Pirelli: the "Cinturato" is reborn

COMBINING TECHNOLOGY, ART AND TRENDINESS, A LEGEND THAT CHANGED THE STYLE OF WORLD TRAVEL RETURNS, CONFIRMING PIRELLI'S GROWING INDUSTRIAL VOCATION FOR HIGH PRODUCT QUALITY

MILAN: AN EXHIBITION AT THE TRIENNALE, EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND INITIATIVES IN THE CITY CENTRE TO PRESENT THE NEW TYRE THAT USES AVANT-GARDE TECHNOLOGIES TO GUARANTEE SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITYDOZENS OF POSTERS, SKETCHES AND HISTORIC FILMS TOGETHER WITH THE ORIGINAL WORKS OF FIFTEEN CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS ON THE IMAGERY OF TRAVEL AND THE PIRELLI "CINTURATO" (BELTED TYRE) ON EXHIBIT FROM 18 JANUARY TO 18 FEBRUARY

THE NEW TYRE WILL BE PRESENTED IN THE CENTRE OF MILAN WITH INSTALLATIONS AND EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC THAT ADDRESS THE ISSUES OF SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY

CO-STARRING FASHION: PIRELLI PZERO PRESENTS THE CINTURATO LINE WITH RAINCOATS AND BOOTS

Milan, 17 January 2008 - Pirelli presents its new "Cinturato" (Belted Tyre). The tyre that changed the style of travel in Italy and around the world starting in the mid-1950s is brought back in a new version featuring avant-garde technologies, safety and environmental sustainability. Yet again, Pirelli confirms its growing commitment over the past fifteen years to industrial development and innovation at all of its production facilities in Italy and abroad.
The Cinturato is presented by Pirelli through a series of events that will be held in Milan starting 17 January 2008: an exhibition at the Triennale, multi-media installations, events open to the public in the city centre and, for trade journalists, road tests on the Pirelli test track at Vizzola.
These initiatives, held with the sponsorship of the Milan City Department of Mobility, Transport and Environment, will revive the history of the Cinturato, which became a symbol of Italy on the road during the years of the "economic miracle", and will present it in its new, thoroughly updated version. It is a model of avant-garde technological research and focus on the fundamental issues of safety and sustainable mobility.
The exhibition at the Milan Triennale, entitled "A Journey, but..." ("Un Viaggio, ma..."), is based on the long-lasting heritage left by a "larger-than-life" tyre and features some of the most important images used in the communication campaigns of the period together with works and installations of fifteen contemporary artists that reinterpret the theme of travel and imagery of tyres in an original way.
The advertising campaigns from the period 1954-1972, as illustrated by original sketches, film clips and products, many of which have never been publicly exhibited before, were created by such greats as Bob Noorda, Pino Tovaglia, Franco Grignani, Ugo Mulas, Antonio Boggeri and Alan Fletcher. They are icons of linguistic research and innovation that created the unmistakable "Pirelli style" in Italy and around the world during those years. The most famous of these images might be the one with the oblique, stylised track of the Cinturato, realised by Bob Noorda in 1962.
A special space is dedicated to the 1966 campaign "A Safe Journey – Pirelli Cinturato..." ("Un viaggio sul sicuro – Cinturato Pirelli..."), created by Arrigo Castellani, who was then "propaganda director" (i.e. press and advertising director) of Pirelli, together with Pino Tovaglia, graphic artist and art director. The campaign was based on a play of words and geometric forms and used a travel story as the metaphor of rediscovered vitality, the desire to bridge spaces and distances, the possibility offered to everyone by the economic boom to enjoy leisure time and consumer goods that only a few people could afford just a few years before. The campaign represented an absolute innovation in communication and testified to how Pirelli was open to experimentation and new languages.

