It’s been a testing time for Dunlop’s Endurance team – lots of testing. Dunlop is set to have its busiest season in endurance racing for many years with a full grid of European Le Mans Series (ELMS) GT entries and the majority of the LMP2 entries in ELMS and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) choosing Dunlop.

To provide the most competitive, best handling tyres possible, Dunlop engineers spent much of 2014 using simulations and rolling road data before an intensive off-season test programme to define 2015’s specifications. The LMP2 and ELMS tyres have been comprehensively tested at tracks such as Sebring, Atlanta, Aragon, Paul Ricard and Estoril.

Official pre-season testing at Paul Ricard takes place with ELMS cars on track 23-24th March followed by WEC teams on 27th- 28th March. The final day is open to public spectators free of charge.

2015 GT Tyre Range (dry/wet)

Key to the new 2015 specification of GT tyre for the ELMS are construction development  and manufacturing process changes. Engineers have significantly improved the performance of the tyre while also improving durability.

2015 LMP2 Tyre Range (soft/medium/hard/intermediate/wet)

The LMP2 tyre design was refined using construction modelling to more efficiently position the materials to improve mid-corner grip. The new compound for the hard tyre increases durability with the new intermediate tyre compound improving grip while an amended tread pattern is able to more efficiently evacuate water. The intermediate tyre for 2015 is also able to operate further into full wet conditions without sacrificing performance on drying tracks. The full wet tyre has a softer casing which will improve grip and driver feedback.

Paul Bryant, International Event Manager, Dunlop Motorsport: “Our engineers have made a major step forward with the GT tyres in particular and it will be great to see the GT cars all out together at Paul Ricard for the first time. We think the LMP2 teams will also be very pleased with the tyre improvements. Our designers have worked very hard to get the results we wanted. Our test programme was thorough to get us where we wanted to be so we need to thank the teams who have helped us create and define our 2015 range.”