Pirelli Design launches an F1 tire-shaped Bluetooth speaker
The 100-watt speaker is offered in nine different colors.
Are you a discerning car enthusiast looking for that final accent piece to dress up your office, study or garage? Would you prefer it if said accent piece were functional as well as aesthetic? Meet the Pirelli P Zero Sound, a Bluetooth speaker designed to look like a one-half-scale Formula 1 racing wheel and tire.
The tire itself is actually a replica of the smaller-size wind tunnel tires that Formula 1 teams use to test. It's no secret, of course, how important aerodynamic performance is to racing teams. The Pirelli P Zero Sound, however, is not made of rubber but instead packs a 100-millimeter midwoofer and a 25mm tweeter. It pairs to phones, tablets and other devices via Bluetooth for music playback, packing a 100-watt amplifier. Bluetooth 4.0 and AptX connectivity should ensure high-quality audio reproduction.
Pirelli will sell the speaker with nine different color schemes reflecting the various types of tires available to Formula 1 racing teams. The speaker measures 12.9 inches in diameter and weighs 21 pounds. It's manufactured by iXoost (it's supposed to sound like "exhaust"), a company based in Modena, Italy, that produces a variety of other motorsports- and automotive-themed speaker systems.
So far Pirelli hasn't released a price for the P Zero Sound in the US, but iXoost's website suggests you could pick up half a dozen real tires for the cost of the speaker. It's listed there for 2,400 euros, equivalent to about $2,800.