With the same spirit of openness towards innovation, Pirelli has commissioned fifteen contemporary artists to create original works designed and produced specifically for this exhibition. They use different media, from drawing to moving images, 3D animation, sitespecific installations, illustrations and photography. The exhibition offers visitors fifteen "travel stories" freely inspired by the Cinturato and its imagery. They range from the futuristic posters of AirStudio/Giacomo Spazio to the graphic interpretations of Headscollective and Alessandro Busseni; the big tree created by Leftloft and the Belted Octopus ("Piovra Cinturato") by Alberto Bettinetti; the upholstery of Elena Giavaldi; the visionary wall painting of Simone Tosca; the oversized bloc notes by Marco Bruzzone, where everyone can leave his or her "travelling mark"; the life-sized tyre made of liquorice by the food designers Ciboh (made with the generous collaboration of the Amarelli company – www.liquirizia.it), the animated micro-narrative by Andrea Linke that recounts the experience of travel through the eyes of a giant; the solitary adventures of a tyre humorously recounted by Graziano Mannu; the interactive landscape of the installation by Claudio Sinatti; the shots taken by photographer Luca Gabino of the Vizzola Ticino test track, which he has virtually transferred into an "outer space base" where lights and characters move; and finally the photographic story of travel times by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert.

Through the exhibition, which combines art, graphics, design, videos and photography in a continuous exchange between history and the present day, Pirelli testifies to its focus, now as in the past, on the most up-to-date forms of linguistic research and communication: this attitude is fundamental to its remaining an industrial trend-setter that knows how to marry innovation, research, creativity and quality not just in Italy but worldwide.

This exhibition will naturally be complemented by a major event dedicated to fashion, as another manifestation of the creativity and modernity with which Pirelli has interpreted customs and anticipated trends ever since it was founded. The show at the Triennale will present the première viewing of new PZero apparel that evokes and reinterprets the raincoat and boot in a contemporary vein, with an original line that is named, naturally, "Cinturato".

Finally, the centre of Milan will host the event dedicated to the launch of the new family of products: Piazza Duomo, with a space on the theme of sustainable mobility (in collaboration with Fiat, Eni, Quattroruote, Castagna and Vectrix), and Piazza Mercanti, which hosts an exhibition on the new product. Vizzola, the historic Pirelli test track, is the setting for road tests of the new tyres, rounding out a series of events that combine technology, history, art and environmental awareness.

The road tests, designed to demonstrate the product's environmental characteristics with simple tests with immediate results, are conducted by the Pirelli Experimental Centre in collaboration with the International Safe Driving Centre of Andrea De Adamich.

The entire "A Journey, but..." event will have zero impact, as certified by Lifegate. Pirelli will have as many trees planted in the Ticino Park as necessary to compensate the environment for the energy used by the events.

Triennale di Milano
Viale Alemagna 6
Hours: 10:30-20:30, closed Mondays
Free admission
tel. 02–724341
fax 02-89010693

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Pirelli Press Office: +39 02 85354270 – pressoffice@pirelli.com
www.pirelli.com

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La Triennale di Milano Press Office: +39 02 72434241/205 – ufficio.stampa@triennale.it
www.triennale.it

An object between graphics and design

This hybrid object, half graphics and half design, is the "A Safe Journey – Pirelli Cinturato..." ("Un viaggio sul sicuro – Cinturato Pirelli...") campaign of 1966, created by Arrigo Castellani, then director of propaganda (i.e. press relations and advertising) of Pirelli, together with the art director and graphic artist Pino Tovaglia. The campaign is based on the play of words and geometric forms that recall the avant-garde movements of visual poetry and optical art. Using a travel story as the metaphor of rediscovered vitality, the desire to bridge spaces and distances, the possibility offered to everyone freely to enjoy time and consumer goods that had been reserved to a narrow class of people until just a few years before, the campaign represented an absolute innovation in communication, the mirror of a period in history when advertising enjoyed the possibility of telling long stories that linked the product to the memory of a generation.
The "cube" reproduced the 14 panels that compose the campaign, a text by Camilla Cederna, who wrote in the Rivista Pirelli magazine of 1966: "They were the trips made by a special advertising correspondent, modest private raving with numerous public references that in the end regularly exploded by advertising equipment for travel, an extraordinarily strong tyre".
The other texts, by Antonio Calabrò and Giuseppe Strazzeri, that are found in this object/book describe the fundamental communicative role played not only by the original advertising but also by the Rivista Pirelli in establishing a dialogue between technological and humanistic culture, science and literature, man and machine. The Pirelli magazine dedicates space to the great names of journalism and literature: Carlo Emilio Gadda, Vittorio Sereni, Eugenio Montale, Orio Vergani, Umberto Eco and many others. The covers were designed by Albe Steiner and Pino Tovaglia, photographed by Fulvio Roiter and Ugo Mulas, and painted by Renato Guttuso and Michel Folon.

