The good: at a shade under 8000 miles, my stock P Zeros are holding up remarkably well. Now the car hasn't been babied - she's a naughty little minx who likes a little hard and fast action and that's what she gets. Very little obvious tread wear, and what wear there is looks to be even. The rears on my past 997's (which were also P Zeros albeit in the Porsche N1 spec) were absolutely shot by 8000 miles and needed replacing.

The bad: it's probably going to be a while before I can switch out the P Zeros (which despite the stellar tread wear are only a mediocre tire) for those PSS's I have my eye on.

Wish the OEM tires were better than the P Zeros but I have to say I'm very impressed with the longevity on these ones.

My tires look great at 9,300 miles. Driven pretty aggressively.

I have been debating whether to just swap the tires out on delivery, or keep them and use them up. The tread life you are seeing doesn't help in this decision

Keep them. It's car forum tradition to complain about the factory-equipped tires on a high performance car. People always think there's something better out there that will be a miraculous improvement. The difference in prestige-brand, high performance tires are round-off error on the street.

The P-Zeros are quite satisfactory.

Oh I agree with suggestion that it's an automotive tradition to complain about OEM tires. With that said, I do think there's some justification here, the OEM tires we get are actually close to the bottom in their category on Tire Rack

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...ay.jsp?type=MP

P Zeros were also OEM tires on my most recent 911, and that car improved considerably after a tire change to Michelins.

As I said, perhaps there are some tires that are marginally better, but for street use, is the difference really worth tossing out a brand new set of P-Zeros? I think not. As I said, it's round-off error.

As for Tire Rack "ratings," I wouldn't put an awful lot of stock in those reviews or any other internet reviews. Some marketing departments are better than others in seeding websites with favorable reviews.

As for your Porsche experience, are you sure you weren't the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy? It's very similar to the placebo effect. If you think something is going to make you better, it most likely will make you feel better. That's not a criticism, just a normal human trait.

With tire comparisons, people generally think that new fresh set of rubber they just put on is amazingly superior to whatever they just took off. However, the hard numbers yielded by test results often tell a different story.

I agree with you completely. There is a marked difference between the two. Turn-in and cornering feel are much better with the PSS, in addition to better overall traction.

I've driven both Pirelli P-Zero and Michelin PS2 tires on multiple cars both on the street as well as track. (BMW M3 and Porsche 997s) In my opinion the Michelin PS2 is a better performing tire on these types of sports cars. IMO the PS2 adds confidence as well as predictability in max performance situations.

The Pirelli tire I really do like is the Trofeo R-comp but that is a track tire.

Walt

Not sure if you guys have them in the old colony but I have had really great experiences from Vredestein tyres - were fitted to my last 2 XKs and most cars before that.

Really good grip in all weather