- Pirelli officially launched the fifth generation of its P Zero tire—the successor to the P Zero PZ4.
- Called the PZ5, it aims to improve dry/wet handling and braking, plus it’s supposed to be quieter and run for more miles than its predecessor.
- The new ultra-high-performance tire is launching in sizes from 18 to 23 inches, with homologations already in place for several luxury cars.
If you’re old enough to remember 1987, you’ll remember seeing Dirty Dancing in theaters, watching Ronald Reagan’s plea to “tear down this wall,” and, of course, the launch of the Ferrari F40. What you might not remember is that the F40’s launch also included Pirelli launching the first P Zero tire. That fledgling ultra-high-performance tire helped the Ferrari pull 1.01 g on the skidpad in our testing, which was more than any other production car we had tested to that point. Now, 38 years later, Pirelli is launching the fifth generation of the P Zero (PZ5), which the company says improves upon the P Zero PZ4 in just about every metric.PirelliPirelli claims the new P Zero improves on the PZ4’s dry and wet handling, dry and wet braking, rolling resistance, and overall mileage. It’s also supposedly quieter than the PZ4. During the P Zero’s launch, Pirelli stressed the increasing importance of comfort from its tires, even in the ultra-high-performance segment. And as cars become more powerful, albeit heavier, across the board, the stress loads that tires are forced to bear continue to increase. PirelliPirelliTo combat those changes, Pirelli turned to artificial intelligence. Not the do-your-math-homework type, but the virtual-prototype-testing type that the brand says allowed it to optimize development resources while cutting back development time. Pirelli relies on what it calls a “digital twin” (shown above) of the development tire to help create the end product. The development engineers rotate digital compounds through various tests and simulations before fitting final prototypes to cars in the real world for final homologation tune-ups. The new P Zero is launching in sizes ranging from 18 to 23 inches. We had the chance to experience the new tire on the roads between Monza, Italy, and Como, Italy, first in the Mercedes-Benz GLE and then again in a Lamborghini Urus SE. While we weren’t able to glean any performance data from the drives, we can report that the brand was successful in creating a quiet and comfortable tire. If only they’d launched it on the new Ferrari F80.More on Pirelli TiresJack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.
Source: caranddriver.com
