Hankook Tire & Technology's "Ventus S1 evo Z" tire / Courtesy of Hankook Tire & Technology
Hankook Tire & Technology will supply the ultrahigh-performance "Ventus S1 evo Z" tire as original equipment for Porsche's 911 Carrera, marking an expansion of its long-running supply partnership with the German sports car maker, the Korean tire company said.
The tires will come in two sizes tailored to the 911 Carrera's distinct front and rear specifications: 235/40 ZR19 for the front and 295/35 ZR20 for the rear. Because the 911 Carrera has a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, Hankook Tire said the tires needed to deliver a careful balance of dry and wet performance along with precise steering response, strong grip and stability at high speed.
The tire maker said it built the product on roughly a decade of original-equipment cooperation with Porsche, following years of development and testing. The result met the automaker's technical requirements closely enough to earn Porsche's official "NA2" certification marking, which denotes a tire developed specifically for a given model.
The front and rear tires use separate tread designs, profiles and rubber compounds suited to their different roles, Hankook Tire said. The company said it also applied specialized resin and a high-silica content through a new mixing process to maintain stable performance in both dry and wet conditions, including strong grip and braking on water-covered roads.
