Englebert
Englebert was a Belgian tire manufacturer that was taken over by Continental in 1979 . Englebert became known in the 1950s for his successful involvement in international motorsport .
history
The Artillery - Officer Oscar Englebert opened in 1868 in Liege a business for rubber products, including baby pacifier . Englebert soon began to experiment with tires - although at that time his focus was still on the tires of bicycles and horse-drawn vehicles . In 1898 the Belgian company O. Englebert Fils & Co. GmbH was one of the first in Europe to start producing bicycle and car tires .
In 1899 racing cars were fitted with Belgian tires for the first time, and in 1912 Englebert already employed over 400 people. In 1926 the tire manufacturer was one of the five largest companies in the European rubber industry and had 3,500 employees. From the end of the 1920s, Englebert expanded abroad and initially opened a plant in Aachen - Rothe Erde , and later in Clairoix ( France ). The one millionth tire was produced in 1937.
At the beginning of the 1950s, Englebert intensified his involvement in motorsport and joined the newly founded Formula 1 as a tire supplier . First, the French factory team was equipped with tires by Gordini . However, Englebert gained his international fame from the successful cooperation with the traditional Italian team Ferrari from 1955 to 1958, both in Formula 1 and in sports car races . This partnership resulted in a total of two world championship titles for Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn as well as seven Grand Prix victories .
The company experienced its blackest hour at the 1957 Mille Miglia , when Alfonso de Portago's Englebert-tyred Ferrari raced into viewers at Guidizzolo, killing eleven people. Both Ferrari and the Belgian tire company were charged with manslaughter. However, both proceedings were later discontinued. At the end of 1958, Englebert retired from motorsport.
In the same year the company entered into a cooperation with the American group Uniroyal , which at the time was one of the three largest tire manufacturers in the world. Englebert then operated under the name Uniroyal-Englebert, from 1967 it was only called Uniroyal. In 1979 the European part of Uniroyal was integrated into the Continental Group . The Uniroyal brand continues to exist today, but Englebert was abandoned by Continental.