Dunlop, Official Tyre Partner to the MSA British Touring Car Championship, has developed a new specification soft tyre to be used in the 2016 championship.

The new ‘Dunlop Sport Maxx BTCC Soft’ tyre was signed off after extensive testing, culminating in a final validation session at Donington Park yesterday (22 October).

The new Soft tyre uses the same construction as the 2015 Medium specification tyre which improved stability under braking and gave even greater consistency throughout a race distance.

Armand Rup, Motorsport Design Engineer, outlined the objectives of the new tyre: “Dunlop has had tremendous success in open tyre competition this year – winning the European Le Mans Series with Greaves Motorsport this year. This new BTCC tyre uses materials that have been proven in that championship winning tyre in some of Europe’s toughest endurance races.”

The new Sport Maxx Soft tyre was tested on a range of cars at Snetterton in Summer 2015, but the final validation of the tyre was concluded yesterday at a cold Donington Park circuit. The drivers were Sam Tordoff (BMW), Colin Turkington (VW) and Matt Neal (Honda), allowing the tyre to be tested on three very different race winning cars.

“The BTCC season involves a wide variety of circuits, cars and temperatures and our goal is to have two tyres that can perform strongly over a race distance – but depending on the circuit, one tyre will always be the optimum one.  At Snetterton, we tested in 30c track temperatures and at Donington in 12c temperatures and we are confident that we have developed a range of BTCC tyres that have the versatility to suit all circuits and climates” added Rup.

The Soft and Medium tyres will continue to be identified by white Dunlop letters (soft) and yellow and black Dunlop lettering (medium) on the sidewall.

Dunlop Motorsport’s UK Manager, Michael Butler added: “This is the third upgrade to the Sport Maxx BTCC range in two years showing that, even in one-brand championships, we are always pushing forward for greater performance.”