Tokyo─The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has announced that it will launch the AVS dB, a new silent tyre for use with high-grade passenger cars, in February in Europe. The tyre will be available in 37 sizes ranging from 185/60R14 86H to 265/35R18 97Y. The company will launch the AVS dB also in Middle East, Latin America and Africa within 2002.

The AVS dB features dynamic performance combined with improved quietness. The AVS dB presents quietness, with its unique tread pattern designed with 5-pitch variation and small blocks, by minimizing hammering tyre noise; while the latter suppresses noises generated by tyre wear. In addition to offering high level of comfort, as a result of its use of a silica tread compound featuring ZERUMA™, Yokohama's proprietary processing agent to disperse silica consistently, the tyre offers wet grip performance even superior to conventional silica-tread tyres, also 4 straight wide grooves effectively drain water and contribute to high wet performance.

"AVS" is the flagship tyre series from Yokohama including the "AVS Sport" sports tyre, the "AVS S/T type-1 (V801)" high-performance tyre for sports utility vehicles, and the "AVS Winter" high-speed winter tyre. The AVS Sport is used as original equipment for high-grade sports cars in the world including "V12 Vanquish" and "DB7 Vantage" (19-inch option) from Aston Martin Lagonda Limited of the United Kingdom, and "Boxster" and "Boxster S" from Porsche AG of Germany.

*AVS dB has two types of tread pattern design, the V550 and the V500 , depending on the tyre size and speed rating.
* AVS stands for Advanced Vehicle System.
* "dB" (decibel) is the unit widely used for measuring noise levels. Yokohama Rubber uses it as part of the brand name to symbolize the product"s excellent quietness in high-speed running.

Available Sizes * V500 Available Sizes