Goodyear enters the ultra high performance tyre market
It’s spring in Spain and Goodyear is out early to make an impact.
As the early-morning sun begins to bite, there are Porsches, Ferraris and Alpine 110s ready and waiting for a torture test at the gorgeous Ascari Resort, a private racetrack with some of the toughest corners in the world, as it introduces a new range of ultra-high performance road tyres.
There are four all-new tyres in the Goodyear Eagle F1 range, from the Asymmetric 5 through the SuperSport, SuperSport R and super-sticky SuperSport RS, and Goodyear is keen to convert track-day drivers and also win more business from original-equipment makers led by Porsche.
That explains the great looking set of RS rubber that’s fitted to a 911 GT2 RS display car, which is definitely and unfortunately not for driving.
But the famous American tyre-maker is not alone, as the arms race in the high-performance tyre world continues to push the limits of grip and go.
Goodyear talks openly about going head-to-head with Michelin in the latest top-end tyre war, but everyone from Pirelli and Continental to Kumho is also exploring the edge.
“In that space there is a lot happening,” the spokesman for Michelin in Australia, Angus Thompson, told carsales.com.au.
He says Michelin cannot get local supplies of its best tyre, the Cup 2 R, because all production is being snaffled by Porsche for use on its GT2 RS road rocket. It’s for special order only, and no-one is asking about the price.
Goodyear is also quiet on the pricing and line-up for its Spanish rubber, but local spokesman Tony Kiernan is bullish about the potential for the SuperSport rubber once deliveries begin in a couple of months.
“A lot of people are very interested,” he said. “[But] it’s a very hard category to try and predict demand.”
There are 37 sizes for the various SuperSport tyres — 31 for the SuperSport, four for SuperSport R and just two for RS — and they cover around 90 per cent of the high-performance market. All are street-legal, although the R and RS are probably best for dry roads.
The action for the Australian journalists at Ascari opens with hot laps in the Ferrari 488 on the SuperSport tyre, which is handily up to the pace of the Italian speedster.
The grip is good for turn and drive, and the only squeal comes with over-aggressive use of the steering in a couple of tight corners.
The Ferrari is well inside the comfort zone of the car and tyre, so there is nothing to complain about.
Goodyear says the SuperSport has a new mix of compounds for the best grip in all conditions, as well as a strengthened shoulder to protect the contact patch from deflection under high-G loadings.
It’s the same story during our drive time in the Alpine 110, on a track which has been artificially damped.
On a fully wet road and through puddles, it’s easy to feel the limit and the car stays well balanced. As things dry the car feels under-powered for the quick curves at Ascari, but still stable under braking with good drive out of turns.
We drove the Porsche and Alpine, but Goodyear says the target buyers for the tyre are more likely to be at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG C 63 or a Ford Focus RS.
And then it was time for the 911 GT3 RS. On the Goodyear R.
This is rubber for track-day runners in cars like the Mercedes-AMG GT R and BMW M4, according to Goodyear.
This time around, on the toughest part of the Ascari track, the tyres feel brilliant. The punchy Porsche never gets unruly or troublesome, staying neutral in all conditions short of a hard stomp on the gas pedal when the rear-end starts to slide.
But, and it’s a very big but, these are controlled conditions and there is no benchmark. No lap time, no chance to compare with a race driver, and definitely no comparison tyres.
It’s always the same with tyre testing unless you go back-to-back on the same day to get a proper read on a tyre.
Even so, the new Goodyears feel as good as anything I can remember on the same cars, although I have only driven the 488 on the road and my previous track laps in the Porsche were at the Albert Park F1 circuit.
But I was never close to losing control, or sliding out of my comfort zone.
There are obviously worse things to do than torturing tyres at Ascari, and we look forward to delivering a solid verdict on the SuperSports from Goodyear, but the signs are — pardon the pun — good.
Winding back to the technical briefing before the driving, Goodyear tyre designer Francois Humbert talks about the background to the new move.
“The compounds are coming from Goodyear knowledge in competition. We have aramids which are the same as bullet-proof vests,” he says.
The SuperSport tyres are a big move from Goodyear, which has been absent from the very top of the high-performance tyre business for some time, even though it happily trumpets its position as the most successful tyre maker in the history of Formula 1.
Now it believes the growth in super-fast road cars, and the need for track-day tyres as more owners are driven to racetracks by tightening rules on the road, creates a clear opening for Goodyear.
“Now we have tyres in the segment most demanding for technology and we’re showcasing that,” the vice-president of Goodyear in Europe, Mike Rytoski, said in Spain.
“Whilst this is a fairly small segment, it is an important segment. Goodyear is about technology, we’ve always stood for technology, and if you position the brand on technology, and you really want to win in the marketplace — you’ve really got to have the tyres in that segment.”
It’s also the key to a bigger plan to drive Goodyear back into the hearts and minds — and wallets — of people in the ultra-high performance tyre market.
“This revitalisation will continue to build on those attributes that have made the Goodyear brand great. It continues to reinforce our heritage and history in discovering innovation, technology and speed,” Rytoski said.
“These are consumers who love to discover new things, consumers who like cars, consumers who love driving, but they like to drive to get somewhere and do something exciting.”
Keyword: Tyre test: New Goodyear Eagle F1 range