Ready for departure towards the 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 15th-16th), the highly anticipated motorsport highlight in 2024: The Goodyear airship ‘Blimp’ recently started the new season at Mülheim/Essen Airport started.
Frank Titz, General Manager Replacement Sales Consumer Goodyear DACH, explains: “The Goodyear Blimp embodies innovation, discovery, performance and the inspiration to push ourselves forward. With this in mind, we are delighted to be marking the start of a new era today in this impressive new hangar here in Mülheim. When our famous brand icon now flies over the densely populated Ruhr area, its visibility will be even greater.”
Goodyear Blimp at the 24 Hours of Le Mans
In June the Goodyear airship will once again accompany the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 2024 will be Goodyear’s biggest year in endurance racing since returning to European motorsport in 2020. The tire manufacturer is the exclusive supplier of the newly introduced LMGT3 category.
“Endurance racing is not only an opportunity to showcase our technology and expertise, but also provides an invaluable test bed for the development of the next generation of our UUHP road tires,” said Titz.
Goodyear equips new LMGT3 class in the WEC
In the new LMGT3 category, the successor to the LMGTE class, nine international manufacturers are represented with two GT3 racing cars each. Here, the brands Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, Lexus, McLaren and Porsche meet in the battle for class victories and the WEC World Championship. The 24 Hours of Le Mans are the highlight of the eight-race World Endurance Championship calendar.
Part of the appeal of GT racing lies in the similarities between the race cars and their road counterparts. This is not only interesting for fans, but also reduces the overall cost of an LMGT3 race compared to the previous LMGTE generation.
“For us, endurance racing is about showcasing Goodyear’s technology; the LMGT3 is the closest thing to a road car,” explains Mike McGregor, Endurance Program Manager at Goodyear. “The cars use many of the same components and the regulations limit the ability of teams and manufacturers to make changes.”
Goodyear and the Blimp: A long history
Goodyear has a century-long partnership with Zeppelin that began in 1923 with the formation of the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation. Although the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation ended over a decade later, the relationship with Zeppelin was revived in 2011 when Goodyear announced its intention to replace the previous generation blimp fleet with the Zeppelin Model NT LZ N07-101 airship. The first of these models was built in Akron, Ohio in 2014, followed by others in 2016 and 2018.
This Goodyear Blimp, in use in Europe today, is a Goodyear-branded Zeppelin NT airship operated by Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei. This marks the latest chapter in over 100 years of collaboration.