The Pirelli Winter Carving winter passenger tire is a kind of debut for this well-known Italian manufacturer to create a premium-class model specifically designed for the harsh conditions of Scandinavian winters. Since the manufacturer from the Iberian Peninsula had no special experience in creating winter tires before this model, specialists from the Volvo company were involved in its development.
The tire owes its name to a term often used in the skiing environment. "Carving" translates from English as "carving", "paving the way". This model is released in two versions - with studs and without them. A very wide range of sizes, starting from 135/80R13 and ending with 235/45R17, makes it possible to use this tire not only on most models of modern passenger cars but also on some models of SUVs.
Design of the Italian winter tire tread
For their first premium-class winter tire, Italian tire manufacturers, like many other manufacturers, preferred a symmetrical directional tread pattern with an aggressive V-shaped design. Due to this scheme of arrangement of tread elements, it was possible to ensure the maximum possible contact patch area. At the same time, the dimensions of the contact patch remain unchanged, regardless of the characteristics of the road surface. As a result, it was possible to achieve excellent traction and reliable and stable handling on various types of coverage, especially on snow.
In the center of the tread, there is a wide longitudinal rib with high structural stiffness, executed in the shape of a "Christmas tree". Such a combination provided the tire with excellent directional stability and exceptionally high braking efficiency, especially on snowy surfaces.
The large number of tread blocks, as well as a sufficient distance between them, allows the Pirelli Winter Carving tire to feel more confident on sections with deep snow cover.
Confidence on ice
This model is beneficially distinguished by excellent traction on icy types of coverage. This was achieved thanks to several components - a special composition of the rubber mixture, a multitude of zigzag-shaped lamellas, and steel studs.
Despite the not-too-efficient circular shape of the studs, their thoughtful distribution over the tread allowed neutralizing the effect of this drawback, ensuring not only excellent traction on ice but also significantly reducing the level of noise generated by the studs.
The equipment of the tread with a large number of lamellas made it possible to obtain an additional huge number of sharp edges, which, effectively hooking even onto micron-irregularities on the surface of the ice, provide excellent traction characteristics. At the same time, the zigzag profile of the walls of these lamellas allows them to be tightly fixed to each other at the moment of contact with the road surface, which significantly increases the stiffness of the tread block. Due to this, it was possible to significantly improve the handling characteristics on asphalt for the Pirelli Winter Carving.
And the third component of excellent traction with icy surfaces became a new rubber compound, which was obtained thanks to the patented Adaptive Compound Technology. Within the framework of this technology, three types of new-generation polymers were included in the composition of the rubber mixture, each of which gives the tread elasticity in a certain temperature range. This allows the tire to maintain optimal elasticity in a very wide temperature range - from +7 to -40 degrees Celsius. Excellent elasticity allows the tread blocks and lamellas to more effectively hook onto the irregularities of the icy road surface, providing reliable and stable traction, regardless of its temperature.
Main features of the Pirelli Winter Carving winter tire
- The optimized V-shaped design of the symmetrical directional tread pattern, developed in cooperation with Volvo, provides excellent traction on various types of surfaces;
- The wide central rib, executed in the shape of a "Christmas tree", has high structural stiffness, which ensures excellent braking efficiency and excellent directional stability, especially on snow and ice;
- The presence of a large number of blocks allows the tire to more confidently overcome sections with deep snow cover;
- The effective drainage system allows easily removing not only water but also snow slush and dirt from the contact patch;
- The unique composition of the rubber mixture allows regulating the elasticity of the tire depending on the temperature of the external environment and the road surface.
