980 Tyres in 8 Days – Dunlop Prepared for Le Mans

A fifth of the vehicles starting at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14 are not running on rubber supplied by a certain French manufacturer – these eleven vehicles will instead have their tyres supplied by Dunlop, a company that some would be surprised to learn had driven more cars to Le Mans victory than any other make of tyre. Since 1923 Dunlop tyres have helped to deliver a total of 34 wins during the famous endurance race.

From the moment the test session began at Le Mans on June 1, Dunlop’s engineers and technicians started gathering information and making decisions on which tyres to make for the race. The recent wet weather has meant the tyre development programme was not as decisive as Dunlop had hoped, but from early on the morning of June 9 the factory began work to produce an extra 980 of the best performing tyres, in addition to the 3000 already built for Dunlop’s eleven teams. The turnaround for these tyres, including different compounds and for both wet and dry conditions, was just eight days before the trucks left Fort Dunlop in Birmingham for the journey to Le Mans. The company’s 14 tyre fitters left with the trucks and were joined by the rest of the team over the following two days.

During the race Dunlop will service four LMP1 cars, five in LMP2 and two GT2 Ferraris. And the tyremaker reports that for it the build-up to the race is as busy as the race itself. The logistics of transporting nearly 4,000 tyres in 12 trucks, 11 of which carry between 250 and 450 tyres according to size, 36 personnel including fitters, engineers and tyre technicians is only a part of an overall operation that Dunlop sums up as ‘military-style’.

Teams such as Virgo Motorsport will have up to nine sets of wheels, each fitted with tyres ready for any eventuality. Some will be fitted with wet tyres, some with light wet tyres, and four rims with various compounds of slick tyre according to the conditions. The day time specification slick is much harder than the compound used at night, and Dunlop’s technicians will work with the teams throughout the race to ensure they have the right tyres at the right times.

In 2008 Dunlop has increased its commitment to endurance racing, adding more staff, new testing techniques and for the first time the use of the Goodyear testing facility in Luxembourg.