Where Did the Vitour Tempesta P1 Come From?
The man behind this effort is Sammy Valafar, a longtime racer known for pushing the gray areas of regulations in both SCCA and NASA. Lately, he’s found a home with the Optima Ultimate Street Car series, a venue with very few car prep restrictions other than the requirement for 200tw street tires. His vehicles of choice have typically been Miatas.
Vitour Tires are designed and manufactured in China, with an emphasis on fitments for work vehicles. Looking to expand into the UHP market, its president, Jeff Liu, came to the 2016 SEMA Show, where he met Valafar. The two worked together for several years to build a tire that could compete at the highest level, marked at the time by the Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R.
[Goodyear F1 Supercar 3 and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 vs. the Outgoing Bridgestone RE-71R]
By the time their new tire–the Tempesta Enzo–came to market, however, newer, faster models were in play, most notably the Yokohama Advan A052.
[200-treadwear tire test | Falken RT660 vs. Yokohama A052 vs. Nankang CR-1]
With the bar raised again, more development occurred, resulting in the Tempesta P1. Their internal testing showed it to be at least as quick as anything else out there. Given what we’ve now seen, that may have been a significant understatement.
Valafar’s company, VU Development, is currently the sole importer for this tire, but the eventual goal is to have much broader retail distribution through additional outlets.
What Sizes Are the Vitour Tempesta P1 Available In?
To prove the tire’s potential, Eric Anderson was enlisted to try them out on his multi-championship-winning, 500-horsepower, SSM-class Miata. In an autocross setting, he found the Tempesta P1 to run within a half-second of his usual Hoosier A7s. (To put that into perspective, the usual delta between R-comps and 200tw tires is 1-2 seconds. Impressive stuff.)
Current SCCA Xteme Street and CAM rules have no minimum size availability requirements, with Chris Edens winning XSB in Eric Anderson’s SSM Miata at this year’s SCCA Solo Nats on the Vitour P1. Photography Credit: Rupert Berrington
The first production tires, available in only two sizes–285/30R15 and 225/40R15–arrived in the U.S. in late spring. A full spread of sizes was promised for December to meet SCCA rules requirements for autocross and time trials use, although that appears to have been pushed back to Q1 of 2024. With that timeline in place, we arranged to put them through our GRM testing regime to validate the performance claims.
To keep things as equitable as possible, we chose to test the 225mm width, which is also available in one of the category-leading time trial tires, the Nankang Sportnex CR-S V2. We know this tire well.
There is a difference in aspect ratio between the tires, though: 225/45R15 for the Nankang Sportnex CR-S and 225/40R15 for the Vitour Tempesta P1. While this difference does affect gearing somewhat, it was the closest we could get, and data analysis would help quantify any acceleration difference. (Turns out it was minimal.)
When the P1s arrived, we immediately noticed that they were quite a bit wider than a normal 225 but not as wide as a 245. Given that we already had a set of very low-mileage, 245mm-wide Nankangs mounted from a previous test, we decided to do two comparisons here: one against the 245 and the other versus the 225.
The 225mm Vitour Tempesta P1 (middle) is sized like a 235: wider than the typical 225 and narrower than a 245. Molded to 7/32 tread depth only in the two inner longitudinal grooves, the other voids are shallower at just 3.5/32. As the tire wears, it will become a slick halfway through its life in on all but those two grooves. The P1 is also two pounds lighter than the Nankang CR-S. Photography Credit: Andy Hollis
The 245s were mounted on 9-inch-wide wheels, but our experience suggested that the pinched fitment would not fare any faster than the 225s. But since we had the means, testing both beckoned.
Each set of tires was mounted on 15x9-inch Kogeki wheels from Flyin’ Miata, which are among the few that clear the ND Miata’s Brembo brakes. Designed for 17s, the car looks a little odd on 15s, and the lowered center of gravity gives it more of a go-kart handling feel, but it works just fine. It does take a little creativity to get a jack under the car to change tires, however.
We had to get creative to get a jack under the car with the super-short 225/40R15 Vitour. Photography Credit: Andy Hollis
Each set of tires was given a preliminary heat cycle with a 45-minute highway drive, followed by six laps of increasing intensity around Harris Hill Raceway and then a return to home base on twisty country roads. Tires were then removed and allowed to cool.
The Vitour tire had a soft, compliant feel over road irregularities, only complaining when driven over expansion joints or dips in the road. This is typical of tires with soft compounds overlaying strong belt packages. Steering response was linear and not overly responsive, with very little self-centering.
By contrast, the Nankang had a progressive response, turning in harder the more it was loaded. This sporty feel came at the expense of more road imperfections transmitted to the driver.
