I recently attended the launch of the Pirelli Cinturato All Season tyre in Italy, you can read about the experience on our features page. They put on a great launch; but the product they launched was even better.
Pirelli Cinturato All Season Tyre Overview
Pirelli have launched an all season tyre that is designed to perform very well in both summer and mild winter environments; conditions quite similar to the UK seasons. I have first hand experience of the features on the tyre and I will tell you about them below. For me one of the greatest features is the seal inside technology, which means that tyre can survive punctures without the loss of air pressure.
Pirelli Cinturato Design
The Cinturato All Season has had huge amounts of research and development to make a great all-round tyre. A couple of its key features include:
Compound – A refined compound that has been specifically developed to have optimal grip in a temperature range from around 2°c up to 22°c. This means the tyre works better at low temperatures than a standard summer tyre would.
3D Sipes – The All Season has 3D Sipe technology, this is basically cuts in the tyre that allows the rubber to flex around more and help provide grip in wet and snowy conditions.
Directional Thread Pattern – The Cinturato All Season uses a directional-based thread pattern that means the tyre has to be fitted in the correct direction. This tread has been optimised for maximum water expulsion from the underneath of the tyre, which increases the grip on wet surfaces and lowers the risk of aquaplaning.
Dry Road Performance
I tested the tyre on warm dry roads in a city car and I was very happy with the level of grip and comfort of the tyre, in fact I was unable to fault the tyre. I don’t even think that I would have been able to tell the difference between the Pirelli Cinturato All Season tyre and the Pirelli summer tyre, it was that good.
Wet/Dry Performance
I was also able to push the tyres past their normal road going limits on a track test. During the test we cornered the cars on both wet and dry surfaces to feel how the grip differed. Once again I was impressed with the tyre. The level of grip in the wet gave me huge amounts of confidence and for a tyre that works that well in the dry I was shocked with the level of performance it had in the wet. It was unreal. Take a look at the video below.
Snow Performance
After the previous two performance tests with the tyre, I wasn’t sure how well it would perform on the snow. But when it came to testing it I was blown away. I was able to drive the car a lot harder and more recklessly than I ever would drive in the snow., and the Pirelli Cinturato All Season tyre still had lots of grip and was able to provide me with great control over the car.
Pirelli Seal Inside
The Pirelli Cinturato All Season tyre has the option of being supplied with a Seal inside Technology that can maintain tyre pressure after being punctured by a nail.
The inner core of the tyre is built from a thick sticky mastic, if the tyre is punctured by a nail the mastic will instantly create a seal around the nail stopping any loss of air and maintaining tyre pressure. If you were to remove the nail from the tyre, the sticky mastic will follow the nail out of the tyre and seal the hole, in the real world this would mean no more flat tyres.
Below you can see an example of driving over a 5mm vertical nail. The Fiat 500 drove straight over the nail and maintained its tyre pressure, as if it never happened. This technology is truly worth considering, after seeing it first-hand I am confident this advancement will certainly make our motoring lives that little bit more convenient, not to mention safer too.
Verdict
There is no doubt that the Pirelli Cinturato All Season tyre will be a hit in the UK market. The tyre is the only piece of the car that touches the road, and after testing this one out I don’t see why you would choose any other type of all year round tyre. The added feature of having Seal Inside technology takes away some of the hassle from motorists and can really make your car instantly more reliable.
More Information: Tyre-Shopper.co.uk, Pirelli Tyres
