Pirelli unveils new range of supercar tyres

Pirelli and fast cars. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? But these days the only time you will read about them is when the rubber is the biggest talking point in the world of Formula One, as it frequently is.

Whether it’s delaminating tyres, the entertaining yet unpredictable “cliff” or – as should be highly praised this season – the addition of a third tyre compound to spice up races that has already been proven in Australia and Bahrain, there’s never a dearth of subjects to discuss about the Italian tyre manufacturer.

But did you know that what you watch on a Sunday afternoon filters down onto what you can drive on the open road to the shop, or to work, or on a track day should that tickle your fancy. That last one appealed the most when Pirelli announced plans to launch its new PZero, the crème de la crème of their vast tyre range.

So to put the new PZero through its paces, a range of thoroughbred supercars were taken to Estoril in Portugal along with the latest rubber that, we were told, was like no tyre ever produced before.

Why a range of supercars though and not a control car that can be used to test different PZero specifications? This is where Pirelli come into their own. 30 years after the first PZero was thrown on the World Rally Championship—winning Lancia Stratos, the latest incarnation was unveiled as part of the 302 Heritage/Future launch – the 302 cleverly combining the 30 year—span between 2 cars in the Ferrari F40 and the Ferrari 488 that sees a 302 horsepower difference between the first and latest road—going cars available with PZero tyres.

The main talking point here is that the tyres beneath the 488 have been specifically designed for that very car, as have those on a Lamborghini Huracan and Audi R8, three cars we put through their paces out on the former f1 circuit just outside of Lisbon.

At present, Pirelli boast 60 individual homologations that make each tyre unique to the car it’s fitted on – so the PZero on a BMW i8 will be different to those on a Maserati Quattroporte – and over 700 homologations when you expand the count to the full Pirelli tyre range. To put that into context, their closest competitors are Continental, who currently sits in the region of 600, and no other tyre manufacturer surpasses the 400 barrier.

But this generates the next issue. Very few of us own a take to the track on a daily basis. So I wanted to get away from Estoril and onto the public road and Lamborghini’s V10 monster was the car of choice to test on the Atlantic coast roads as well as in the beautiful city of Lisbon.

Pirelli offer three new tyres in the latest range: luxury, sport and racing [or PZero Corsa as it is named)]. For the Huracan LP610—4, the sport model offers the best charac- teristics to try and tame the Lamborghini, and when the rear—wheel drive Huracan was unleashed in the hills of Sintra and up to the beautiful seaside town of Ericeira.

It’s here where the Huracan came into its own, offering incredible levels of grip through the winding roads and enough power to scare the most experienced of supercar road—trippers. As the roar of the V10 engine filled the Sintra—Cascais Natural Park, you couldn’t help but feel that there was something special going on around you – driver and car as one – and the benefit of having bespoke tyres enabled the Huracan to stick to fairly worn tarmac like superglue when tackling hairpins and tight turns in an aggressive manner.

But there is also the city element to consider here, and despite the allure of feeling like a celebrity inside a £140,000 supercar, you’ll tackle every corner of a busy town petrified of catching the front bumper, scraping a wheel or hitting something behind in the fairly large blind spots.

That said, all you need is a small patch of open road to push the Huracan to its limits, and its response is mightily impressive. Lamborghini’s can sometimes feel heavy out of a corner, causing you to delay getting on the power out of sheer fear, but not in the Huracan. That’s helped by the three driving modes offered on the steering wheel, with the driver able to switch between street [strada], sport and race [corsa] modes at the flick of an enticing red button.

The street mode enables you to tackle busy city streets in a conservative fashion while ensuring maximum efficiency on the fuel gage. However, reach the outskirts of the same city and you won’t be able to stop yourself from flicking the mode to sport, burying your foot and hearing the 5.2L engine explode into life – witnessing pedestrians jump in shock at the noise of the overrun in sport mode was another particular highlight.

Away from the Lamborghini, the PZero will also feature on luxury saloons and SUVs, and it’s here that the wider audience comes into the PZero range with Audi, BMW and Alfa Romeo all signing up for individual homologations as well as recent additions of Aston Martin and Tesla to take a giant step into the electric market. Rather than tearing through hills or testing a car to its limits on open coast roads, Pirelli have acknowledged the city aspect of the luxury market and focused their efforts on noise reduction and comfort.

Having driven the Maserati Quattroporte on the luxury range tyre, it was difficult to gage how the comfort is improved by the tyre as the car’s heavy steering and uncomfortable ride took its toll. But the noise reduction was very noticeable on both asphalt and gravel surfaces, and when you take all three tyres ranges into consideration, it’s easy to see why the Pzero remains top of the class. THE INDEPENDENT