PIRELLI PRESENTS THE CINTURATO P7 BLUE: THE FIRST TYRE ON THE MARKET WITH A EUROPEAN ‘DOUBLE A’ RATING

A HIGH-TECH TYRE WITH THE EMPHASIS ON SAFETY AND ENERGY SAVING, ENRICHING THE PREMIUM PIRELLI LINE-UP THE P ZERO RANGE – CREATED FOR THE MOST POWERFUL CARS IN THE WORLD, AND THE GLOBAL LEADER IN PREMIUM HOMOLOGATIONS – IS 25 YEARS OLD TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION DEMONSTRATED VIA VIRTUAL SIMULATION TO COMPARE TYRE PERFORMANCE THROUGHOUT A QUARTER OF A CENTURY Valencia (Spain), June 2012. Pirelli presents the new Cinturato P7 Blue in Valencia, the very first tyre to be awarded an ‘AA’ rating by the new European tyre label. With the Blue, Pirelli is expanding its premium line-up and widens its range of specialised tyres, developed to satisfy the increasingly diverse needs of customers. The new tyre, created for cars with medium to large engines, is already on sale and is a direct evolution of the Cinturato P7: the world’s first ecological high-performance tyre, which it lines up alongside. Cinturato P7 Blue, shorter braking distances and low rolling resistance. The new Blue maintains all the performance that has earned the Cinturato P7 the market leadership in its sector as well as countless victories in international tests, but improves wet braking by up to 2.6 metres compared to ‘B’ category tyres, and reduces rolling resistance by 23% compared to ‘C’ category tyres. This result equates to a fuel saving of 5.1% and cost savings of more than 90 Euros per year. The latest evolution in the Cinturato range was prompted by increasing demand for safety and economy from motorists. The Blue has been created exclusively for aftermarket fitment, in contrast to the Cinturato P7, which was designed as original equipment too: rapidly becoming the benchmark option for all the most prestigious manufacturers of medium to high-powered coupes and saloon cars. P Zero from road to track. The launch of the Blue, which took place at the Formula One* Grand Prix of Europe, was accompanied by a celebration of 25 years of P Zero. Pirelli’s range-topping tyre has continuously evolved since 1987, mirroring the huge advances made in the automotive industry with bigger and better supercars and increasingly higher-powered vehicles. This continual evolution was demonstrated at the launch by a simulator that virtually reproduced the characteristics of cars and tyres from the 1980s, compared to today’s cars and tyres. The contrast between 25-year-old technology and that used today allowed people to clearly see the interaction between car and tyre, as well as the fundamental role that the correct tyre for each individual model of car plays. The simulation also charted the essential steps of the P Zero’s evolution and showed how Pirelli’s engineers work closely together with motor manufacturers. The in-depth partnership between Pirelli and the world’s most prestigious car manufacturers is at the very heart of the consistent evolution of Pirelli’s premium tyres. Today, the P Zero family is based on the P Zero tyre itself – which was born in 2007 and has constantly evolved thanks to on-going development in partnership with some of the world’s most prestigious car manufacturers – and the Corsa, intended for supercars. The P Zero range takes most benefit from Pirelli’s experiences in competition. Originally, the 1987 Pirelli P Zero Giallo – the world’s very first competition-derived road car tyre – was conceived to tame the power of the Ferrari F40. The P Zero range introduced innovations that have now become industry standards, such as low profile and ultra-low profile sidewalls. The hallmark of Pirelli’s Ultra High Performance tyres is high safety standards, thanks to reduced braking distances in the wet and dry, superior roadholding both on straights and corners, and enhanced driveability. Track tests. The P Zero, P Zero Corsa and Cinturato Blue tyres were tested on the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia as well as on a road route of approximately 160 kilometres in the surrounding area. The objective of the track test, which took place using the most powerful latest-generation sports cars such as the McLaren MP4-12C, Lamborghini Aventador and Porsche 991, was above all to experience the performance and safety attributes of the P Zero range. Wet braking was the key test put before the Cinturato Blue at the Valencia circuit, while the road drive focussed on the tyre’s driveability and security. For the track test, Pirelli recreated the normal environment during which new competition and road car tyres are tested, with sophisticated telemetry and data loggers to capture and analyse information. Premium products. Cinturato and P Zero are most representative of Pirelli’s premium range. The Italian firm is aiming to become the world leader in the premium sector by 2015, encouraged by customer trends that favour high technology and quality products. Sustainable mobility, which means increased safety and reduction of energy consumption, is key to Pirelli’s premium strategy and remains the focus of the Italian firm’s non-stop development work in materials, structure, and tread pattern design. Pirelli’s research. The continual evolution of Pirelli’s technology, tasked with finding innovative solutions for sustainable mobility, employs 1200 engineers working at research and development centres in Brazil, the United States, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Romania, co-ordinated by head office in Milan. Pirelli currently dedicates approximately 3% of annual turnover to research and development, roughly equivalent to 150 million Euros, and the company holds more than 5000 patents. Pirelli’s researchers are backed up by technicians working in the factories, who activate the improvement strategy throughout the production process, using the most modern technology and latest generation machinery. In particular, the tyres in the premium segment are produced at some of Pirelli’s most modern factories using highly specialised systems and tooling, such as the Next MIRS (an evolution of the original Modular Integrated Robotized System) developed by Pirelli to ensure the best possible quality and reliability in the final product. Motorsport and the interactive development process. Guiding Pirelli’s engineers is a working methodology called the interactive development process, which was derived from Pirelli’s engagement in motorsport and has become even quicker and more efficient thanks to the company’s involvement in Formula One*. The interactive development process, on which Pirelli’s partnership with some of the most prestigious global car manufacturers is based, aims to constantly improve and differentiate all the company’s products in order to satisfy the growing and diverse demands from original equipment clients and end users. Throughout this process, different teams of engineers from various departments – ranging from materials research, design, quality control, and testing – work together to identify areas where a tyre can be improved by comparing data and other information about different areas of performance. This interaction takes place not only during the development process but also afterwards, when the tyre is already on sale for original equipment and aftermarket. Feedback from customers is vital to this process, which is collected by modern digital marketing methods, as well as feedback from car manufacturers. Broadly speaking, this is also how motorsport tyres are developed, which Pirelli has been involved in since 1898. In motorsport, no innovation is considered to be a definitive solution, but instead just a starting point for the next improvement. Or in other words, every race is a development test for the next one. The interactive development process has been enhanced by the development of virtual modelling in recent years, used in Formula One*, which allows sophisticated computers to carry out thousands of simulated tests, comparing different solutions with different usage situations. Not only does this general method of working and modelling stem directly from Pirelli’s involvement in motorsport, but also the starting points for the evolution of individual elements of the tyre, especially compounds and structure. Road car compounds are the result of complex processes, based on a precise combination of materials and refined by the exacting standards of Formula One*. This document and fact sheets relating to the Cinturato P7 Blue and the P Zero line, photographs and videos are available at the following address: https://connect.pirelli.com username: pres1valen and password: @Pirelli1 PDF Version (43,3 KB)