The Birth of a Legend
The year is 1953. A Ferrari 500 with Pirelli tyres flashes by at 200 km/h on the Monza track. Alberto Ascari is at the wheel, preparing to conquer an overwhelming double victory. Hurtling round beneath him, however, are not the “Victory Tyres”, but a new model that the Long P has developed exclusively for the new car designed by Ferrari solely for racing and launched on this Formula One Championship season. The tyres are known as Stelvio Corsa.
Motorcar racing in the 1950s and 1960s was dominated by the Stella Bianca Corsa, which became the number one choice for the top car manufacturers Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Maserati. However, these were also the post-war years – the years of the Reconstruction, of Pirelli beginning to focus on mass mobility and celebrating the various Alpine passes with a new range of products. These were the Rolle, Sempione and, as we have seen, the Stelvio. The last of these immediately earned the moniker as the “Record-Breaker”, taking Ascari to victory in the 1952 Italian Grand Prix and winning the Formula One title that year, both for himself and for Ferrari. A success that was repeated the following year, in 1953, and that led to a whole slew of victories and new products that were more powerful and with even greater performance. In terms of successes on the racetrack, however, the new tyres were never able to outclass the Stelvio, which also took Maurice Trintignant and Froilàn Gonzales to victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
What made the difference, both on and off the track, was technology. In the road model, the tread, which consisted of pentagonal blocks linked together lengthwise, marked the shift from a sculpted to a striped design. With improved road holding and low noise, it used not just natural rubber but also various types of synthetic rubber and rayon plus nylon in the carcass. The racing version, on the other hand, kept the tread in natural rubber and adopted a design with transversal cuts for wet conditions and a different percentage of carbon black in the compounds to help improve resistance and prevent deformation. Races, of course, but also advanced technologies and industrial developments that were taken from racing circuits to everyday cars, in the most authentic Pirelli tradition of combining research for racing with applications for the market. The Topolino was fitted with the Stella Bianca and the Fiat 600 with the Rolle, while the Mini and the Fiat 500 took the Cinturato CN54, which was derived directly from the experience in rallying.
The Stella Bianca, Rolle, Sempione, Stelvio, and Cinturato immediately made the history of both Italian mobility and of motorcar racing, and all shared a passion for challenges both on and off the circuits.
The year is 1953. A Ferrari 500 with Pirelli tyres flashes by at 200 km/h on the Monza track. Alberto Ascari is at the wheel, preparing to conquer an overwhelming double victory. Hurtling round beneath him, however, are not the “Victory Tyres”, but a new model that the Long P has developed exclusively for the new car designed by Ferrari solely for racing and launched on this Formula One Championship season. The tyres are known as Stelvio Corsa.
Motorcar racing in the 1950s and 1960s was dominated by the Stella Bianca Corsa, which became the number one choice for the top car manufacturers Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Maserati. However, these were also the post-war years – the years of the Reconstruction, of Pirelli beginning to focus on mass mobility and celebrating the various Alpine passes with a new range of products. These were the Rolle, Sempione and, as we have seen, the Stelvio. The last of these immediately earned the moniker as the “Record-Breaker”, taking Ascari to victory in the 1952 Italian Grand Prix and winning the Formula One title that year, both for himself and for Ferrari. A success that was repeated the following year, in 1953, and that led to a whole slew of victories and new products that were more powerful and with even greater performance. In terms of successes on the racetrack, however, the new tyres were never able to outclass the Stelvio, which also took Maurice Trintignant and Froilàn Gonzales to victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
What made the difference, both on and off the track, was technology. In the road model, the tread, which consisted of pentagonal blocks linked together lengthwise, marked the shift from a sculpted to a striped design. With improved road holding and low noise, it used not just natural rubber but also various types of synthetic rubber and rayon plus nylon in the carcass. The racing version, on the other hand, kept the tread in natural rubber and adopted a design with transversal cuts for wet conditions and a different percentage of carbon black in the compounds to help improve resistance and prevent deformation. Races, of course, but also advanced technologies and industrial developments that were taken from racing circuits to everyday cars, in the most authentic Pirelli tradition of combining research for racing with applications for the market. The Topolino was fitted with the Stella Bianca and the Fiat 600 with the Rolle, while the Mini and the Fiat 500 took the Cinturato CN54, which was derived directly from the experience in rallying.
The Stella Bianca, Rolle, Sempione, Stelvio, and Cinturato immediately made the history of both Italian mobility and of motorcar racing, and all shared a passion for challenges both on and off the circuits.
