what tyre ?

[oldnick]

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article...Zero-Story.htm

as I have said before ...horses for courses

[Lee S]

That's very interesting. I always wondered what the differences were in the same tyre but with the different manufacturers code on the side.

Thanks.

[Turbo Tony]

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

[oldnick]

well of course it isn't just pirelli tuning tyres like this although they have become kings of the top of the range market as you can see by the homologation charts [ and sales apparently although the figures are a closely guarded secret in the industry ]

but can it really be correct that , for example ,BMW demand a tyre as OE which won't be available on the replacement market ?

but there is no way you can change one characteristic of a tyre in isolation , not that pirelli claim to do so ,note the ...offers a smaller improvement.....statement

[1781cc]

It's funny cause I put Pirelli P Zeros on mine when I got the car, removing the expired Yokos and I won't be buying them again! Pilot sports or ultrac vortis I think.

One of my Pirellis had a casing error and no amount of balancing could fix, Pirelli didn't want to know, despite overwhelming evidence it was the tyre.

[ainarssems]

I am mostly using second hand tires and always check manufacturing dates. My experience with Pirellis is that hey are OK when new(ish) but performance drops off sharply as they age, 3-4 years old to the manufacturing date and the grip drops off, especially in cold and wet. My favorites are Michelin, great new, no noticeable drop off in performance as they age and lasts very long. I have recently bought a set of unused old stock Michelin Alpin A4, almost 3 years since manufacturing for our A6 for £200. I can say I would not have bought 3 year old unused Pirellis even if unused tyres are generally allowed to sell as new for 2 years since manufacturing date. I have the same aging experience with most of top tyre manufacturers including Good Year and Dunlop. Continental seem to age better but they are not that great to start with but they do last for a lot of miles of abuse and have predictable and progressive loss of grip instea of sudden loss. Really disappointed with Good Year Eagle F1 currently on S8 as well, I bought them second hand 2 years old with 7-7.5mm and they were not too great to start with and 2 years later very poor grip. I can get rear inside wheel spinning quite easily on turns, at least they have acceptable lateral grip