The history of the Pirelli "Cinturato" (belted tyre)

From the first post-war years to the 1970s, between the plants on Viale Sarca in Milan and those at Settimo Torinese, Turin, with the mark of personalities from the world of sports and communication, from Manuel Fangio to Noorda and Manzi, up to Arrigo Castellani and Pino Tovaglia, the history of the Cinturato is that of industrial and product innovation, sport and trend-setting, and of names familiar to the general public or only within the discrete confines of the world of industrial patents. It is the virtually black and white history of Italy in the middle of its "economic miracle", which, thanks partly to an innovative tyre, contributed to the success of design and Italian made products.
It all began in 1951, when Luigi Emanueli, former head of research at Pirelli Cavi and the inventor of the hydraulic oil cable, patented the structure of the Pirelli fabric radial, the Italian version of the radial tyre that had been invented in those years. This was the Cinturato, whose innovative structure, more rigid than traditional fabric ones, offered performance unknown until then, especially in terms of road grip.
This tyre triggered a veritable revolution on the market in the early 1950s, when Italy embarked on the production of automobiles for the masses.
Fangio used the Cinturato to win Formula 1 races, and it was also used for general road applications by the finest cars of the time. But its true commercial success came at the end of the 1960s, when Tovaglia created the worldwide advertising campaign "Belted Tyres are only Pirelli" ("Cinturato è solo Pirelli") that, after being translated into all the main languages, accompanied the Pirelli tyre to the 137 countries where it was sold.
Meanwhile, the product evolved and was developed technologically by following the evolution of cars and the market. In the early 1970s, a new innovation was introduced: a metal cord was introduced into the structure of the tyres, resulting in the creation of the steel belted radial tyre. Modern machinery processed the new basic component of tyres at Settimo Torinese, the steel cord. This gave birth to the last generation of Cinturato tyres, CN54 for economy cars and sedans and CN36 for sportier cars.

Internet

The return of the Cinturato will be recounted from every angle on the Internet: from the exhibition "A Journey, but..." to the road tests and the artists exhibition to the initiatives in the centre of Milan, with a detour through the heart of Pirelli Tyre. Here we will find laboratories and development and testing centres, to retrace all the phases of the birth and realization of an avant-garde technological product, in order to render the digital experience more complete and engaging for visitors to the site.
The site www.pirellityre.com/cinturato offers various interactive paths for learning about and "experiencing" the numerous peculiarities of the Belted Tyre.
High definition video clips that can be viewed by means of webcasting confirm the innovative verve of Pirelli even in the world of Web 2.0 communication.

