Pirelli Diablo Corsa III - Review Hot

Nice and grippy multi compound sports tyre that showed decent mileage.

Diablo Corsa 3

Initial Thoughts

Triple compound zone, thats what the Corsa 3 has on the rear tyre - 3 zones! In actual fact this is only dual compound but placed on the centre of the tyre and of course on 2 shoulders, marketing bumpf aside though these tyres impressed me in the dry with their excellent grip and feedback while tracking the many imperfections in our road surfaces, in the wet they were not so impressive and I managed to create a couple of nice slides unintentionally while warming them up which is something I have not managed to do since the Dunlop D208's.

You can be assured though that the Diablo Corsa III tyres when warm are nice and grippy too so it is just the initial heating up period that you should be on your toes for, because of the dual compound these tyres did manage to wear evenly despite putting in some killer motorway miles far oop North and back - in all honesty I could not tell you how many the rear would have done as the bike was prematurely taken from my posession courtesy of some robbing git, what I can say though is that they were at 3800 miles or so, not squared off and plenty of meat left in the tread so I would have expected another 1000 out of the rear I guess.

Construction

Pirelli's latest step in racing activity is down to last year's involvement in the new Superstock 600 championship, where the experience taken from the choice of Diablo Corsa led to the new Diablo Corsa III - Three zone compound: a high performance tyre, developed for both street and racetrack use. The Diablo Corsa III delivers performance as soon as you need it; confidence on normal roads and top performance on racetracks; improved corner entry while still braking hard.Thanks to the use of new materials, to their patented zero degree steel belt radial structure and to the MIRS™ production process, these tyres guarantee unparalleled levels of performance for a road product and also assure racetrack excellence.

The need for the type of performance demanded by Supersport bike users, on road and on racetrack, in normal and extreme conditions, leads to a complex mix of product features, the result of which is the Diablo Corsa III.

Pirelli engineers have developed this exceptional product by working on all the aspects of the tyre:

The compound

Diablo Corsa III represents the new state of the art in terms of compounds combination, designed to offer the best performance where required. Among the new solutions developed for Diablo Corsa III the compounds play a primary role.

The compounds are different across the front and rear tyre, and the rear is further divided into three zones.

The front tyres are made from high rigidity, high hysteresis materials, characterised by their ability to dissipate energy. They provide fast warm-up, more grip, good traction and braking capability. The new tyres have a balanced ratio of Silica and Carbon-black to maximize the grip on wet and dry ground and new structural materials, designed to offer high and stable performance at mid & high temperatures, independently from external
conditions.

On the rears, differential compounds between shoulders and centre zones are the winning solutions engineered to give the Diablo Corsa III racing performance on racetrack, and versatile and long lasting performance on road.

In the central zone the compound is the same of Diablo Corsa, already benchmark product, whereas the wide shoulders (same degrees each) adopt a new softer compound.

This solution gives to Diablo Corsa III reduced shoulder rigidity, high hysteresis, and 'softness' at both low and high temperatures, to guarantee fast warm-up, immediate and continuous grip response entering curves; all independent from external ambient conditions.

The wide shoulder angle offers great grip, starting from low lean angles, to exploit the new performance any time you want it; on racetrack as on the road.

High mechanical resistance materials are used in central zone, with a high carbon black charge, to provide strong traction and regular wear, even during heavy stress - yet all the while allowing high mileages to be racked up.

The structure

The tyres' structure has been designed to let each pair of tyres work in a balanced and synchronous way, with the two tyres perfectly matched in motion. ICS (Ideal Contour Shaping) design technology is used to assist this, together with the patented 0 degrees steel belt, which keeps the tyre profiles in the most suitable shapes at all times. This assists uniform heat distribution through the tyre, progressive feedback at full lean, predictable handling, the ability to hold a line on the racetrack, high speed directional predictability without understeer, stability under braking and a feeling of security in all circumstances.

Furthermore the MIRS™ production technology allows the production of tyres without joins, delivering a perfectly balanced structure; with better damping properties and improved sidewall stiffness, eliminating vibrations and providing safe and comfortable riding conditions.

DIABLO CORSA III uses the same winning tread pattern of the DIABLO CORSA, with all the personal characteristics of the Diablo family.

The pattern of the set is designed with a functional approach FGD (Functional Groove Design), which combines excellent slick-like racetrack performance, together with great control on wet ground. On wet surfaces the front tread cuts the water layers to clean the asphalt, whereas the rear tyre has to guarantee grip.

This goal is achieved by using a semi-slick area, both in the middle and in the edge of the rear tyre, to allow traction and stability in a straight line and absolute confidence at maximum lean angles in the dry. On road and on racetrack, transversal grooves between the rear's central section and edges disperse the residual water effectively and assure maximum grip throughout the corner, even on very wet surfaces.