Conti-shod Audis to benefit from noise reduction foam
Last month, Pirelli announced its production of a quieter tyre for original equipment customer Audi, but it hasn’t been the only tyre maker working on noise reduction solutions with its customer; the German car maker has also developed a very similar product with another major tyre supplier, Continental.
The tyre maker has given its innovation the name ‘ContiSilent’ and will use it in ContiSportContact 5 P series tyres fitted to the Audi RS 6 Avant and RS 7 Sportback as original equipment. The Audi RS 6 Avant will be equipped with size 285/30 ZR 21 tyres while the RS 7 Sportback will feature size 275/30 ZR 21. Like all other tyres supplied for Audi’s RS models, the ContiSilent versions will bear the additional RO1 mark on the sidewall.
ContiSilent bears an uncanny resemblance to Pirelli’s system and features a coating that is bonded to the inside of the tread area after the tyre production process. This layer of foam dampens sound waves caused as the tyre rolls; Continental claims ContiSilent can make a car’s cabin up to nine decibels quieter, depending on the road surface the vehicle is driving on – Pirelli claim a noise reduction of two to three decibels for its Pirelli Noise Cancelling System, so we await an opportunity to observe the two technologies side-by-side.
As all other tyre components and the tread pattern are adopted from Continental’s standard production tyres, performance characteristics such as braking and wet and dry handling remain the same as for equivalent tyres without ContiSilent. Mounting the noise reducing tyres is also performed the same way as usual, Continental shares.
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