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Pirelli PZero Nero Tires

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Old Dec 30, 2003 | 01:21 AM
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Pirelli PZero Nero Tires

Should I get the Pirelli PZero Nero M&S tires for South FLorida driving? They sound good on Tirerack. Any real world users out there? Thanks.

Last edited by clco; Dec 30, 2003 at 01:39 AM.
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Old Dec 30, 2003 | 09:38 AM
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depends on the weather
why get a tire designed to sacrifice dry and wet traction to be able to go through snow when you live in south Florida ..... doesn't make sense to me
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Old Dec 30, 2003 | 06:52 PM
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I guess I got confused by Tireracks description and everyone's praise of the Pirelli tire. It looked like it rated the best for Wet & Dry and only good on snow, which obviously doesn't concern me in South Florida. Is the Continental ContiExtreme a better match for me?
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Old Dec 30, 2003 | 08:48 PM
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i'd go with the s-03, pilot sport, or goodyear f1 gs-d3...
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Old Jan 2, 2004 | 02:55 PM
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Originally posted by clco
I guess I got confused by Tireracks description and everyone's praise of the Pirelli tire. It looked like it rated the best for Wet & Dry and only good on snow, which obviously doesn't concern me in South Florida. Is the Continental ContiExtreme a better match for me?
Contiextreme, same thing. U are sacrificing dry traction for snow performance, get an all out summer tire like the regular Pzero nero or something else. BTW what size wheel is this tire going on and what kind of car. What type of ride/performance are u looking for?
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Old Jan 4, 2004 | 03:20 PM
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So what you are saying is that TireRack's numbers are totally made up. I knew it... I got the Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S because Tirerack rated them higher than the Summer tire in every catagory from dry traction, comfort and wear. Damm, I wish I have gotten the summer tire and disregarded TireRacks made up numbers. Oh well, there's always next year.

Luke, thanks for exposing the truth about TireRack and shame on them for making up these numbers.
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Old Jan 5, 2004 | 09:35 AM
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You have to decide what type of tire do you want. Are you an agressive driver, and not too concerned about ride comfort or noise, or wear for that matter?

True, for all out max performance summer tires, S-03's, Pilot Sport (not A/S).
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Old Jan 7, 2004 | 11:23 PM
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Originally posted by Buellwinkle
So what you are saying is that TireRack's numbers are totally made up. I knew it... I got the Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S because Tirerack rated them higher than the Summer tire in every catagory from dry traction, comfort and wear. Damm, I wish I have gotten the summer tire and disregarded TireRacks made up numbers. Oh well, there's always next year.

Luke, thanks for exposing the truth about TireRack and shame on them for making up these numbers.
Actually they arent totally made up, the numbers can only be compared to other tires in the SAME category. You cannot compare a ultra high performance all season to the maximum performance summer tire for the pzero nero. Tirerack's site doesn't do a good job at explaining that but Luke has told me this.
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Old Jan 8, 2004 | 09:39 AM
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depends on the weather
the numbers are not made up .... they can only be used to compare tires of the same catagory
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Old Jan 8, 2004 | 02:37 PM
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i have those tires on my C and no complaints from me.. TireRack stayed true to their ratings.. the tires grip well, have good overall traction, would i put another set of them on my cars? hell yeah.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 05:15 PM
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That's why it's rated better, it has to do with catagories. So a tire that is highly rated for handling in an A/S catagory can be worse handling than a lower rated tire in a High Performance catagory. That explains it. I can tell you that by far, the P-Zero Nero has to be the absolute worst tire I've ever had on any car or motorcycle. It truly handles very well and is reasonably quiet (except on concrete roads) but it's major flaw is that it tramlines, it follows the rain grooves on our So Cal freeways and makes the car shake from side to side like a railcar. Very disconcerting and I can't wait to take them back to the point that I'm driving a different car until I get a chance to return them. Pirelli said that they will take them back for that reason as they received simiar complaints before. They recommended the P-Zero Rosso but that doesn't receive high marks from many for noise and wear and many would not buy it again.

I'm seriously thinking of the Goodyear F1 GS-D3's only because the thread pattern looks like it can't tramline because of the diaganol pattern and they are supposed to be quiet. I though about the Bridgestone S-03's which are a little cheaper but after this experience I don't want to take chances.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 06:43 PM
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Originally posted by Buellwinkle
That's why it's rated better, it has to do with catagories. So a tire that is highly rated for handling in an A/S catagory can be worse handling than a lower rated tire in a High Performance catagory. That explains it. I can tell you that by far, the P-Zero Nero has to be the absolute worst tire I've ever had on any car or motorcycle. It truly handles very well and is reasonably quiet (except on concrete roads) but it's major flaw is that it tramlines, it follows the rain grooves on our So Cal freeways and makes the car shake from side to side like a railcar. Very disconcerting and I can't wait to take them back to the point that I'm driving a different car until I get a chance to return them. Pirelli said that they will take them back for that reason as they received simiar complaints before. They recommended the P-Zero Rosso but that doesn't receive high marks from many for noise and wear and many would not buy it again.

