After a few high profile (to put it lightly) incidents, the Carrera GT earned itself a rep as one of the more notorious supercars of the early '00s. But with advances in tyre technology, the V10 Porsche has improved alongside the rubber. Now Porsche has collaborated with Michelin once more for an all-new, Carrera GT-specific, Cup 2 tyre, one promising to ‘further improve the driving dynamics and safety of the super sports car on both wet and dry roads’. No excuse not to drive yours, basically, especially with the recall now complete.
Obviously this hasn’t been the work of a moment. Jorg Bergmeister has been involved in the process, which has included Nurburgring lapping to get the N-rating reserved exclusively for Porsche. The Cup 2 has been the go-to track tyre of choice for more than a decade now, really, with everything from hot hatches to hypercars benefitting from their fitment. For this application, two different compounds are used in the tread: silicic acid on the inner shoulder for optimum grip in the wet, with the outer shoulder and tread block focused on dry grip, where carbon black was an important part of the process. Whether anybody is going to use their CGT in the rain, given they’re now seven-figure supercars, remains to be seen. But good to know the tyre tech is there.
The stats exist to back up the claims, too. In addition to ‘improved feedback at the upper limits’ - which sounds very beneficial in a car of this calibre - the new Cup 2 reduces the 62mph-zero braking distance by 2.5m. At double the speed, that advantage becomes 12m. It’d probably make for an even faster Nurburgring Nordschleife laptime, too, the original having secured a 7:28 with Walter Rohrl 20 years ago, though that’d be dependent on someone offering up their car…
Bergmeister added of the tyres: “I’m impressed by how the engineers improved the feedback at the upper limits. You feel much more distinctly the point at which the tyre starts to lose its grip. The new tyres not only make the Carrera GT faster, they make it easier for the car to be driven at speed.” As if the Type 980 Porsche couldn’t be any more desirable. The tyres are available to order now via Porsche Classic or a Porsche Centre, and expect them to carry an appropriately lofty price: the closest equivalent Porsche N0-marked Cup 2 on Black Circles is almost £600 for one rear. Good job owners got a free set included as part of the recall work, then. They’d surely sit fantastically on this Paint To Sample Vesuvio car - then time to add to its 24,000 miles wherever you see fit.
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