No less then three new Michelin tyres have been developed for this season’s FIA World Rally Championship, and the tyre maker says “extremely positive feedback” was garnered following private session tests by its partner teams, with improvements noted in a number of areas. The trio represents a complete renewal of Michelin’s WRC range and covers every road and weather condition expected during the championship calendar.
LTX Force
Taking its name from the Michelin commercial vehicle tyres developed for use on the non-asphalted roads encountered in South America, the size 205/65R15 (17/65-15) LTX Force is designed for use on gravel rally stages, where tyres are punished by stones, rocks and a generally abrasive road surface. During the new tyre’s development, Michelin Motorsport’s engineers aimed to retain the strength of the Latitude Cross, which made its final appearance during Rally Poland at the end of June, while at the same time delivering enhanced consistency and more even wear across the tread. “Rally Finland confirmed that this ambitious objective has been met,” reports Jacques Morelli, the manager of Michelin’s Rally programmes, following the LTX Force’s competitive debut “On the event’s longer stages, the times were 0.5s/km faster on the first passes and 0.3s/km quicker on the second visits, when the conditions were cleaner.”
The tyre is available in two versions – the ‘H4’ (hard compound), which benefits from a new construction that slows down shoulder wear, and the ‘S4’ (soft compound), which makes use of a new compound that is less sensitive to heat, thereby retarding abrasion whilst enabling a high level of performance to be maintained over a longer period. Both the H4 and S4 feature an asymmetric, directional tread pattern. These two versions will be available for all the WRC’s gravel rounds, with the S4 tyre having first seen use at Rally Finland between 31 July and 4 August.
Pilot Sport
This follows the same principle as the gravel tyres: ‘H4’ (hard) for the hard version and ‘S4’ (soft) for the soft compound. The Pilot Sport is an all-new tyre dedicated to asphalt events and its tread is derived from Michelin’s Pilot Sport Cup 2 range. Michelin claims the new construction used in the Pilot Sport, together with its compound, can deliver up to ten per cent greater longevity while offering “spectacular” levels of grip on both dry and wet surfaces. With sidewalls benefitting from a velvet-like finish – a hallmark of the brand’s top-of-the-range tyres – the Pilot Sport will be deployed for the first time at Rallye de France, which will be held in Alsace from 3 to 7 October 2014.
Pilot Sport FW
FIA regulations now present an opportunity for teams to benefit from a tyre that is specially-designed to cope with extreme weather conditions, particularly heavy rain. The Michelin Pilot Sport FW (Full Wet) borrows technical characteristics from the snow tyre used for Rallye Monte-Carlo, with thick tread blocks separated by a high number of deep grooves that are capable of rapidly expelling a large quantity of water. The compound used for this tyre is, moreover, very soft in order to provide optimum grip in wet conditions. Michelin says the Pilot Sport FW was developed to allow WRC1 competitors (the only crews with access to it) to run whatever the conditions. That said, it is not recommended for use on dry or drying asphalt, as this would swiftly destroy the tyre’s tread. The Pilot Sport FW will be available for asphalt-based events from Rallye Deutschland (21 to 24 August 2014) onwards.