Marangoni Supplies New Hill Climb Tyres

More power requires different tyres. After winning three Italian hillclimb titles (2004, 2006 and 2007) and one European championship (2005) in this speciality with 2000 cc Osella cars and Marangoni Zeta Linea tyres, Simone Faggioli’s team were looking to go the next level.

“With the adoption of the 3000 cc engine, the horsepower almost doubled, from 250 to 450 HP”, Simone Faggioli explained. “We needed tyres that had to be completely different in terms of size, compound and casing. Once again, the Marangoni racing department responded enthusiastically, providing the support we needed to work on a completely new project.”

According to those involved, it wasn’t long before the driver and tyres were up to speed – Faggioli won four consecutive races (Reventino, Fasano, Gubbio and Pedavena) and totalled four second places in the 12 trials of the Italian championship. Although this year the overall title slipped away, Marangoni still has the consolation that the first three finishers in class CN2 of the championship (Regosa, Magliona and Marozzi) all drove cars fitted with its racing tyres.

“The higher power of the new engine in the vehicle driven by Faggioli led us to develop a new generation of tyres for uphill races, working at the same time on sizes, structures and compounds”, explained Angelo Priori, Marangoni research and development manager. “As regards the latter in particular, we were able to exploit our group’s considerable specific expertise in this field, acquiring, among other things, experience that will be useful to our colleagues who work on high performance road tyres, SUV tyres and the new 20 inch tyres”.

In recent years the Marangoni Zeta Linea Racing tyres have changed the history of hill climbing races, bringing success to a radial tyre in a speciality where conventional tyres had dominated for some time. The difficulty in designing a competitive radial for uphill races is related to the thermal response, that is, the time these tyres take to reach operating temperature when compared to conventional tyres.

Extensive research into the casing and the compounds carried out by Marangoni has in fact led to the development of a radial tyre that reaches the optimum operating temperature within 500 metres from the start. A true technological challenge that, with the four titles in this specialisation won from 2004 to 2007, has seen the Zeta Linea Racing tyres (slick and rain versions) become the benchmark for those taking part in uphill races.