Continental Tire’s ContiSportContact Vmax ultra-high performance tire has set a new record.
Jan Fatthauer, of the Porsche Tuners 9ff team, took his GT9 Porsche to a speed of 409 km/h (254 mph) with the ultra-high performance tire on the Papenburg test circuit in Germany. The run also set a new record for the street-legal 987-horsepower racecar. The test was also attended by Holger Berkmann, ContiSportContact Vmax development engineer from Continental Tuning.
This is the first time that the ContiSportContact Vmax has exceeded the 400 km/h mark. Its previous record was set just under a year ago when the Bimoto Audi TT from mtm clocked a speed of 393 km/h, also in Papenburg.
“The ContiSportContact Vmax, which is actually "only" approved for speeds of up to 360 km/h, was given special clearance for higher speeds for the record attempt in the GT9,” Berkmann says. “This tire is expected to be able to withstand a higher load under controlled test conditions.”
The ContiSportContact Vmax is designed specifically for today’s ultra-fast super sports cars, which now have engines powerful enough to achieve speeds that not even racing cars can equal. Exclusive models from top customizers, as well as from Porsche, Ferrari, etc., can today reach speeds of 225 mph and more. It was specifically for this group of cars that Continental developed the ContiSportContact Vmax. In addition, the ContiSportContact Vmax was the only tire to be included in last year's Guinness Book of Records.
The super sports tire is part of the successful ContiSportContact product family; the ContiSportContact Vmax model underwent further development to achieve substantially enhanced high-speed characteristics, Berkmann says, noting that top priority was efficient tire cooling, while maintaining good handling and positive characteristics on wet road surfaces.
