Pirelli Sottozero Helps Magazine Illustrate Winter Tyre Advantages

Pirelli’s Sottozero winter tyre has been used to show the advantages of fitting seasonal rubber in cold conditions in tests conducted by EVO magazine. The high performance cold weather tyre made an excellent case for fitting winter tyres when the temperature drops below 7 degrees Celsius; EVO journalist Ollie Marriage's test which was conducted using two Jaguar XFRs, one with non-specialist tyres (Dunlop’s SP Sport Maxx, original equipment on the XFR, was used), the other with Sottozeros. The West Circuit at Bedford Autodrome was used as a testing track, with conditions including snow, slush and wet. The results published by EVO show that Pirelli’s Sottozero surpassed the standard summer rubber tyre in all comparisons of lap time, accelerative traction and 60-0mph braking.

EVO’s tests showed that seasonal rubber will – perhaps unsurprisingly – outperform even high-quality summer products, such as the SP Sport Maxx. The report states that the Sottozero was “a revelation from the get-go”, while the summer tyre with the same width and profile was “hopeless almost everywhere”, being “skittish and snatchy” and “slithered to a 2:35 lap”.  The winter tyre was said to offer more feedback to allow the driver to brake and corner with more confidence. Slicing 30 seconds off the summer tyre, the Sottozero finished with a lap time at 2:04. Peak speed was 20mph faster. In the 0-60mph test, the standard XFR had to be started on wet tarmac and it still took 15.3 seconds. The cold weather tyre cut that to 8.9 seconds.

Pirelli states that its tyre’s transverse and diagonal grooves helped increase traction and braking on snow/ice covered surfaces too. The Sottozero generated noticeably more force to come to rest in way under half the time and distance of the summer tyre: the Sport Maxx covered 782.1ft in 18.5 seconds, while the Sottozero stopped in 7.8 seconds, covering 330.8ft.

Dominic Sandivasci, managing director of Pirelli UK Tyres Ltd, said that this test highlights the benefit of using cold weather tyres in terms of comfort, speed, and safety, and identifies why they should be fitted during colder months: “This clearly and impartially shows that cold weather tyres out-perform summer tyres by a large margin in cold weather conditions.  This is why we recommend drivers in the UK switch to cold weather tyres during the winter months to increase grip on the road, and drivers’ comfort, safety, and confidence in the car,” he said.    

The Sottozero results stood up against a further test of summer rubber on a four-wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo X FQ-330, which only managed a 2:29 lap time – still 25 seconds adrift of the Pirelli cold weather tyre.