Pirelli P Zero: a marketing and design experiment that has become a cult brand

At the end of the 19th century raincoats were made of natural rubber.
The launch of the new "Cinturato" Belted Tyre is being commemorated by a new collection representing the historic evolution of the most classic apparel bearing the Pirelli brand: the Cinturato raincoat and boot.
Created and produced in a limited edition, they were presented at an exclusive fashion show during the exhibition "A Journey, but..." at the Triennale in Milan. These two items, which launched the history of Pirelli apparel, are revisited with a contemporary, innovative and high-tech look.
The rubber boot features characteristic tyre treads that define and sculpt the calf. The raincoat, made of soldered, water repellent fabric, is characterised by its simple, moulded shape that form and highlight the body's contours.
Both items exude the experimental spirit of this label, known for its fashion appeal and sexy allure. Over the course of 127 years, what they share in common is the tread of a tyre with a revolutionary spirit.
PZero is a cross-disciplinary project with a high-tech spirit. It was created by a cross between marketing and fashion, with strong roots in the field of industrial design. Above all, it has grown out of a long history that started at the gates of Milan in 1877. One hundred twenty-five years after the first experiment, Pirelli brand apparel was reborn in 2002. It is a project with an experimental and high-tech spirit, and with a new logo, where the P becomes one of aerodynamic proportions decorated with a small zero: the PZero project.
Once upon a time, waterproof raincoats, topcoats and overcoats were realised in natural rubber, unknown at that time. Now the project promoted by Marco Tronchetti Provera has a new, experimental and high tech spirit. "A marketing survey revealed that the PIRELLI brand was perceived to be glamorous, sexy and fashionable. This brand had been given this appeal by the calendar, the legendary 'The Cal'. This is why we decided to undertake an industrial design project, which paved the way to a series of very similar adventures." explains Antonio Gallo, the head of PIRELLI PZERO. The Milan group's venture got off to a cautious start, with just two objects destined to become cult items: a sailing shoe, PZEROACQUA, and a futuristic performance jacket, PZEROARIA. "For the debut, two objects were selected that could represent our world and at the same time project a strong, independent character accompanied by a high standard of quality. This is one of the reasons why two years of gestation were needed before public release of the products, so that just the right design and the best partners specialized in the relevant product sectors could be found."
Today the project's numbers are different. The collection has become a total look. With a lot of numbers. Seven designers staff the brand's style office. A book of photographs dedicated to the project has been published, with shots by Marco Anelli, Alberto Giuliani, and Lorenzo Castore. Four partners work with Pirelli as licensees (Incom for apparel, Morellato&Sector for watches, De Rigo Vision for eyewear and Tecnorib for the rubber dinghies). From the 2008 Spring-Summer season, the shoe collection reflects a new production and marketing strategy, following by a pool of in-house specialists at Pirelli.
Over 20,000 T-shirts were sold in the last season, printed with the super P emblem, the brand's fist-logo. Countless testimonials fill the brand's VIP album. "In just a few seasons, PIRELLI PZERO has become a status symbol for a generation. It has enjoyed a degree of success that none of us expected. When we opened our corner at Bergdorf Goodman in New York in 2003, we immediately ran out of stock and had unbelievably long waiting lists. People put in reservations for 400 models of watches. And we are still enjoying high growth rates." History is bound to repeat itself. In the past, ads were designed by 1950s portrait artists. Now there are shots of Naomi Campbell. What they share in common is the mark of a tyre with a high-tech spirit.
In 2005 a licensing agreement was signed with Tecnorib for the production of PIRELLI PZERO rubber dinghies. This marked the 50th anniversary of rubber dinghy production by Pirelli: the Nautilus, the first inflatable dinghy, was made in 1955.
The first rubber dinghy in the new line was launched at Portofino in May 2006.

New Cinturato: technology and environmental friendliness

Pirelli Cinturato, the tyre that has marked the history of the world automotive industry, is back on the market after thirty years with improved technology and ability to handle driving conditions: an ecological tyre offering high performance and safety whose innovative technology allows a reduction in fuel consumption and harmful emissions of up to 4%, higher mileage and elimination of aromatic oils from the tread well ahead of the EU Directive scheduled to come into force in 2010. The new Cinturato will be manufactured at plants in Bollate (Italy), Izmit (Turkey), Manresa (Spain) and Carlisle (UK), and several leading vehicle manufacturers have already chosen to fit it as standard on their most popular models.
Available in models P4 and P6, the new generation Cinturato is designed to reduce emissions that are harmful to the environment and human health. Pirelli research has produced innovative structures, materials and tread patterns that enable the new Cinturato tyres to reduce rolling resistance, i.e. friction between road and tyre, thus guaranteeing lower fuel consumption without compromising performance. Furthermore, the Cinturato product range provides high mileage and contains no aromatic oils responsible for particulate, one of the main causes of urban pollution (as it wears down, tread normally releases particles into the atmosphere containing potential pollutants). The tread pattern also provides improved acoustic comfort with a reduction in tyre noise levels both inside and outside the vehicle.
In addition to attention to the environment, safety is also an important feature. The new Cinturato range has tread patterns offering better grip when cornering under all weather conditions and guaranteeing excellent handling on wet road surfaces especially when braking.
Another novelty concerns the huge range of vehicles to which the new Cinturato can be fitted: small and medium-sized vehicles preferred by families and women drivers. This extensive range means that top-quality tyres guaranteeing maximum safety are available to everyone.

