It ’ s been eight long years since Pirelli introduced the Diablo Rosso Corsa , its supersport ’ s road tyre , and a lot has happened in tyre technology in that time – leaving the Rosso Corsa behind the development curve of the rest of the tyre industry , much to the disappointment of the tyres ’ fans . But fans can now rejoice as Pirelli has brought its supersport road offering bang up to date , with the Diablo Rosso Corsa II . The new tyres feature multiple compounds across multiple zones , which Pirelli says offers more grip ... and more mileage – something of a winwin whichever way you look at it . More grip AND better mileage ? Pirelli invited us to test the tyres for ourselves and find out exactly what ’ s changed .
WHAT ’ S NEW ?
Well , pretty much everything really . As I said above , the name remains but with a ‘ II ’ tacked on the end , and this is still Pirelli ’ s stickiest road option , barring the Supercorsas which are great ‘ road legal ’ tyres for the track but not exactly a good all-weather option . So , the name is the same , but everything else has changed . I ’ ve always been one to not blindly accept marketing guff , so let ’ s take a look at how Pirelli says it gets more grip AND mileage from the new tyres . The front tyre is now a two compound , three section / band configuration with a wide 100 % silica compound in the centre and 100 % carbon black on the edges . Ok , so Silica compounds warm up very quickly , giving good cold and wet grip , while carbon black ( in this case utilising a compound derived from Pirelli ’ s Supercorsa SC3 ) can withstand a lot of heat and grip at high temperatures . This is why silica-based touring tyres are normally good in the cold and wet but tend to start falling apart on the track , and track tyres barely grip when cold but
SO CORSA II
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