PIRELLI SCORPION ALL TERRAIN PLUS DESERT TEST: GERMANY-SENEGAL WITH A SINGLE SET OF TYRES ON THE PORSCHE 911 DAKAR
FROM SAND TO ICE: AT THE F.A.T. ICE RACE IN ZELL AM SEE, STELLA BIANCA TYRES OF THE PIRELLI COLLEZIONE FAMILY ON THE PORSCHE 356 PRE-A AND 550 SPYDER
Milan, 29 January 2024. Pirelli opens 2024 equipping the extreme adventures of two iconic Porsche, with Scorpion All Terrain Plus tyres on the Porsche 911 Dakar through the African desert and Stella Bianca studded tyres for the Porsche 550 Spyder on the icy track in Zell Am See. It is a historic collaboration that links Pirelli to the Stuttgart-based car manufacturer, so much so that the Porsche 911 was the first car to have a marked Pirelli tyre in 1982.
PIRELLI SCORPION ALL TERRAIN PLUS, FROM BAVARIA TO DAKAR
Never a tyre change over 7,000 kilometers on asphalt, sand, dirt, and stones: this is the test sustained by a Porsche 911 Dakar equipped with Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tyres homologated for the model. The car, driven by its owner, started from the Porsche Zentrum Inntal in Raubling (Rosenheim), south-east of Munich in Germany, to reach Dakar, the capital of Senegal, following the route of the Africa Eco Race, a rally that in 12 stages connected Nador in Morocco to the Pink Lake of Dakar crossing Mauritania and Senegal. An exceptional result for the Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tyres, which, despite being homologated for street use, faced the course of the rally alongside racing cars, bringing the car safely to the finish line.
An 18-day feat and 7,000 kilometers of driving, characterized by very diverse conditions, including about 1,000 kilometers of rocky dirt roads in the desert. The aficionado-owner of his 911 Dakar - an amateur, not a professional driver - drove first on the highways of Europe, then on semi-asphalted roads, dirt, sand and very rough rocky bottoms, passing from the winter of the Alps to the typical climatic swings of the desert, with variations of up to 30 degrees Celsius in 12 hours. "A unique adventure, which would have certainly been very complicated without such valid tyres. They always behaved exceptionally even in very different conditions," said the Porsche Zentrum from where the expedition started.
The Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus was developed as original equipment for the Porsche 911 Dakar precisely to support the high performance typical of a 911 and allow it at the same time to tackle the most difficult off-road conditions. Pirelli combined these characteristics into a single tyre thanks to the introduction of a particular family of compounds and a design that optimized the ground contact of the product and strengthened its structure.
PIRELLI STELLA BIANCA FOR TWO HISTORIC PORSCHE MODELS
Another legendary Porsche model has faced extreme conditions with Pirelli tyres, this time on ice: these are the Porsche 550 Spyder present at the F.A.T. Ice Race 2024, an event of which Pirelli is an official partner, equipped with tailor made Stella Bianca tyres with studs for this particular occasion. Stella Bianca, Pirelli's longest-lasting tread design, also comes in sizes 5.00/5.25-16 for the Porsche 550 Spyder and 356 Pre-A, respectively the German brand’s first center-engine race car and the first production model built in Stuttgart. Available on the market from February, the tyre of the Pirelli Collezione family, dedicated to classic cars, looks identical to the original in appearance but with modern technology inside to offer efficiency and safety even on wet surfaces. There are many elements that refer to the past: the cross-ply structure, the tread re-designed with the help of historical documents preserved in the Pirelli Foundation archive, the Pirelli logo with the shield that characterized the products of those years. Even the lettering on the side recalls that of the time, while the word "Corsa" indicates the sporty version of the tyre.