Recently, Tyre Reviews obtained its fingers on a set of Pirelli Sottozero designed for racing, in addition to a Subaru rally automotive. That units the stage for an extremely entertaining comparability take a look at between these WRC tires and a number of the finest street-legal studded winter tires in the marketplace: Pirelli Ice Zero 2s. But the query wasn’t whether or not or not the Sottozeros would carry out higher than the street tires. It’s how a lot better they’d be.
You don’t must know a lot about tires or driving to guess {that a} $2,000 racing tire with studs that stick out 7 mm goes to have extra grip in snow and ice than a $600 tire that has to observe laws about street put on. That simply is smart. But even so, seeing the 2 in contrast side-by-side illustrates simply how extensive the efficiency hole actually is. Spoiler: It’s quite a bit.
During the snow take a look at, the host was capable of lap the take a look at monitor in 67.3 seconds with the Ice Zero 2s. On the Sottozeros, that point dropped to 59.1 seconds. That’s greater than an eight-second enchancment. And within the ice take a look at, the distinction was much more staggering. Switching to the rally tires dropped his lap time from 51.0 seconds to 33.1 seconds, which is almost 18 seconds faster. That’s, what, a 35 p.c enchancment? Absolutely bonkers.
The video does an excellent job explaining all of the variations that make the rally tires carry out so a lot better, however one of the best half is likely to be that it’s not shot in a studio. It’s shot on the take a look at monitor, which implies along with studying a bit extra about tires, you additionally get greater than eight minutes of candy Subaru rally automotive footage. If that doesn’t get your curiosity, I’m unsure what is going to.
Source: jalopnik.com
