Pirelli Shows Off Two New P Zero Formula 1 Tires in the End of the Racing Season
At the latest races in Sao-Paulo, Brazil, Pirelli demonstrated its great passion for auto sport. Now the company is looking forward to future achievements and unveils two new types of racing tires.
For two Friday laps the pilots were given two additional tire sets featuring experimental stiff rubber compound. The tires were tested by Lukas de Grassi on the Toyota TF109 bolid in Cheres and Barcelona this year. The compound is much softer than stiff tires that are used nowadays, but it looks like promising as Pirelli’s going to take the tests results into account while getting ready for 2012 season.
The races saw the soft P Zero Yellow tire with a yellow marking and the medium stiff P Zero White one with a white marking.
The Interlagos track is known for its passionate fans, smooth height fluctuations and counter-clockwise manner. One of the track’s key features is a series of turns after which there’s a very long left turn that is the real test for both the tires and pilots’ necks.
At the same time, Brazilian races are peculiar in changing weather conditions. To stand frequent showers typical of the area Pirelli brought its P Zero Blue rain tires for the races. The tire resists wet track well and comes with a blue marking.
ACE and GTU Winter Tire Testing – Premium Class Segment
Winter tires are gradually becoming a must for more and more European countries since the Old World faced two severe winters in succession. The tire-makers, in turn, do their best to satisfy growing demand and launch numerous new models. But the main thing is to define how these new tires behave in the wet, on snow and slush.
In this post you’ll find the results of winter tire tests conducted by Automotive Club Europe (ACE) and German Technical Control Society (GTU). They compared eight premium-class tires on a special testing field in the Alps.
The first price was taken by Goodyear Ultra Grip 8 that a bit outperformed the Semperit Speed Grip2 tire. The “Highly Recommended” marking was given to Continental Winter Contact TS 830, Dunlop SP Winter Sport 4D and Pirelli Snow Control Series 3 tires while Nokian WR D3 and MichelinAlpin A4 were granted the “Recommended” sign. The poorest performer was Fulda Kristall Control HP.
Goodyear and Dunlop showed the best snow traction while the others also did well except for a Fulda. In terms on braking on snow it was Continental that outperformed Goodyear while the safest handling was delivered by Goodyear, Dunlop и Pirelli. The real disappointment became the Fulda tire.
When braking distance in the wet was counted, the best tire became the Semperit while the worst one was again Fulda. On a dry road it was Goodyear that won the first price.
In conclusion it should be said that the difference among premium-class tires tends to be smaller than earlier. At the same time one should congratulate Goodyear on the success of their UltraGrip 8 tire.
Vettel and Hamberry Take Part in a Tire Mounting Contest
On the 28th of October, during the Buddh International Circuit competition Sebastian Vettel, a two-time Formula-1 champion, was challenged by Paul Hamberry, Pirelli autosport manager, to take part in rather an unusual competition in tire mounting.
Mr Vettel and Mr. Hamberry were to mount the Pirelli P Zero tire, inflate it and then align it in a proper way. The contest was documented by TV men from all over the world for everyone wondered what will win in the end – the competing spirit of the world champion or many years of tire-making experience.
It’s common knowledge that tire mounting is a hard job, it requires strong physical build up as well as an ability to precisely fit the tire. After the tire bead is treated with a special glue substance, it should be set on a wheel disk by hand; at the same time one should precisely feel the right air pressure for the tire.
As a rule, experienced service men from tire-fitting stations that work during each grand-prix event need two and a half minutes to mount a tire on a wheel disk. It took Paul Hamberry 5 minutes 44 seconds to do the operation for while Sebastian Vettel managed to do it for 5 minutes 13 seconds. As you see, the world-know pilot took the winning place again!
Tire-Makers Claim Tire Abrasion Doesn’t Inflict Harm on Human Health
World-known tire-makers has carried out a series of tests to prove that micro-elements emerging from tire abrasion is safe for human health as well as for environment in general. Neither inhaling these elements from air nor their quantity in soil and water is dangerous for their level lies below toxicity line.
The so-called Tire Industry Project (TIP) gathered Bridgestone, Continental, Cooper, Goodyear, Hankook, Kumho, Michelin, Pirelli, Sumitomo, and Toyo automotive manufacturers to work under the idea of healthy environment. Its aim is to reveal and eliminate potential harmful influence of the materials used in tire production. The project runs under the auspices of the WBCSD while the TIP participants are in charge of 70 per cent of the world tire industry.
After the elements disposed into soil and water were tested the researchers dealt with air toxicity to find out that there’s no harm in inhaling tire abrasive elements. The results have also shown that tire wear doesn’t inflict harm on the environment for the concentration of micro-elements in soil and water is too low to become dangerous for human health.
The tests were carried out in the Seine river basin in France, in the Jodo basin in Japan as well as in Chipsake gulf in the USA.
The TIP participants are also looking forward to the use of nanotechnologies in tire production. It can partly solve ecological problems alongside with bringing benefit to end consumers. For instance, innovative nanomaterials can enhance modern passenger and truck vehicles’ fuel efficiency and hence reduce the amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
Moreover, the TIP community actively promotes new schemes of worn tire utilization and their recycling and further use.
