Dunlop Direzza Benchmark in Autocar Test

This year Autocar chose the Dunlop Direzza DZ02 a benchmark tyre for its detailed tyre test. According to Dunlop the tyre was chosen of its position as a leading road legal track tyre – and because it holds the lap record for road legal tyres at the infamous Nuerburgring Nordschliefe.

The Direzza was fitted to a Ford Mondeo TDCi to prove what kind of advantage a bespoke road legal track tyre could offer in the dry. The test team, led by Autocar’s Keith Howard claimed: “In the dry the Dunlop Direzza was much quicker through corners than any of the other tyres, in many cases needing a higher gear. Through the two fast S-Bends the difference was about 7mph. It was equally impressive under braking, stopping on average 2.6 metres shorter than the best conventional road tyre”

Autocar continued: “In the wet it performed amazingly well. So long as there was no standing water it was possible to lap the wet handling circuit faster than on the regular (OE spec) Bridgestones….Overall, it was brilliant fun.”

The Dunlop Direzza DZ02 is sold through a network of Dunlop Motorsport tyre specialists. It is available in a range of sizes from 15 to 18-inch diameters.