Porsche and Michelin look back on a longstanding and extraordinarily successful cooperation. Together, they won the famous Le mans 24 Hours - last evidence for common achievements with the GT1 in 1998. Currently, Michelin supplies racing tires for the 911 GT3 Cup cars in Porsche Michelin Supercup and the worldwide Porsche Carrera Cups, for the 911 GT3 RSR’s in the ALMS and the FIA GT championship as well as for the Porsche sports cars in Porsche Sports Cup.

Michelin is furthermore involved as a technology partner in the RS Spyder project. Together with Porsche race engineers, Michelin developed a high-performance racing tire exclusively used in the ALMS LMP2 class. The absolute will to succeed forms the basis of this cooperation and results in groundbreaking developments for the Porsche road car range.

Tires produced for one make race series like the Porsche Carrera Cups and the Porsche Michelin Supercup have to face a wide range of specific challenges. This is because the drivers have to use the same tire for all conditions at every race of the season. For rainy conditions, Michelin provides the specific rain tire. Furthermore, major setup changes are limited to a few values defined in the regulations.

During the development of a tire for one make race series, extensive tests are necessary to achieve a tire that lives up to expectations. They have to function perfectly under very different air and track temperatures as well as on all kinds of circuit layouts. Another important factor is that the tires have to be absolutely identical. This not only eliminates any advantage or disadvantage for the driver but also ensures that each car has the perfect balance.

But even though the tires are identical, the drivers do have a change to maximize their performance in comparison with their competitors. The performance of the tire and therefore the handling of the car can be altered significantly by relative small changes in tire inflation pressure or by track and camber settings. Furthermore, during the actual race, the driver has to decide when he wants to attack and when to go easy on the tires in order to make sure that they deliver their best performance over the entire distance.

Porsche trusts in the quality of Michelin tires. In every race.