Winner in races, Winner in tests. New Dunlop GP Racer D212 wins Performance Bikes Tyre Test

• Road legal Dunlop GP Racer D212 designed for track days and racing
• Ranked #1 by Performance Bikes Magazine in test of 5 brands
• Praise for turn in, feel and feedback

Respected magazine, Performance Bikes, has rated the latest Dunlop GP Racer D212 as the top tyre in a comparison test of five brands.

The magazine tested the tyres at the demanding Rockingham Motor Speedway in the UK. They used the 9-turn National Circuit for its combination of heavy braking zones, long traction areas and corner sequences that test a tyre’s ability to handle quick direction changes.

The magazines tested the slick versions of each of the tyre companies’ latest track day offerings and gathered feedback from two expert riders.

The first rider was Chris Walker, World Superbike race winner, and John McAvoy, Performance Bike Road Tester. Both testers rated the Dunlop as the top tyre in the comparison test, with top scores for the GP Racer’s turn-in and mid-corner behaviour. Both riders used the Kawasaki ZX-10R for the comparison test.

Best tyre for turn in characteristics

Walker described the Dunlop as having ‘Instantly transformed the front end and made the ZX-10R turn in like a full blown racing superbike!’

McAvoy agreed, giving the tyres 10/10 in this test.

Mid corner performance scores highly

Both test riders gave the GP Racer their top score for mid corne performance. ‘Tracked its line perfectly’ claimed McAvoy. ‘Great grip and feel from both ends’ claimed Walker.

Feel and Feedback rated as best in class

McAvoy praised the feel of the tyre: “Loads of feedback, loads of confidence….the front turns so quickly and grips so much that it feels like a video game”

This is the latest success for the Dunlop GP Racer D212. Available in slick and road legal versions, the latter was used to win the final round of the French Superbike Championship – where Lucas Mahias rode the GMT94 Yamaha to victory in both Supersport races.

The D212 GP Racer features several race proven technologies including:

• -A new Multi-Tread compound designed to improve durability, warm-up time and ultimate grip.
• -The revolutionary NTEC system, which allows pressure tuning for optimum road or track performance
• -The tyre also has a newly developed front and rear tyre profile to increase agility and rider confidence.

These technologies include learnings from Dunlop’s professional race tyre, the GP Pro D212, a tyre that Michael Dunlop relied on to take his 2013 Isle of Man TT class lap record of 131.2mph - faster than he achieved on a slick-shod superbike.

Test Notes

The test took place at Rockingham Speedway and was conducted by Performance Bikes magazine. The Dunlop GP Race D212 was compared to slick versions of the Michelin Power Slick EVO, Continental Track Slick, Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slick and Metzeler Racetec RR Slick K2.

The final overall scores were; Dunlop 90/100, Pirelli 85/100, Michelin 85/100, Continental 83/100, Metzeler 76/100.