Pirelli And Porsche In Coast-To-Coast Expedition

In the USA, four Porsche Cayenne Turbo SUVs have embarked on a coast-to-coast trek, raising funds for the cancer research charity, the Hope Foundation. The route is over trails restored as part of the “Cayenne Crossing Initiative”; a long-term project in which Porsche Cars North America is involved in restoring and maintaining roads and trails across the USA. The initiative was launched at the 2002 Chicago Auto Show and it is part of Porsche’s commitment to preserve trails and roads, while supporting responsible outdoor recreation.

As part of this commitment, Porsche is a corporate sponsor of Tread Lightly!, a not-for-profit organisation which has the aim of encouraging outdoor pursuits in a responsible manner and one which has minimal environmental impact.The relationship between Porsche and Pirelli goes back a long way; in 1974, the tyre manufacturer produced the P7, described as “the world’s first ultra-low-profile steel radial” and the tyre’s first OE homologation was a Porsche car. The Cayenne is Porsche’s first venture into the high performance SUV market – a sector which is remarkably popular in the US and which is growing – and it is proving extremely popular, selling 854 vehicles in the US in March and 1,353 in April.

Porsche has set a sales target of 25,000 and it seems that this will easily be surpassed. May US sales were forecast to be at least 1,600 units, making the Cayenne the highest selling Porsche vehicle in any month in the company’s US history.Porsche may have ventured into an unfamiliar product sector, but it still relied on its tried and tested partner when it came to tyres for the Cayenne, with Pirelli Scorpion Zero 255/55 R18 tyres as standard fitment on the Cayenne S and Turbo models.

Other Pirelli tyres available as options are P Zero Rosso 275/45 ZR19 and P Zero Rosso 275/40 ZR20.Having said that, the four Cayennes involved in the ten-day trans-USA trek will be fitted with 235/60 R18 Pirelli Scorpion A/T tyres, which are better suited to the mixture of on- and off-road driving that the route entails, rather than the Scorpion Zero, which is more of a high performance, on-road tyre for SUVs and light trucks..