Pirelli Cinturato, the ecological tyre

Environmental protection, safety and performance are the features of the new Pirelli product range

Reduction in fuel consumption and harmful emissions of up to 4%, 30% higher mileage and shorter braking distances

The new Pirelli Cinturato product range has been designed and developed by the Group's inhouse laboratories in order to satisfy the latest market demands and help sustainable mobility. Environmental friendliness, safety and performance are the essential features of the new Cinturato whose innovative compounds, structure and tread patterns ensure lower consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, higher mileage and improved safety characteristics in both wet and dry conditions.

In particular, the new Cinturato, available in tread sizes P4 and P6 and featuring ECOIMPACT symbols on the sidewall, allows a 20% reduction in rolling resistance and up to 4% in energy consumption, increasing average mileage by 30%. As a result of these characteristics, the new Cinturato is to be fitted as standard to the most popular models of many leading car manufacturers such as Fiat, Mercedes, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Seat.





The name Cinturato is a part of tyre history: a revolutionary project that established Pirelli as one of the leading worldwide manufacturers right from the 1950s.
The Pirelli Cinturato patent, recognised throughout the world, was developed in order make driving a new generation of vehicles for that period even more enjoyable, for the first time satisfying the need for safety at higher speeds, whilst offering a genuine reduction in running costs, thus bringing specifications to the mass market previously found only in topof- the-range sports vehicles.

The radial construction of the carcass and the use of a belt running around the circumference under the tread have made the Pirelli Cinturato an unrivalled benchmark in the world of tyres: integrity of the structure even at high speed, safety and control when cornering, grip whilst braking, increased tread life and reduced fuel consumption are ideas introduced by the Cinturato and following suitable modifications and technological upgrades they are still a feature of today's most up-to-date, high-performance tyres. Not only was the development of the entire industry in the sector based on that Cinturato, but it has been the cornerstone of research by Pirelli that with the New Cinturato combines performance and safety with the principles of environmental protection.

Lower rolling resistance: reduced consumption and CO2 emissions. The new Cinturato cuts rolling resistance by 20% thus providing savings of up to 4% in terms of fuel consumption and harmful emissions. Rolling resistance is the opposing force of the tyre to vehicle movement, i.e. energy dissipated while driving. Along with mechanical strength and air resistance, rolling resistance has an effect on fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Rolling resistance depends on factors both outside (vehicle speed and weight, type of road surface, atmospheric temperature and tyre pressure) and inside the tyre, such as structure, compounds and tread pattern. In designing the new Cinturato, Pirelli has made changes to these last-named factors, introducing innovative solutions covered by Pirelli patents.

Better mileage: thousands more miles. The new Cinturato's tread compound has been reinforced with elements such as silica in order to extend tyre mileage life without sacrificing the grip characteristics. Furthermore, tyre geometry has been completely redesigned, from sidewall to tread, in order to strike the right balance between rolling resistance, mileage and safety. The average life of the new Cinturato in terms of distance covered has increased by 30%. This means that the average motorist will now replace his or her tyres every four years instead of every three (15,000 km per annum).

Removal of harmful substances. Pirelli has eliminated aromatic oils from the new Cinturato's compounds, two years ahead of the impending EU Directive. Aromatic oils are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons present in tyres in the form of free oils and oil-extended polymers. They contribute to the composition of particulate, and are potentially damaging to human health. For the new Cinturato, Pirelli researchers have studied new polymers and new procedures for making the compound that have no effect on the tyre's performance and safety specifications.



Greater safety: improved braking on both wet and dry surfaces. Safety, that along with high performance has always been the hallmark of Pirelli research and was already brought to maximum levels by the Cinturato back in the Fifties, is the other essential cornerstone used as the basis for the new Cinturato's design. Pirelli P4 and P6 guarantee greater safety under all weather conditions. In particular, there is improved grip when cornering in the wet and, above all, a reduction in braking distances. On wet surfaces, the stopping distance is reduced by 11%, while on dry surfaces the braking distance is also significantly reduced.