other people did.

I also find it amusing that Calvin, Rhys, Sam, and many of the other "pros" all got to do similar standing burnouts, fly-bys, and dyno pulls in the hot-pit with no repercussions after we were similarly instructed not to do so by SCCA.

After making mention of it on more than one occasion, in a driver's meeting the SA22C RX7 was DQ'd for running R compounds in the front.

When I asked about the drivers disobeying all the safety rules, SCCA's response?

"Oh... Yeah... I forgot about that."

Glad to see that SCCA has our safety and well-being on their minds. Especially since they were contracted for technical and safety management of the series.

I have emailed SCCA and FormulaD about some of these issues and have received no real response. Cute!

[Drag-KA24DE]

lol it's great to know that they are trying to keep the drivers safe

[_Charles_]

Several things in response to Erik (Thoraxe)

1. Yes, colored smoke may not be new, but is very rare
2. BF Goodrich tires had color compounds, but didn't really have 'colored smoke'. It just left a small color patch on the ground...that's why it didn't go anywhere.
3. Kumho doesn't really intend on selling these tires. Yes, they were a 'gimmick', but in my eyes, it worked. Everybody knows 'Falken' tires and drifting....they just about dominate the sport, but this past weekend, several people were saying 'Kumho'. Regardless of whether or not people buy the colored tires, people are talking about 'Kumho'. Talking = familiarity, and that can = sales. Hell....did you know that Hankook sponsors drifters in other countries, but here in the USA they are all but unknown? Had those tires been from Hankook, people would be talking about them.

I think it was an awesome marketing ploy.

Charles

[paul kersey]

i want tires that smoke brown, and smell like shit after eating nothing but fish and mexican food for a month.
that would be innovation.

[lunchbox]

o0o pretty colors

[Drag-KA24DE]

well since they are selling them to the general public... but they are $2k each... i dont think people would be buying them much.. but for the Enjuku, since they get them free from Kumho, they might have enough of an impact on the drift scene that the up and coming teams will buy them to show off at local events. but thats a maybe no one knows where this is going right now... all i know is that i think it is the shit and i wish i could afford a pair myself

[Rolling Thundah]

Congrats I guess, I think I do not understand the whole drift thing??

[paul kersey]

dude, if someone actually spent 2,000$ a tire on any sort of tire, id slap them in the face.

[Drag-KA24DE]

yeah so would i... i think thats why they are priced so high.. i would only want a pair if i actualy got good enough to compete in the d1 races or somewhere around that skill level

[Drag-KA24DE]

Congrats I guess, I think I do not understand the whole drift thing??

most people dont... i personaly like it cause it's more of having control of the car rather than letting the car control u for a 1/4... i still like both but i still suck at drifting.. hence my screen name here lol

[marksaccord95]

dude, if someone actually spent 2,000$ a tire on any sort of tire, id slap them in the face.


to run a tire in formula D it has to be market available, so kuhmo did it and just slapped a rediculious price tag on it so no one in their right mind would buy them

[Drag-KA24DE]

good point... never thought of it that way

[thoraxe]

Charles -- good points.

No one is saying that Kumho expects to sell those red tires to the general public. We're evaluating whether or not the marketing effort of the red tires will generate other sales of tires.

Goodyear, Bridgestone, and Dunlop all sponsor some pretty serious drivers in Japan, but they are also unknown here.

I know the Scorcher T/A wasn't supposed to generate colored smoke. I was just saying that some of these gimmicky things have been done before. Although, the T/A wasn't debuted during some kind of "competition", it's a similar thing.

Overall I think the marketing impact was OK, but, with the way the media works and the internet, I think that word spreads too quickly for something like the red smoke to really make a lasting impression. It really could go either way. By Houston the whole thing could be totally played out, or it could have a line of people waiting to see it.

[paul kersey]

to run a tire in formula D it has to be market available, so kuhmo did it and just slapped a rediculious price tag on it so no one in their right mind would buy them


i understand that, i was replying to the person that said maybe someone would buy a pair to run at local events.

[paul kersey]

also, i was looking for them on tirerack to show my manager at work, but couldnt remember what size to look for...help? haha

[Hoonta]

ya, for some reason i couldn't find them either :(

255/45/17 or 255/40/17
MX-c

I searched by size, by kuhmo brand, by vehicle, humbug.

And I remember at the event when i was talking to the Kuhmo rep, he was saying what all you need to look for on tirerack to find them.

[viper]

Marketing at its finest, you two have single handedly sent shock waves through the intire U.S. Drift culture. I know Kumho was not planing on selling these but the impact is so great and unique that the demand for originality may force Kumho in to a corner to produce them. I wish I could have gone.

[Matt Vassallo]

Hmm. al,though they may not be on the website, you can definitely call tire rack and they can tell you about them!

[keith455]

does the smoke smell like regular burnt rubber smell? Would be cool if it smelled like cherry's or strawberries. What kind of carcinigen is let out in the smoke. :)

[Matt Vassallo]

no it doesnt let out a carcinogen

yes it smells normal

[The Hedgehog]

can you guys do other colors besides red? I thought that would be cool if you did like the usa theme with red and blue....but i understand that your team is red so thats why the tires are red....just curious.....and i think that all of this will not just die out, becuase it is something new and i think it kicks ass....

[Matt Vassallo]

thanks! yes other tire colors are already patented ;-)