Apollo Tyres and Italdesign mark 27 years of collaboration with the Vredestein Quatrac Pro 2 UHP all-season tyre arriving in Europe in 2026.
Vredestein Quatrac Pro 2 Brings Art to the Sidewall with “Passage” Design by Italdesign
Vredestein Tyres (Vredestein) has revealed that its upcoming Quatrac Pro 2 ultra-high-performance (UHP) all-season tyre will feature a distinctive sidewall design developed in collaboration with Italian design firm Italdesign.
The Quatrac Pro 2 is being developed, engineered, and manufactured in Europe by Apollo Tyres, Vredestein‘s parent company. It features an all-new structure, innovative materials, and an advanced directional tread design, and is intended to sit among the top performers in the all-season category. The tyre is tailored for sports cars, supercars, and high-performance saloons, hatchbacks, and SUVs. It has also been engineered to be compatible with hybrid and battery electric vehicles by providing low rolling resistance and noise levels.
The sidewall design, themed “Passage”, depicts the seasons as a seamless interplay of solids and voids, with fluid graphical elements evoking leaves, snow, and rain. The theme reflects the cyclical nature of the seasons and the concept of journey and transition, referencing the tyre’s all-season capabilities through visual cues, such as ripples on water and suggestions of wind and movement.
“The theme of ‘Passage’ suggests a continuous path, where each season is a distinct yet interconnected stage, allowing for personal interpretation of the present moment. In this way, ‘Passage’ invites reflection on life’s transient nature and how we navigate through time. Much like when we design a car, we see the sidewall of a Vredestein tyre as a blank canvas to bring character to a high-performance product,” Enrico Lago, Industrial Design Team Leader at Italdesign, explained.
“We have enjoyed more than 25 years of close collaboration with the Vredestein brand, and the insights gained from each project have laid the foundation for the next. The Quatrac Pro 2 marks another important chapter in this story,” he added.
The Quatrac Pro extends a collaboration between Apollo Tyres and Italdesign spanning more than 27 years, with previous joint projects including the original Vredestein Sportrac in 1999 and the Ultrac Pro in 2024.
Apollo Tyres research found that 43 per cent of driving enthusiasts surveyed across Europe agreed that tyres look boring and that they would like to buy a tyre with a more distinctive sidewall design. Udyan Ghai, Group Head of Marketing at Apollo Tyres, said, “We’re proud of our long-standing relationship with Italdesign, and it is extremely rewarding to bring to market something that is genuinely unique, perfectly aligned with the tyre’s all-season capabilities.”
The Vredestein Quatrac Pro 2 will be available across Europe from summer 2026 in a range of popular sizes.
