Pirelli Collection
For some year now Pirelli have been one of the leading manufacturers in tyres for collector cars.
Pirelli Collezione tyres
Pirelli are one of the world’s oldest producers of pneumatic tyres. Their historic contribution towards the automobile movement over the years as a passenger car tyre manufacturer, has been remarkable. Today the Pirelli Collection range of tyres includes land mark historic tyres such as the 6.00V16 Stella Bianca. The highest performance crossply tyre that was fitted to cars such as the Ferrari 250 GT and the Maserati A6 back in the 1940s and 1950s. Today this is the highest specification Crossply tyre you can get for your pre 1960 Aston Martin, Ferrari Maserati, Jaguar, Bristol or Riley.
A mainstay of Pirelli’s collection range of tyres for classic vehicles has got to be the benchmark Pirelli Cinturato CA67. The tyre that took the world of sports cars by the neck and shook it up. The Cinturato provided exceptional levels of grip while at the same time providing the progressive handling that the sports cars of the day needed.
The CA67 range is pretty inclusive with its selection of sizes, classic tyres such as the 145HR13 CA67 fitting all manner of little rear wheel drive sports cars such as the Triumph Spitfire, MG Midget and Lotus Elan. They make 165HR400 CA67 & 155HR15 CA67, which were OE on pretty much every Alfa Romeo up until around 1968, when Alfa moved their range of cars onto the 165HR14 Pirelli Cinturato CA67.
This current range of CA67 tyres in the Pirelli Collection range includes such important tyres as the 185VR16 Cinturato CA67. This was the tyre that you fitted to your XK Jaguar if you could afford it. It was the radial tyre that David Brown offered as a radial alternative on his Aston Martin cars up until half way through the production of the DB4, when they changes to 15” wheels and offered the 185VR15 Pirelli Cinturato CA67 as their radial alternative. Up until 1964 if your Maserati had radial tyres it would have 185VR16 Cinturato. Ferrari were pretty much the same, other than they moved to 185VR15 Cinturato in 1960.
The other big sports cars of the 1950s, & 1960s. Vintage Cars like the Lancia Aurelia & Flaminia, Alfa Romeo 1900, 2000 & 2600 that were interested in using radial tyre technology fitted 400mm wheels, and fitted 165HR400 Cinturato CA67 which Pirelli are producing again with an H speed rating. Amazingly Pirelli also reintroduced the 175HR400 CA67 which only fits the Coupe model of the Lancia Flaminia and a hand full of early 250GT Ferrari that left the factory fitted with 400mm Borrani wheels.
Pirelli Collection Tyres
In 1964 the 205VR15 Cinturato CN72 was the tyre of choice for the world of Sports cars until Pirelli developed the Cinturato CN36 in 1968 as a low profile tyre for the likes of the Porsche 911. Pirelli’s connection with manufacturers such as Lamborghini lead to them making special tyres such as the 255/60WR15 CN12 for the rear of the Lamborghini Muira SV. The Muira SV fitted the 215/70WR15 CN12 on the front which was also OE on no end of cars such as Maserati in the 1970s and the Jensen Interceptor. Their connection with Porsche helped the P7 become so important, producing the wideest and the lowest tyres for collector cars such as the Lamborghini Countach.
Pirelli Youngtimer tyres
A more recent introduction to the Pirelli Collection range is the P5 tyres that were requested by Jaguar back in the 1970s for their Luxury XJ range of cars. The Collection range also includes important classic 215/50ZR15 P700-Z tyres for the old Audi UR Quattro. Pirelli have even gone so far as to bring the235/45ZR15 P700-Z for the incredibly rare Short Sport UR Quattro. Even more recently a small range of P-Zero System tyres for the Ferrari 288GTO and TestaRossa and the AMV8 Vantage.
Many of the current range of Pirelli Collection tyres have been requested again by manufacturers such as Porsche, Jaguar and Audi who are wanting the very best for their back catalogues of classic sports cars. The car manufacturers themselves have tested and homologated the Pirelli Collezione tyres as their recommended tyres for their classic car models of yesteryear.