Porsche Carrera GT made faster and safer with updated Michelin tyres
Special Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s replace the Pilot Super Sports that were launched for the Carrera GT in 2013, and the PS2s it debuted on
The Porsche Carrera GT is getting another tyre update – the second in its 21-year life – with a new CGT-specific Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2. The tyre is the result of a collaboration between Porsche and Michelin and should improve everything from the performance to the safety and stability of the cars to which it’s fitted. It's so much faster on these new tyres in fact, that Porsche will soon release a new Nürburgring lap time for the car
The new tyre takes over from the last tyre update the Carrera GT received in 2013, the Pilot Super Sport, which itself succeeded the Pilot Sport 2s the V10 supercar was launched on in 2003.
The new tyre uses two different compounds across the width of the tyre, designed to increase the Carrera GT’s breadth of usability across a range of conditions and temperatures. The inner shoulder and block are optimised for safety and stability in the wet, while the outer shoulder and block, that the car leans on at higher speeds, are geared towards high performance dry grip.
The improvements are easiest to quantify with numbers. The Carrera GT on these new tyres managed to brake to a standstill from 124mph a full 12 metres earlier, and from 62mph 2.5 metres earlier.
Porsche Ambassador and two-time Le Mans class winner Jörg Bergmeister was involved with the development of the tyre.
Bergmeister said: ‘Developing new tyres for a 20-year-old car is very unusual. It shows how important the Carrera GT and its customers are to Porsche to this day.
‘I’m impressed by how the engineers improved the feedback at the upper limits. You feel much more distinctly the point at which the tyre starts to lose its grip.
‘The new tyres not only make the Carrera GT faster, they make it easier for the car to be driven at speed. This shows that tyre development is always moving forward.’
