After securing two world titles in 2006 with Loeb and Ford, and while we wait for the final outcome in this year's World Rally Championship, not to mention the FIA's verdict regarding the official result of the 2007 European Rally Championship, BFGoodrich recently added two more crowns to its record thanks to its IRC titles with Enrique Garcia-Ojeda and Peugeot.
In 2008, the tyre brand is poised to reinforce its presence in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, while at the same time increasing its involvement in various national championships.
BFGoodrich took part in the 2007 Intercontinental Rally Challenge with its customer competition range of tyres in response to approaches from its partners Peugeot and Abarth.
"The tyres we use are produced exclusively for competition," says Jacques Morelli of BFGoodrich's Customer Competition Department.
"They are very competitive but less sophisticated than those seen until now in the WRC. Indeed, customer competition tyres cover a broader spectrum of uses than World Championship tyres. This consequently enables us to restrict the number of compound choices compared with our WRC range. A further advantage of customer competition tyres is that the teams can manage their stocks themselves and re-use their tyres, for testing for example, which further contributes to keeping costs to a minimum," he explains.
The IRC regulations do not permit the use of the run-flat mousse seen in the WRC, so one of the challenges was to find the ideal compromise between strength and performance.
"This year, whatever the surface type, gravel or asphalt, we didn't have a single problem regarding the strength of BFGoodrich tyres, even over the championship's longest stages, and their specification was ideally suited to the power, torque and chassis performance characteristics of the S2000 and Group N cars. Some punctures were reported, but the vast majority of these were due to excessive corner-cutting or running over rocks on the stage. Without run-flat mousse, punctures are obviously part and parcel of the sport," Morelli adds.
The 2007 IRC calendar kicked off with the toughest round of the season for tyres: the punishing Safari Rally.
"At the start of the year, we did specific testing for the extremely rough tracks found in Kenya and strengthened our g-Force Gravel tyres. The result was very positive since Navarra led and didn't suffer a single puncture until he hit a rock towards the end of the rally," reports Jacques Morelli.
BFGoodrich tyres won all the events they contested, which is to say eight of the nine rounds which ran on gravel and asphalt, and in conditions ranging from hot and dry to rain, damp roads, mud, etc.
"Some rallies were very close, like Madeira where our tyre rival gave us a good run for our money. Our rival also led at the end of the opening day in Sanremo. On both occasions, though, our drivers fought back thanks to some first class tyre and 'cut' choices. There are fewer compounds in the IRC, but the different re-cutting options can make tyre strategy and choices crucial in unstable conditions," Morelli underlines.
"Finally, perhaps the most eloquent proof of the competitiveness of our range was the fact that certain drivers started the season on rival tyres before switching to BFGoodrich in the course of the season, and sometimes even mid-rally!"
