I'm do for a new set and figured to go the MP4S route based on the forum posts. Curious if anyone who switched went to a different size? Pros and cons? The guys that did my tune recommended it. Sorry in advance for the tangent and a question likely already discussed elsewhere.

 

@Andrew_W.
Don't worry.. size matters..

I wonder if I really need the size of tyres I have now ; only 300HP [ 4-potter ] : 275/35/R19 rear and 245/40/R19 front.. Pzero..
Now, what comes under the 340/380/500HP cars ???

 

Same size that came on my car in 2013. Haven't seen any need to change.

 

@DJS.

You have 380HP, I have 300HP.. ..different weight distribution [60kg less in front] --> other tire sizes

 

 

ditto

 

Same here but I came close to side swiping cars three times in the last month in my '10 XKR. Once when I pulled out around a parked car, once when overtaking and once when pulling round someone who was turning left. On each occasion I accelerated enough to make the car change down a gear which made the rear end step out towards the other car.

I therefore ditched the OEM Dunlop Sports Maxx's which were only half worn and bought MP4S's and I can now kick down to second gear at 50 km/h on a damp road without the traction control light flashing once. On the old tyres the rear end would have fish tailed all the way to third gear. It has the XKR-S tune so has more power than a standard XKR but I have a lot more confidence in it now. The MP4S's are amazing tyres.

 

With '19s could only go 1/2 inch wider on rears, so i did. Michelin offers more choice for '20s.

 

People here seem to like their experience with Costco for the Michelins. Seems odd, but their tire facility does seem to be about the cleanest and best organized I've seen. Just would have to trust them to use non-power tools and reinstall my spacers correctly with the spec'd torque, etc.

 

Why would they need to remove the spacers in the first place?

 

Who needs spacers, to begin with... The car is set up by the factory in the best feasable way. Altering that might be preference or looks, but in reality almost never improofs OVERALL handling.
Some changes improof handling in the wet, others on the dry. So if you predominantly encounter either one, its an option to change settings.

The only thing I change in the setup is tyre pressure ; seems standard to be 0.4 bar too low, as the tyres wear more on inside ánd outside edges, far less in the center section.
And no : its not from persistant hard cornering or drifting...

 

I bought my car used with 9600 miles on it.
The P Zeros still had plenty of tread but were the scariest tires I ever tried to drive on.
Change lanes and step on the gas a bit and the car would fish tail.
I didn't care how many more miles they had on them.
I switched to the MP4S Michelins and they are great.

 

@Bushwacker.
Thanks Bill ! Its really amazing how many people on this forum have the same experience. Nobody ever considered getting in touch with a consumers organisation,
or even JLR ? Sofar only forum member mentioned taking it up with JLR.

I will ask my dealer if they're in for a 'part exchange' . They have plenty P300's about now, so a replacement set could be required any day... -soon I hope -.

 

When I was at Castle Bromwich I spoke directly to production engineers and minced no words about tires. They already knew this without me telling them.

 

Is the problem with the PZeros just he OEM tires? I know that generally a tire vendor will get a contract with a manufacturer to provide OEM tires and these tires aren't the same as the normal ones they sell.

I've always been a Pirelli fan, which goes back to my days of racing. They were the stickiest tires on the track with a great feel and predicable tapering off when they were near the end of their life. That and they paid me contingency money, so I have a soft spot for them.

 

The PZeros were OK when new, but that did not last. I'm not sure whether it was age or usage, but I could stretch it barely 4.5 years, 10K miles before they got too "loose" for me. The rears were pretty much done, grip wise, with no shoulder shape left, and were not even vaguely trustworthy when cold in any moisture at all. A set of MP4S have given me a new car (actually better than new). I would have changed to MP4S earlier (3.5 years) if I'd been able to get a complete set in the summer of last year, but MP4S were like hen's teeth at that time.

I've no bones with Pirelli about this at all - these are performance tires with limited choices available and I know I'm not going to get 50K miles out of any summer performance rubber: I've driven Pirellis since the 1970s, and I have just put new Pirelli P600s (as OEM) on the XJS. They seem a really good match to that car. Michelin (1st choice) or Continental (2nd choice) don't make an appropriately rated tire in that size any more. I guess that means that Pirelli is now my third choice brand. Vredestein is then my last trusted brand. After that, I just look for black and round with a hole in the middle and drive very conservatively.

I may possibly be a little bit paranoid about the subject: this is the man who picks his rental car based on tire brand, and who took a brand new set of Generals off an XJ8 he bought used, and donated them to a good cause. That got some very strange looks, as they still had the label remnants and vent spews on them. :-)

However, IMHO, any little edge helps when it's the only thing touching the road...

cjp

 

Yes, not as dramatic but twice as shameful, when I had my '11 XKR I was bent over around a smallish track by a mate in a WRX because I couldnt get the power down coming out of corners with those Dunlops. And then we took photos of the board and sent them to pretty much everyone we knew and a lot that we didnt.

No problem with the OEM's on my F Type though at 20,000km I am getting quite a bit more wheel spin. Swapping wheels soon and will have Michelins on 21 inch rims.

 

Like many others I noticed a huge improvement when I dumped the half-worn P-Zeros and fitted MPS4S.
I couldn't tell for sure whether the P-Zeros that came with the car (19 months old and 26,xxx km) were the original factory fit or the second set, but as they had heaps of tread still on them I reckon they were the second set. I did only some 5,000 km on them before the inner edges started to wear out and the rear end became very squirrelly.
Anyway, I have read elsewhere that the latest P-Zeros are a new construction and compound and a lot better than the older JLR factory fit ones.
Still nowhere near as good as MPS4S, but better than they were.

 

Brain fart HAHA - thanks!

 

No one installs spacers to improve handling, but to get away from the ugly look of the sunken in tires, the pogo stick look. Compare any factory tire size F-Type with no spacers vs say 17mm spacers and it is the #1 appearance mod you can make.
Sorry for the off-topic reply but I always get comments like "your Jag looks different somehow - it sits like a Ferrari." The sunken-in tire look SUCKS.