Avenue-Authorized Snow Tires vs WRC Rally Studded Tires
Lately, Tyre Opinions acquired its fingers on a set of Pirelli Sottozero designed for racing, in addition to a Subaru rally automotive. That units the stage for an extremely entertaining comparability take a look at between these WRC tires and among the greatest street-legal studded winter tires available on the market: Pirelli Ice Zero 2s. However the query wasn’t whether or not or not the Sottozeros would carry out higher than the highway tires. It’s how a lot better they’d be.
You don’t must know a lot about tires or driving to guess {that a} $2,000 racing tire with studs that stick out 7 mm goes to have extra grip in snow and ice than a $600 tire that has to comply with rules about highway put on. That simply is sensible. Besides, seeing the 2 in contrast side-by-side illustrates simply how large the efficiency hole actually is. Spoiler: It’s quite a bit.
Through the snow take a look at, the host was in a position to lap the take a look at monitor in 67.3 seconds with the Ice Zero 2s. On the Sottozeros, that point dropped to 59.1 seconds. That’s greater than an eight-second enchancment. And within the ice take a look at, the distinction was much more staggering. Switching to the rally tires dropped his lap time from 51.0 seconds to 33.1 seconds, which is almost 18 seconds faster. That’s, what, a 35 % enchancment? Completely bonkers.
The video does an important job explaining all of the variations that make the rally tires carry out so a lot better, however the very best half may be that it’s not shot in a studio. It’s shot on the take a look at monitor, which suggests along with studying just a little extra about tires, you additionally get greater than eight minutes of candy Subaru rally automotive footage. If that doesn’t get your curiosity, I’m undecided what’s going to.
