Hi Dougal
That is good news. We have met and spoken about this tyre.
I'm the guy from the F1 team / Motorsport Industry Association who bent your (and other folks) ears at the Pirelli /Longstone stand at the Birmingham Autosport international Motorsport show a year or two ago -- lobbying to reintroduce this CN36 215 60 15 Pirelli tyre.
IIRC the RS was the first to have different size front and rears and initially its supply to Porsche exclusive to Pirelli, so good move from a historic milestone perspective. Available on that model from Porsche model year 1973 so presumably available from late summer 1972.
I actually still have a couple of old German-made 215 60 15 CN 36. An old version that require inner tubes like were fitted to the RS when new, as documented in excerpt from an early 1973 RS road-test article shown at bottom of this post.
Altough old they're still visually excellent shape and have decent tread do I've kept this pair for "show", (not "go" obviously) because nothing else looks quite right on early RS with 6 and 7s.
This is a Pirell advert photo from June 1973 in a UK magazine, the tyre is labelled Roadstar and refers only to 70 profile -- so not sure why advert call them that unless they are different from CN36? Sprinzel had a Porsche dealership (Denham) UK listed in the Porsche factory service directory maroon and silver book in 1973.
Front CN36 have not been a problem to find and I have a number of period ones plus they are available but these rears in the 215 60 15 size proverbial hens teeth, so I'm told.
It would be great to get some new -- correct and usable for an RS. The ones I have bear the old three digit date code and given they are old school tube type I've wondered if the 404 is week 40 of either 1974 or 1984. Maybe Dougal can tell me?
There is no triangle signifying 90s, which I understand was used the decade before the move to 4 digit age code. Also I've owned car since before 94 so don't see how this pair here could be from week 40 1994 but it and IIRC they came with the car among the collection of spares but not actually on the car / wheels. It was a long time ago so not totally certain. Here and also at bottom are some pictures for anyone interested to see markings of these old 215 60 15 CN36 Pirellis:
Be interesting where any new ones made and what side markings appear.
Brian (Fryardds) once kindly sent some info about my car. He pointed out had handwritten "Dunlop" hand annotated by someone at factory ( Jurgen Barth maybe?) alongside my vin # entry, but the car's spare is an unused wheel and 185 70 15 CN36 (all pimples intact across full tread) on the 6 x15 12/72 dated Fuchs. We never solved that mystery as my car would have probaly pre dated Dunlops being option on RS unless it was some sort of trial? Series Fuchs and full size spare are original to the British market RS and Pirelli brand tallies with a factory confirmation letter that I trust more than the COA, despite the latter saying Pirelli too.
I also have pair of 215 60 15 correct specificaton or RS Dunlops too, but much prefer the Pirelli CN 36 tread pattern which seem right for first series RS. I have heard they were better quality from people who remember the choice with less failures when new. Matters not for show only tyres of course. The Dunlops are tubeless and dated similarly week 42 of year 4 as shown in photo below.
None of these old tyres are fitted to car or wheels, just stored carefully to preserve them.
Steve
Another shot of one of the tube type Pirellis showing date code and other info with the early RS February 1973 British road-test excerpt :
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Originally Posted by 911MRP