I'm seriously thinking of the Goodyear F1 GS-D3's only because the thread pattern looks like it can't tramline because of the diaganol pattern and they are supposed to be quiet. I though about the Bridgestone S-03's which are a little cheaper but after this experience I don't want to take chances.
why dont u just get pilot sport A/S tires
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 07:28 PM
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According to Lynn who has the Michellin Pilot Sport A/S tires, they also have the same tramlining effect.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 08:02 PM
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Carl, I have the max performance summer Pilot Sports. They are standard equipment with the C7 package. They are now pretty worn, and I will use them for autocross school. They will be replaced with the Goodyear F1 GS-D3's.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 08:24 PM
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Those are the tires I'm thinking of. They are pricy at my local tire shop at $195 (otd) but probably worth it. There's absolutely no way they can tramline, the thread blocks are in a V shape from center.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 11:05 PM
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Originally posted by Buellwinkle
Those are the tires I'm thinking of. They are pricy at my local tire shop at $195 (otd) but probably worth it. There's absolutely no way they can tramline, the thread blocks are in a V shape from center.
every high performance summer tire ive driven on tramlines... good luck.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 11:51 PM
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Tirerack has an article on tramlining below but my problem is different -

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...tramlining.htm

These tires do not follow the expansion grooves between lanes like I've had on some tires in the past, to me that's acceptable but not a desireable trait. They are good in this regard, I can not detect lane expansion joint transitions at all. What happens to me is that when I drive on freeways in So Cal with rain grooves (purposely cut grooves about every 2" across the entire lane), the car actually has significant latteral motion, sort of like when you ride a train at high speeds and it shakes from side to side. I'm highly prone to motion sickness and it's to the point that I don't want to drive my car to work and take my truck instead. These are fairly new roads and are not rutted or defective in anyway, heck I-15 from Las Vegas I was on yesterday just opened the new section and that's where it was the worst. On the old parts of the road that were truly rutted like the above article mentions, it did not tramline at all.

These P-Zero Neros are all season tires, not high performance summer tires. I'm hoping the diagonal pattern of the Goodyears would be highly unlikely to exhibit this same traits as the P-Zero Nero.
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Old Jan 13, 2004 | 12:07 AM
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Carl, the Pilot Sports are severly affected by the rain grooves in concrete and they wander all over the road on rutted asphalt. You might want to try something narrower and with a taller aspect ratio than the 225/45-17's.
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Old Jan 13, 2004 | 12:19 AM
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Then why didn't the 225/45-17 Contisport tires that came with the C7 package tramline at all? My daughters Mustang with Goodyear 245/45-17's doesn't tramline and they are considerably wider but have the diagonal thread pattern. I'm certainly going to avoid the Pilot Sports because of your recommendation. I would get the Conti's but they are noisy tires and always look like they're flat, specially after sitting still for a while.

Also I'm surprised they have rain grooves where it snows like MO. I would think that water would get in and freeze and crack the concrete.

Checked around the web and found that Toyo Proxes T1-S where specifically designed to reduce tramlining and several people on various forums switched to this tire specifically for this problem and it fixed it. It must be the diagonal grooves. I'll see if they are available locally.

Last edited by Buellwinkle; Jan 13, 2004 at 12:43 AM.
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Old Jan 13, 2004 | 10:35 AM
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It does'nt snow much here. Usually, it rains than freezes. Temps can hover just around freezing for days or even weeks so there can be many freeze/thaw cycles per day. The roads here are generally in poor shape because of this and graft. Building substandard roads line the pockets of politicians and contractors and is a permanent full time employment program for the unions.
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Old Jan 14, 2004 | 03:44 AM
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i've always liked s-02...tread pattern was pretty cool as an extra...but it did get noisy when thin... haven't worn out the s-03 to know if they're noisy or not...
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Old Jan 14, 2004 | 01:06 PM
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Since the tire shop was nice enough to take back the P-Zero Nero's I'm taking their recommendation for the Bridgestone Potenza's for about the same price. I think the ones he showed me were the RE750's (at least that's the thread pattern). I'll let you know how those turn out when I get them.
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Old Jan 17, 2004 | 02:27 PM
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Woohoo, the P-Zero Nero's are gone. What's funny is that someone else with WRX returned them yesterday for the same reason at the same tire shop. The Potenza's are great, quieter, handle well and no tramlining, $10 more per tire.
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