For the past two years, Pirelli has supplied vehicle manufacturers with original equipment tyres tailored for electric and plug-in hybrid cars. The tyre maker is now offering Pirelli Elect products as replacement fitments and states that these are “now widely available” for aftermarket customers. Pirelli has integrated Elect into all P Zero, Cinturato and Scorpion lines, thereby offering the technology for summer, winter and all-season ranges.
Product testing at the Pirelli Sottozero Centre in Lapland, Sweden is now taking place in summer as well as winter. Pirelli says it switched the facility to year-round testing in response to increased demand for product development on both wet and dry roads, particularly for all-season and winter tyres. The team at the Sottozero Centre recently wrapped up its winter test programme for the season and is now beginning the summer programme.
Not only is Pirelli supplying its P Zero to the limited-edition Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4, the tyre maker has now re-released the tyre fitted to the prototype Countach LP500 half a century ago. It is doing so to shod a recreation of the 1971 prototype that Lamborghini’s heritage division has built for a wealthy collector.
The latest Pirelli Collezione tyre targets owners of the legendary Mini. The tyre is produced for the many versions of the classic Mini, including the cars built under licence by Innocenti; Pirelli has recreated the Cinturato CN54, originally launched in 1972, in the size 145/70 R12. The manufacturer’s vintage tyre range is designed for iconic cars built between 1950 and 1980, uniting vintage looks and modern technology. Read more about the history of Mini tyres on Tyrepress and WhatTyre.
The Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa is back, albeit in three-quarters scale and powered by an electric engine that’s good for around 60mph. Ferrari has collaborated with The Little Car Company to create the Ferrari Testa Rossa J. Each of the 299 vehicles produced will be fitted with Pirelli Cinturato tyres as original equipment.
Pirelli’s new Cinturato WHA wet tyre got plentiful track time on debut in the fifth round of the 2021 British GT Championship at Snetterton, Norfolk. Changeable weather conditions made sure that both the WHA and the dry-weather DHE tyre were used in a pair of one-hour races which produced a different winner in GT3 and GT4 each time.
The Maxxis Premitra HP5 has capped a run of impressive tyre test results by winning Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare’s 225/45 R17 contest. The flagship global brand of Taiwanese manufacturer Cheng Shin beat premium tyres from Goodyear (EfficientGrip Performance 2 in second), Continental (PremiumContact 6 in third, alongside Nokian’s Hakka Blue 2), Michelin (Primacy 4 in fifth), and Pirelli (Cinturato P7 C2 in sixth) in the test, conducted in Mireval, France. The test ranked tyres based on wet handling, braking and cornering grip, curved and straight aquaplaning, dry handling and braking, fuel consumption, noise, comfort and rolling resistance.
The UK’s premier GT racing series concludes with a three-hour race at the home of British motorsport this weekend. With all four class titles up for grabs, and a full grid of 38 cars, tyre supplier Pirelli will play a crucial role. Pirelli will supply the P Zero DHE to GT3 and the P Zero DHB to GT4, as well as the Cinturato WH for wet weather. In the GTC class, the Porsches will use DHD2 on the front with DHE on the rear, and the Ferrari 488 Challenge will use bespoke fitment DH tyres for this car. Jonathan Wells, Pirelli UK motorsport manager, said that Silverstone would provide a good test for tyres, as “the most aggressive circuit on this year’s calendar, with extreme levels of lateral demand on the tyres and high top-speeds.”
For motorists in many countries on mainland Europe, changing your tyres for winter conditions used to be a matter of routine. At one time, as winter approached, the summer tyres were put into storage and the set of winter tyres was fitted. But recently, more and more cars are being shod with all-season tyres that – as the name suggests – work well all year round. In this article, Pirelli explains the difference between winter and all-season rubber and why it is important to choose the right tyre.
Pirelli supplied its new range of GT tyres to the 2020 Spa 24 Hours, the manufacturer’s “biggest event of the year.” In total Pirelli took 13,000 tyres to the Belgian circuit in a fleet of 34 trucks, with more than 65 tyre fitters working round the clock, underlining the tyre manufacturer’s long-standing commitment to GT racing. The rescheduled event produced a thrilling competition, with multiple changes of weather and lead. The winner was only decided in the closing minutes.
Auto Bild managed to publish its 2020 all-season tyre test more or less on time despite the lockdown affecting many parts of Europe during the spring. The German motoring publication looked at 32 brands of all-season tyres and evaluated 14 of these in greater depth following a preliminary knock-out round of braking tests. One of the 14 candidates making it through to the finals is a product we’d seen neither hide nor hair of beforehand – the Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF. In contrast to the Cinturato All Season and Cinturato All Season Plus, no retailer appears to stock this particular model. And as we’ve learned, it looks as if this will remain the case.
The Fiat 500 produced between 1957 and 1975 is one of Italy’s treasures, and Pirelli is now giving this classic the love it deserves by re-releasing one of the tyres it wore when new. It has recreated the Pirelli Cinturato CN54 in size 125 R 12, a tyre first introduced in 1972.
Pirelli is set to capitalise on the rising consumer interest in all-season tyres across Europe with an expansion to its range to cover more than 90 per cent of the market. Pirelli will introduce 22 new sizes between 16 and 19 inches in the Cinturato All Season Plus and Scorpion Verde All Season SF product ranges. All of these products are also available with Pirelli’s Seal Inside technology – a puncture protection layer added to the inside of the tyre to help extend mobility in case of damage. Pirelli adds that the new generation of premium all-season tyres has supported growth in the all-season tyre market, which in turn has seen more tyre manufacturers bring out a wider range of products. Tyres & Accessories asked Pirelli UK chairman and CEO Dominic Sandivasci about the latest European market trends, starting with the relationship between winter and all-seaosn tyres.
The 2020 British GT Championship will kick off at Oulton Park, Cheshire this weekend. 21 cars across two classes will run on new Pirelli P Zero tyres, the DHE and DHB in the GT3 and GT4 classes respectively. Jonathan Wells, Pirelli UK motorsport manager, said the manufacturer is “looking forward to finally seeing the new DHE tyre in action, after a long delay to the season start.”
Pirelli has launched a new high performance tyre for premium cars in European and Asian markets, the next generation Cinturato P7. The Cinturato product line has one of the longest histories in the car tyre segment. The brand, with which Pirelli claims to have “invented the concept of the sporting tyre for the road”, celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. While the P Zero line is Pirelli’s primary focus for the highest performance vehicles, the Formula 1 tyre supplier includes Cinturato branding via the series’s wet weather tyres with good reason. Such is Pirelli’s focus on the ultra-high performance sector, that the Cinturato is positioned as another tyre line for top premium segment cars. Preparations for the launch of the new P7 focused on drivers using 18” and above sizes, while Pirelli’s original equipment focus has also yielded 70-plus homologations for the tyre.
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