Team Partner: Michelin
The tire partner of choice, Michelin continued its outstanding record in the American Le Mans Series in 2008. In addition to taking the tire championships in all four ALMS classes, every 2008 ALMS manufacturer, team and driver championship was won by Michelin-equipped drivers and teams. Despite competition from other tire makers, Michelin partner teams posted 43 out of a possible 44 class victories in the 2008 season. In addition, Michelin teams demonstrated Michelin technology and performance by claiming victory for an 11th consecutive year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Michelin teams enter 2009 competition having won 95 of 98 races since the inception of the ALMS in 1999, including all ten 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans events.
Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy-duty trucks, motorcycles and the space shuttle. The company also publishes travel guides, hotel and restaurant guides, maps and road atlases. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America (www.michelin-us.com) employs 22,300 and operates 19 major manufacturing plants in 17 locations.
About SIRIUS XM Radio
SIRIUS XM Radio is America's satellite radio company delivering commercial-free music channels, premier sports, news, talk, entertainment, traffic and weather, to more than 19 million subscribers as of December 31, 2008.
SIRIUS XM Radio has content relationships with an array of personalities and artists, including Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Buffett, Jamie Foxx, Barbara Walters, Opie & Anthony, Bubba the Love Sponge®, The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Bob Edwards. SIRIUS XM Radio is the leader in sports programming as the Official Satellite Radio Partner of the NFL, Major League Baseball®, NASCAR®, NBA, NHL®, and PGA TOUR®, and broadcasts major college sports.
SIRIUS XM Radio has arrangements with every major automaker. SIRIUS XM Radio products are available at shop.sirius.com and shop.xmradio.com, and at retail locations nationwide, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target, Sam's Club, and Wal-Mart.
SIRIUS XM Radio also offers SIRIUS Backseat TV, the first ever live in-vehicle rear seat entertainment featuring Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network; XM NavTraffic® service for GPS navigation systems delivers real-time traffic information, including accidents and road construction, for more than 80 North American markets.
Panasonic
Based in Peachtree City, Georgia, and with Detroit-area operations located in Southfield, Michigan, Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America is a division of Secaucus, New Jersey-based Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd of Osaka, Japan, one of the world’s leading developers and producers of innovative digital and other electronic products for consumer, business and industrial use. Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America also acts as the North American operating company of Panasonic Automotive Systems Company, a division of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, which co-ordinates global automotive industry systems and components operations.
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ELS Surround
Six-time Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer Elliot Scheiner initially collaborated with Panasonic in 2003, developing the first “ELS Surround” Premium Audio System designed specifically for the automotive market to bring studio sound to the vehicle. The system is branded after his industry-recognized moniker “ELS”. Scheiner is widely recognized as a leader in surround sound mixing/recording and has worked with a veritable “who’s Who” in the music industry including The Eagles, Steely Dan, REM, Queen, Sting, Van Morrison and Foo Fighters.
His collaboration with Panasonic marks the first time that someone of Scheiner’s stature and reputation within the music community has teamed with a major consumer electronics company to design a system specifically for the automotive market. The “ELLS Surround” Premium Audio System made its debut in the Acura TL sedan and also is available on Acura MDX and Acura RDX crossover vehicles.
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