24h Race Nürburgring: one of the season highlights for Dunlop
• More than 4,000 Dunlop tyres supplied for the marathon race
• Nordschleife is an extreme endurance test for people and materials
• Dunlop is the most successful tyre brand at the 24h
The 24h race at the Nürburgring is the biggest race in the world with 151 vehicles and more than 500 drivers. Dunlop is equipping numerous professional teams and ambitious customer teams at the race on 12 – 13 May. They race on the 25.4 kilometre combination of the Grand Prix course and the Nordschleife. This year, the tyre brand is on the mission to defend their 2017 title when Dunlop and Audi took the overall victory, setting a record-breaking distance of 4,009.7 kilometers on its way to the prestigious triumph.
The tyre’s hard work in the “Green Hell”
The Nordschleife makes extreme demands on the tyres. This is because the challenging combination of 33 left curves, 40 right curves, different radii and gradients,up to a maximum of 17 percent. In one lap, a tyre turns 40,000 times. A GT3 tyre has to withstand partial wheel loads from 10,000 to 12,000 Newton in the various sections. During the 2017 top-30 qualifying, the Dunlop SCG00C of the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus clinched the pole position with an outstanding lap of 8:15.427 minutes. The average speed was impressive 184,408 km/h.
In addition to the performance on the Nordschleife, the tyre selection also plays a decisive role in the durability of hours of load for drivers and teams. This requires the ability to always provide the optimum grip without additional pit stops.Also, the often changing weather conditions in the Eifel are decisive for the tyre choice. On the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife, the drivers can experience a whole season in a day: for example, at start-and-finish, the driver can, at 620 meters above sea level, be racing in shining sunshine. But at the lowest point in Breidscheid (320 meters), drivers have been known to experience heavy rain on the same lap.
Especially in unsettled weather, the know-how and experience of the Dunlop tyre experts is in demand. For this special mix of requirements, Dunlop is constantly researching technologies and materials that further enhance the grip levels and at the same time ensure better protection against potential tyre damage.
More than 4,000 Dunlop tyres for the marathon race.
Whether it’s slick, intermediate or wet tyres: the tyre experts from Dunlop can provide a wide range of specifications for all possible routes and weather conditions. For this purpose, 16 service trucks transport more than 4,000 race tyres to the Nürburgring. More than 40 tyre fitters, engineers and service personnel are on duty from Thursday to Sunday. In the “Dunlop-City” there is always activity on the three assembly lines, when the numerous teams demand new racing tyres.
