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Pirelli Diablo Tire Review |
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Wednesday, 22 September 2004 |
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Page 1 of 2
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North American Pirelli Diablo Tire Introduction
Forward Motion by MikeE ~ Fast Lens Work by Tom Riles
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| Tire technology is a wonderful thing. It's nice to know that a big company like Pirelli is sitting around all day thinking up ways to help you and I, I and you, stay safe on our daily ride, be it street, strip or the occasional track day sortie. |
Is it me
or does this tire look demonic?
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The (not so) funny thing about tires is the more you spend the less you get. Go sticky and the mileage goes down, go for mileage and the grip goes South, sometimes East or West, depending on the dynamics of that particular corner. The Pirelli guys have invested large to juggle those compromises.
This is the result: The Pirelli Diablo and I have just spent a day thrashing around on Pirelli's latest on both street and at Buttonwillow Raceway.
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| The opening presentation promised quick warm-up, longer life, wet grip along with lots of references to the devil, hell, bubbling cauldrons and any other devilish quips, it's just as well that I'd been brought up on a steady diet of Hammer horror films as this presentation would have had me hiding under the table quaking with fear. |
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The tire is a direct replacement for the Dragon EVO MTR21/22, itself a great performing tire. However, this latest tire design promised to raise the benchmark reference for tire performance. Pirelli have been enjoying a level of world race supremacy that is quite phenomenal - from World Supersport and Isle of Man TT's, and closer to your house and mine, four out of five Formula USA championship. It's quite obvious that these peeps know what they are doing when it comes to things all black and round.
A number of important factors were addressed in the design and manufacturing process, dry grip being first on the list followed by sharper more precise handling characteristics, wet weather performance with the aim of a total performance package. So, how'd they do?
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Could last up to 5000 miles - if you behave yourself.
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| Our initial introduction to the tires was on a street ride over a tough and twisty canyon route with the final destination being the race track. |
This is where the Diablo resides
within the Pirelli family
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The tires had a very neutral feeling at a fast street pace and although I didn't know the roads, I had no pucker factor to report on. The Diablo's have a slightly raised mid crown area of the tire to aid turn-in. This reduced radius improved changes of direction. The remarkable thing is that some race tires too have this triangular shape to them and are typically unstable at speed.
The Diablo's were immediately stable. Part of the stability is the fact that the front and rear set are matched. This means the front carcass is slightly different to the rear but with one built to compliment the other, this optimized carcass construction ensures a uniform contact area at every lean angle. All good stuff and it worked very well on the street. |
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