Hillclimb Success For Marangoni

At the end of the 2006 season, Italian tyre manufacturer Marangoni had good reason to break out the champagne for the third successive year with a second win in the Italian Hill Climb Championship, following previous success in 2004 and additional success in the European Hill Climb Championship of 2005. Champion Simone Faggioli totally dominated the series throughout the season, exclusively using Marangoni Zeta Linea racing tyres on his way to his fourth major Italian title in his Facetti-built Osella PA21S.

A delighted A delighted Simone Faggioli said: “The partnership with Marangoni has become even more constructive and successful. The tyres I use on the hills are extremely effective and give me a great sense of confidence, above all in demanding situations where very high performance is required.”

Motor sport DNA is fundamental to the development of Marangoni road tyres as Mario Marangoni commented, “For Marangoni, racing represents a useful laboratory for future developments”. The information and experiences gained through success in hill climbing are a practical demonstration of this.

In a discipline previously dominated by cross-ply tyres, the radial construction of the Zeta Linea has overcome the demanding problems of thermal response, delivering maximum operating temperatures and high grip and thereby saving crucial thousandths of a second on both long and short duration climbs. Marangoni’s ground-breaking technology in radial tyre construction utilises a unique casing design which, coupled with specialist compounds, has created a tyre that reaches optimum temperature within 500 metres of the start of a climb,

Control, precision and response are key factors in hill climbing, just as they are in everyday driving. The experience gained in these extreme sporting competitions feeds directly into roadgoing versions of the Zeta Linea and has been fundamental in the development of the Marangoni Mythos Y-rated tyre. The high-speed stability, progressive performance and longevity have already been demonstrated with exceptional results, including strong finishes at the Nürburgring 24 Hours – one 2005 competitor finishing a wet/dry race on a single set of tyres.

The adoption of the Zeta Linea road tyre for the inaugural Mazda RX-8 Cup series in Italy provided considerable feedback that fed directly into future product development. The 2006 series, which used Zeta Linea Racing Tyres in both wet and dry versions, has already provided a massive databank for future road tyre designs and development.

The equally demanding Marangoni-sponsored Osella Junior Trophy, designed to develop and further the motor sport careers of young Italian drivers, has also proved a resounding success in 2006. The Alfa Romeo-powered Osella PA21 Junior hill climb cars were exclusively fitted with wet and dry versions of the Zeta Linea racing tyres and the manufacturer-organised series provided close competition before Enrico Maione claimed the title. All the drivers were able to benefit from the advice of experienced drivers including Simone Faggioli and manufacturer Enzo Osella.