So you are among the few dozen people on the planet who own a Ferrari 250 GTO, and now you find yourself in need of a new set of tires so you can drive your car, and at a goodly rate of speed.
Pirelli has just launched the Stelvio Corsa, which it calls “a tire for the most expensive car in the world.” The Italian company unveiled its new tire, and several others, at the Coppa Milano-Sanremo Historic Rally held last week.
“Like the rest of the Pirelli Collezione tire range for prestige historic cars, the new Stelvio Corsa tire, created specifically for the Ferrari 250 GTO, incorporates cutting-edge technology with the original tire design,” Pirelli said in its news release.”
The Pirelli Collezione family, the company adds, “caters for some of the world’s most desirable cars made between 1950 and 1980, helping them to maintain perfect originality. The tread pattern design and sidewall are similar to period tires yet is complemented with state-of-the-art technology.
“Thanks to new, advanced compounds, the Pirelli Collezione tire range offers better grip on wet surfaces, guaranteeing high safety and reliability.
“During the tires’ development process, Pirelli’s engineers used the same parameters that the car designers at the time worked with, to perfectly complement the original suspension and mechanical characteristics. The end result combines performance, style and originality.”
Pirelli added that it explored its own archive of photography in the tire-design process, and produces the tires using bespoke technologies similar to those used in producing racing tires.
Pirelli Fondazione’s archive images were also used in the design process, while the production of these specialist tires used bespoke techniques similar to those employed in motorsport.
“The tire size for the 250 GTO is 215/70 R15 98W on the front and 225/70 R15 100W at the back.,” Pirelli added. “No other size is available and no other car can use the Pirelli Stelvio Corsa: only the Ferrari 250 GTO.”
However, Pirelli also displayed several other tires at the rally, including the Cinturato CN72 for Maseratis and the P7 and CN36 for Porsches.
As an aside, this is more important than might seem at first. One of the reasons why the few GTO’s that are run in anger have had problems is that the tires available haven’t been the correct diameter/height and there’s no way to correct for it with rear end gearing…