Your rim weight would make quite a difference, and you did presumably swap worn tyres for new, which also has to be taken into consideration.

 

Okay, glad I explicitly asked. Had the sense to this point that there were basically no kind words out there for them ;-0

How about harshness differences? I’ve heard it said that non-Pirelli choices (Michelin, Continental, etc) have also contributed to removing some elements of the car’s harshness that would otherwise be there with the stock tire. Any thoughts/comments towards that? Just curious.

Taking deliver of a 2024 R not too long from now. I figure I’ll just at least go through the stock Pirelli rears and replace all 4 with a new set of something at that point. I don’t really fancy the idea of immediately moving on from a fresh set of rubber.

 

I haven't noticed any change in the ride comfort so far. I enjoy the car too much to be concentrating on any one specific thing!

 

Yes, they are really that bad.

I love Pirelli. I had the Pirelli posters of the bottle of wine, the woman and the car on my bedroom wall as a kid. Pirelli was a premium brand that carried a prestige.

When I road raced motorcycles, I raced on Michelins, Dunlop and Pirelli. Pirelli was the best and for about six years, I was sponsored by Pirelli. I Love Pirelli.

When my wife's Range Rover needed new tires, I got Pirelli Scorpions. Great tires.

Then I got the F-Type. The first I really noticed an issue with the tires that I could not excuse was at 1500 miles. I was on a cloverleaf with the temp around 50 and at about 1/3 power, the rear end stepped out. This happened again several more times, but the tires had plenty of tread and I wasn't going to leave money on the table, so I kept running them. Then, at 7700 miles, I did a track day, so I put on new Flakens with the intention of putting the P-Zeros back on. The Flakens were SO MUCH better. When I wore those out 18,000 miles, they still had great grip and I had no issues. I left the P-Zeros in my garage and bought Bridgestone All Season, which were also great tires.

When I bought my SVR, I switched thep-Zeros at 2400 miles and just left them at the tire shop. I put on Michelin Sport Cup 2s as this is a fair weather car only. Having said that, I had to run down to my parents' house to assist with a medical issue and drove my car 900 miles straight through some unique weather, which included snow over the grapevine. The Sport Cups did fine. Better than P-Zeros.

Long story long, two sets of OEM P-Zeros were both horrible. This isn't a placebo effect. You even read people here saying they are fine, but the rear breaks loose sometimes. That is not fine.

 

Yeah very true, though the Pirelli's would break traction from new and I got rid of them with heaps of meat left on them when I changed rims, whereas the Michelins only got that way toward the end of their life.

That said, there are other factors, eg how long the tyres have been sitting on a shelf. My XKR tyres were dreadful and when I replaced them I think the tyres might have been sitting in storage for ages as the ride and grip were worse.

And as for the rears breaking loose, actually I am bogan/chav/redneck enough to quite enjoy as long as it can be controlled - as it can with the F Type which allows a bit of wheel spin without the power being interfered with (as opposed to the XKR where you would lose power to the rear wheels). It is kind of Jag's party piece, part of the reason that these cars are fun. I always thought it was intentional in the F Type that it would be a bit tail happy, at least in the RWD models, maybe when arriving at tyres they settled on the P zeros which would allow wheelspin.

 

I agree the Mich PS4S got much noisier at 1/2 worn, also harder. 14k

 

I am very much in the "P-Zeros are crap" camp.
On the way to my place is a brief stretch of two lane road which after a traffic light narrows to a one lane bridge, with a mild bend in the middle just before it narrows.
In my XFR I simply "burned off" whatever was next to me with maybe about 1/2 go pedal, originally on very worn MPSS then new Bridgestone Potenza S-04.
The very first time (and I believe also the very last time!) I did this in the F-Type on the half-worn P-Zeros it came with I almost lost the rear end completely and I nearly side swiped the poor ******* next to me. And that was on a perfectly dry road in a stock untuned V6S at no more than 1/2 go pedal!
I then read up some more on the P-Zeros as factory fitted to F-Types and discovered many similar horror stories (even worse in the wet!), and I could not get rid of them fast enough.
The difference on the new MPS4S was night and day, chalk and cheese, I could now power around that bend with zero loss of grip or traction and waaaaay more confidence.

 

This is incorrect thinking .

You are buying an absolutely amazing car that you are most likely going to be driving pretty darn hard. Spend a couple of grand more and get better tires. It's money well spent [and might just keep you and your car in one piece].

 

Jaguar 'tuned' the suspension to the P-Zeros. They handle wonderfully when the tires are new (but yeah, they don't last long).

For street driving though, the UHP tires have a narrow range of optimization. Be CAREFUL if you use a P Zero in cold weather. They don't grip AT ALL especially after a years' worth of heat cycles!

It is this reason that we fitted HP All Weather tires to our F. Handling is superbly balanced, and cold weather isn't a cause for concern. Tread-wear rating of 550 VS 220 on the P-Zeros is an added benefit.