Marangoni King of the Hill

Marangoni is celebrating the success of its hill climbing champion, Simone Faggioli, who recently won European Hill Climb Championship for the second time. Faggioli, who drives an Osella FA30 with Zytek 3000-V8 engine and Marangoni Zeta Linea Racing tyres, achieved the feat one race from the end of the 2009 series. The Marangoni sponsored driver last won this European title in 2005, in a similar car again fitted with the Italian company’s race tyres.

Faggioli took the 2009 title after winning six of the eleven stages which make up the European Hill Climb Championship. A slow puncture meant that Faggioli could only manage third place on the fearsome Italian Trento-Bondone stage, but this was won by his Marangoni teammate Davide Baldi.

“For the 2009 season we developed new compounds that take into account the extra power of the Zytec 3,000-V8 engine on Faggioli’s Osella FA30 (460 HP rather than the 250 HP of the previous 2.0 litre Honda)”, explained Angelo Priori, manager of Marangoni’s advanced research and development centre. “We have in fact provided the GS20 compound for more “slippery” courses, plus the more traditional GS27 for longer courses and higher temperatures.”

Marangoni representatives point out that ongoing development of sizes, structures and compounds has led to a new generation of tyres for hillclimb races. Before the 2004 season, they explain, conventional (cross-ply) race tyres had dominated the scene. When Marangoni Zeta Linea Racing tyres were introduced however, they created they pioneered the introduction of radials into this sport.
 
The difficulty in designing a competitive radial for uphill races is related to the thermal response, that is, the time these tyres take to reach operating temperature when compared to conventional (crossply) tyres. The special design of the casing and the compounds, when combined with the correct balance of specific resins and polymers, has led Marangoni to the development of a radial tyre that reaches the optimum operating temperature within 500 metres from the race start. According to the company, this gives a huge advantage, as within a few seconds the tyres are already performing at their peak level, combining high levels of grip at the trickiest points of the course with consistent handling throughout.