Designed for 17-inch wheels, our ND Miata looks a little odd with the 15s–but it drives fine. Photography Credit: Andy Hollis
Round 1
- Nankang Sportnex CR-S V2
- Size: 245/40R15
- Fastest lap: 1:27.5
- 1:27.9, 1:27.5, 1:27.6, 1:27.7, 1:27.8
Under ambient temps in the 80s, our Nankang’s compound turned on with just a hard out lap and half of a push lap. By the second full lap, we had set our quick time, and subsequent circuits slowed slightly. The CR-S delivered its usual enthusiastic driving characteristics: eagerness to dive to apexes, abundant grip and progressive breakaway/recovery.
- Vitour Tempesta P1
- Size: 225/40R15
- Fastest lap: 1:26.8
- 1:26.9, 1:26.8, 1:26.8, 1:27.6, 1:27.8
Our first three laps on the Vitour were all within a tenth–and much quicker than the Nankang. But the tire soon heat soaked, and times plummeted rapidly. Recovery came slowly from occasional moments of overdriving and served to accelerate the heat soaking.
Mega grip is the P1’s forte, with immediate effect. It drives like a typical R-comp, filling out the corners of the friction circle. It makes big pace differentials with large asks under combined loading–trail braking and corner exit power application. Given that, it rewards driver confidence to make those asks.
While our first three laps appeared consistent, later data analysis showed that we never completely connected the dots in any single lap. There was more time to be had. But it had to be done when the tire was still cool.
- Nankang Sportnex CR-S V2 (retest)
- Size: 245/40R15
- Fastest lap: 1:27.1
- 1:27.5, 1:27.1, 1:27.5, 1:27.8, 1:28.0
Back on the familiar CR-S to bracket our test, we found a bit more time –and some heat soak. Data showed two areas on that one flyer where we’d carried a bit more entry speed. However, we were confident that the relative pace differential between the two tires was close. And with another round of testing looming, we’d be able to confirm that.
Round 2
- Nankang Sportnex CR-S V2
- Size: 225/45R15
- Fastest lap: 1:27.5
- 1:27.9, 1:27.5, 1:27.6, 1:27.5, 1:28.0
As expected, the 225mm-width Nankang delivered similar lap times to the 245 when both were mounted on 15x9-inch wheels. The 225 is a perfect slightly stretched fitment, while the 245 is a bit pinched. The 225 was a bit crisper on turn-in but also heat soaked a little sooner due to having less rubber.
- Vitour Tempesta P1
- Size: 225/40R15
- Fastest lap: 1:26.4
- 1:26.4, 1:27.1, 1:27.9, 1:27.9
Armed with more knowledge of the tire’s capabilities and requirements, we tip-toed around on our out lap and then hit it hard for the first push lap. Our approach was rewarded with another half-second improvement over the first test.
That said, the tire could only do it once. By the middle of the second lap, grip began to fall off as the compound reacted to the amount of energy being pushed through it. In particular, heavy trail braking after the back straight into T5, which transitions into an off-camber, uphill climb, served to be too much to handle by the second circuit. Subsequent laps were a full second slower.
- Nankang Sportnex CR-S V2 retest
- Size: 225/45R15
- Fastest lap: 1:27.4
- 1:27.8, 1:27.4, 1:27.6, 1:27.7, 1:27.8
Back out on the CR-S, we dropped back to familiar lap time territory and performance, giving us confidence that our comparative data was good.
Is the Vitour Tempesta P1 the Tire to Have Now?
On the track, the Vitour Tempesta P1 is an outlier in the category in several ways. Among tires marked “200tw,” it is by far the quickest we’ve ever tested.
But it’s also the least consistent over full sessions. It does not tolerate overdriving, rewarding instead those with precise skills. As such, it seems more at home around cones in a parking lot but could be made to work on track in a time trials setting. This is especially true for some of the bigger sizes where the amount of rubber on the rim is large relative to the weight of the car, which delays the onset of heat soak.
We saw accelerated wear, including some significant graining, with the P1 compared to the CR-S. Per our durometer at ambient shop temps, the P1 compound is as soft as a fresh Hoosier R7 (60) while a Yokohama A052 reads 68. Photography Credit: Andy Hollis
The challenge will be availability, given that Vitour is a small manufacturer with only a single small retail outlet in the U.S. The pace differential to the current top dogs–Yokohama Advan A052, Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS and Nankang Sportnex CR-S–is so large that the P1 becomes a must-have to effectively compete.
Can Vitour supply the entire field of autocrossers and time trialers in the country? In the initial two sizes, only 50 sets were imported for each. And with the wear rate we’ve seen, those will need to be replaced more frequently than current offerings.
When SCCA moved away from unstreetable R-comps a decade ago in its entry-level categories, there were some who predicted this sort of scenario: A small, motivated manufacturer would build a dominant tire that just barely skirted the UTQG treadwear ratings process in ways that major manufacturers could not due to liability concerns.
Is the Vitour Tempesta P1 that tire? That’s up to the rules makers to decide.
Photography Credit: Andy Hollis
