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Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach package
Pirelli’s headquarters factory exudes a strong Italian culture
Development of the tires, specially designed for the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach Package, began at Pirelli’s Milan headquarters, an area steeped in Italian culture.
In 2021, basic research on tires to be fitted to the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Weissach Package, one of the most challenging tire development projects in history, began at the Pirelli Development Center in Milan, Italy.
Pirelli’s Milan headquarters is more than just a hub of technological innovation. It is a place where tradition and modernity blend, reflecting the company’s cultural and artistic ambitions. The headquarters factory, which once employed 30,000 people, was completely renovated in the 21st century by world-renowned Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti.
Now more than 40 metres high, the impressive glass facade frames integrated cooling towers – once relics of an old production facility – which now house a boardroom at the top and a spacious hall at the base.
A visit to this corner of the headquarters gives you a real feel for Pirelli’s corporate culture. At lunchtime, you’ll feel like you’re being engulfed in the fashion-forward Milanese atmosphere. The aroma of freshly baked pizza dough blends with the aroma of expertly roasted espresso, and the dizzying selection of desserts is said to be of a level that would astound even the world’s sweets enthusiasts.
This unique blend of tradition and innovation provided the perfect foundation for the monumental task of developing a high-performance tire for high-performance electric vehicles.
Many improvements made to the P Zero Trofeo RS
For a fully electric sports car with its massive downforce and battery weight, Pirelli has made a number of improvements to its proven P Zero Trofeo RS.
Nothing is left to chance in Pirelli’s development centres and workshops: engineers, chemists and mathematicians worked hand in hand to develop a tyre that would meet the expectations of the Porsche Weissach team and deliver the highest level of performance in all situations and on all road surfaces.
Every material was carefully selected and every component rigorously tested. The tire had to withstand the high speeds and enormous power of the Taycan Turbo GT while maintaining the efficiency and sustainability required for a high-performance EV. This meant it had to excel in all areas and achieve an exceptional balance.
The P Zero Trofeo RS, a highly acclaimed high-performance tire, has undergone numerous improvements to optimize it for the Taycan Turbo GT, comparable to the updates implemented for the latest Taycan. The dual-layer carcass has significantly improved rigidity compared to previous designs. A special design has been introduced to withstand the Taycan Turbo GT’s intense downforce and battery weight, resulting in outstanding stability, especially at high speeds.
To cope with the rapid acceleration provided by the powerful electric motor, Pirelli developed a multi-compound tread based on its patented resin blend technology. This resin blend features carefully tuned polymer components that work synergistically to deliver successful levels of grip across a wide range of temperatures and surfaces, including wet conditions. Furthermore, the tread pattern is designed to minimize road noise and reduce rolling resistance, while still ensuring sufficient efficiency.
The structural design has also been thoroughly refined: Pirelli has introduced several structural solutions to optimise the tyre’s contact patch at high speeds: the outer shoulder of the tread has reduced grooves for increased lateral stability during hard cornering, and the tread pattern itself also distributes heat quickly and evenly across the contact patch.
Speeding up with the latest development systems
Pirelli introduced a virtual geometry development system to the development of the P Zero Trofeo RS, which reduced development time by 30%.
To meet the stringent performance requirements within the project timeframe, Pirelli has introduced fundamental changes to its development process: the P Zero Trofeo RS has now been designed using Pirelli’s new Virtual Geometry development system.
The Virtual Geometry Development System digitally evaluates hundreds of profiles and tread patterns to accurately define tire characteristics and behavior, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and neural networks to reduce development time by up to 30 percent and significantly reduce the need for physical prototyping.
After enduring the rigors of virtual and physical testing, the prototype also had to pass stringent quality tests: it was fine-tuned in an anechoic chamber to minimize rolling noise to achieve the smooth, quiet ride required of an EV, and then put to the relentless test in a variety of simulations.
Rigorous stress tests measuring temperature, pressure, wear and durability in real time push the tire to its absolute limits, setting a performance benchmark higher than any other EV-specific tire.
Prototypes that passed the stress tests were sent to one of Pirelli’s main production sites in Brühlberg, Frankfurt. At this stage, the test and validation results from Milan were combined with the Taycan Turbo GT development data from Stuttgart and Weissach. After further extensive simulation and road testing, the final production specification was determined.
