What makes Protoura Sport from Davanti Tyres so special?
7th April 2021
The next generation of Davanti tyres has arrived with the launch of premium UHP offering Protoura Sport®.
But what makes it different? To answer that question, we have to look at the evolution of the product and the journey it has been on through its development.
The Protoura Sport project began in 2017 when Davanti Tyres set itself the challenge of setting a new benchmark in the brand’s UHP offering.
With Protoura Sport, we looked at every performance aspect of UHP tyres and explored ways to make meaningful improvements. Davanti’s research team committed themselves to investigating every marginal incremental benefit they could.
Through a long development path with many loops and many different prototypes, the marginal gains added up. From compound and construction to groundbreaking active tread design, the painstaking work of the Protoura Sport team achieved what few thought possible, a tyre so advanced it places Davanti at the leading edge of premium UHP development.
This journey has enabled us to perfect Protoura Sport to create the optimum combination of compound, design, and construction. Even down to the moulding technology – where we introduced a new vacuum venting process which helps create a smoother, better performing tyre – and the new laser engraved sidewall elements which produce a striking ultra-black effect.
But why does that matter? To answer that question you need to consider how tyres perform on supercars and tuned performance cars
Vehicles like this are finely balanced, they demand tyres are reliable, composed and tenacious under extreme stress. Any tyre that fails to meet that standard will at best ruin the driving experience and at worst suffer catastrophic failure.
Davanti was able to draw on years of data from the professional drivers at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and their experience driving the F1 venue’s supercar fleet to understand the demands high-performance sports cars place on their tyres.
They were then able to carry out research to explore new ways to improve characteristics such as water dispersion, braking and cornering stability and longevity.
By using enriched rubber compounds and innovative tread design, Davanti was able to give Protoura Sport a larger contact area, with a continuous solid centre rib maximising stability and spreading the cornering forces evenly throughout the tyre carcass.
The result is the Protoura Sport driving experience creates a deep connection between driver and machine. Driving feels more intuitive.
That feeling of natural control is further enhanced by developments in Protoura Sport’s block design.
Protoura Sport takes modified block design to a new level with ribbed and serrated block edges which further increase bite in the corners at high speeds. Benchmarked against premium rivals in testing, Protoura Sport’s dry and wet handling exceeded competitor performance.
To maintain elite performance in wet conditions Protoura Sport has features deep within the tread that set new standards for wet grip and cornering.
A key innovation has been the inclusion for the first time of hydro-dynamic dimples. Recent research shows that these tiny indents in the groove walls disrupt the surface tension of water and improve its ability to flow, preventing the fluid build-up that can cause aquaplaning.
Trapezoid projections on the inner groove block also help to drive water out from under the tyre to maintain a greater level of surface contact in the wet.
For advanced driver comfort, Protoura’s shoulder blocks are designed with constricted notches to act as an active buffer to neutralise sound waves and minimise tyre noise.
Want to get the most out of your car? Want to improve the ride quality while optimising performance? You want Protoura Sport.
