Before a product enters the market, as you can imagine, it has to undergo a fairly extensive battery of tests to ensure the quality and, most importantly, the safety of the product. This is particularly true for performance ranges such as those offered by Pirelli. The Cinturato and Scorpion lines come to mind. It is therefore particularly important to have a good testing infrastructure and, in this respect, the Italian manufacturer knows what it is doing!
Why, you may ask? Well, we’ve recently learned that its Sottozero test center, located in Flurheden in northern Sweden, will receive a host of improvements. If until now it could only be used in winter, taking advantage of the country’s northern climate, starting this summer it will be able to be used all year round. Let’s take a look at this rather exceptional installation.
250,000 square meters of track
In Flurheden, there is no shortage of space, and Pirelli has been determined to make good use of it since the center opened in 2017. The grounds are actually quite impressive with its 120 hectares of land that houses various circuits and buildings for workshops and staff. Apparently, there’s even a sauna! This is Sweden after all… For the summer season, Pirelli has added two new tracks: a dry handling track and a wet handling track. Each is 1.2 kilometers long, including a 400-meter straight line specifically for testing braking.
Dedicated to electric cars
It’s true that any tire can be tested on these tracks, but the reason for the new tracks is to develop new models for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. With an infrastructure to easily charge these models, the Flurheden center is better equipped for this new generation of models than other Pirelli spaces.
This winter, some manufacturers have already had the chance to try out the new Pirelli products, including Rimac. It’s a little-known name here at the moment, but this Croatian performance car maker could soon become a household name with its Nevera, described as an “electric hypercar.” With winter tires tested in such conditions, we hope it will at least be safe!
With its new facilities, the Flurheden test center will undoubtedly become just as mythical as the other Pirelli sites. In addition to Vizzola Ticino, which has been in operation for over fifty years in the Milan area, the birthplace of Pirelli, there is also the new Circuito Panamericano. Located in Brazil, it is the “largest circuit complex in all of Latin America.” The next generation of tires is sure to be impressive!
