Greg Mansell's dad had one of these...
It's easy to shag a set of tyres on a 500hp super-coupe, but we've rarely seen it done with such aplomb as when Greg Mansell shredded the Pirelli P Zero Corsas on the PH fleet BMW M6 at Silverstone.
The M6 was pressed into service by the Beechdean Mansell team for some high speed, mainly sideways passenger laps of the new Silverstone circuit for the benefit of our recent PH competition winners. Greg, who at 22 years old wouldn't be covered by our insurance to drive the M6 on the road (go figure!), gave the car such a good thrashing that smoke was pouring off the brake pads and the tyres had er, 'gone off' within a couple of laps.
The Pirelli P Zero Corsa Asymmetrics which are so sticky on the road were no match for the treatment being meted out, and once all 10 PH competition winners had been treated to their hot lap the rubber was in a truly sorry state.
Greg signs the shredded P Zero
Greg found the experience suitably amusing, so we got him to sign and date one of the rear tyres as a memento of the experience.
Chatting afterwards, it turns out Greg's had a bit of history with the M6, as dad Nigel used to own one himself when the car was first launched.
"We all really liked it," said Greg, referring to himself, his brother Leo and his dad. "There are lots of cars that are really quick, but we were all really impressed by the very good stability at high speed - you know, over 160mph."
I basked for a moment in the new-found knowledge that the legendary Nigel Mansell OBE 'rated' our fleet flagship so highly.
"Of course it's a complete pudding on the track compared to that," said Greg, which might have destroyed the magic of the moment had he not been referring to the family's Ginetta-Zytek LMP1 car sitting in the garage behind us.
Which leaves us only one question, namely what to do with one utterly shagged Pirelli P Zero with the signature of a possible future Le Mans winner on it. So yes folks, it's competition time again!
If you want this unique item of motorsport memorabilia, drop us an email at competitions@pistonheads.com with 'Greg Mansell' in the subject line, and a name and address in the UK where you'd like us to post it. Entries close on Monday, and the first email out of the PH virtual hat gets it.
(And all we got was a £776 bill for a new set of rear tyres...)