Well, I’ve been reading through countless posts through out these forums on appropriate tyres for use on our 2007 XKR and concluded that opinions and recommendations are like belly buttons (everyone has one)!
When I picked up my new XKR Portfolio from the dealer, they had to fit new tyres and as they do, fitted the cheapest nastiest tyres they could find to pass the roadworthy. (Accelera on the front and Kumoh on the rear). the result being that they have successfully transformed a highly sophisticated high performance grand tourer into a very unstable and noisy truck!
To this end I’m looking at replacing these tyres with Jaguar’s OE, being the Dunlop Sport Maxx. Now given that Jaguar spent a significant amount of money and research time, whilst working closely with one specific tyre manufacturer to effectively develop a tyre that is perfectly tuned to match the vehicles performance characteristics, I’m not convinced that other tyres would achieve the same optimal result.
Not only the tread pattern but also the construction and composition of materials of the tyre are finely tuned to optimise the driving dynamics of these high performance vehicles and because the tyres interact directly with the safety systems within the vehicle ABS, DSC, etc., Jaguar undertake exhaustive testing to ensure a perfect match.
Alternate tyres may be fine for lesser vehicles such as our Honda Civic and BMW 325i, but I’m not sure how other tyre manufacturers, that have developed their tyres independently to suit a range of vehicles, are not in some way compromised to achieve a tyre construction that will provide a good alround general performance but not bring out the very best and optimised characteristics of a finely tuned performance vehicle such as the XKR.
So, I’m not really asking for a “belly button” opinion on the most appropriate and best tyre for our rides, but I just thought I’d put this out there for general thoughts and perspective of matched tyre design for high performance cars such as our Jaguars, Aston’s, Ferrari’s, etc. which are dependent upon all components having been effectively engineered to achieve the best and most optimal result.

Yes, they have indeed, but they haven’t been engineered and matched to our 10 year old XKR..

Ummm, yes. I know that Porsche and other top vehicle manufacturers spend quite a bit developing specific tyres to suit the dynamics and characterstics of their vehicles. And with Tata injecting much needed capital into the brand, it would be a small investment to work with a preferred tyre supplier that would develop a tyre that would complete the package. So why would they not?

Well, I’d hardly class the Dunlop Sport Maxx (which are still being produced today) as being old and crappy. What I’ve got on the car now is actually “new and crappy”. Old doesn’t necessarily automatically make them crappy... look at me for instance.
Ahhh, well maybe not me .... scrub that thought...

Really? Well that’s very targeted and constructive.... not!

So so much for a mature and sound technical discussion.
For what it’s worth I will be fitting a set of Continental CSC 5P, which have from experience performed brilliantly on previous BMWs and Jags that I’ve owned (straying away from what the XKR, was originally designed to have being the Dunlop’s, of which the original directional tyre design has now really been well and truely surpassed, with more modern tyres. But it would be interesting to know or be able to quantify what parameters that formed part of the original integrated design would be affected and by how much, some better and some worse at a guess.

Ah yes.
Well, decided to do some further research into this myself and the answer to my question is that some of the tyre manufacturers do indeed produce specific versions of tyres that have been specifically designed to compliment the characteristics and required performance and ride qualities of specific makes. In fact a friend of mine (ex formula 2 race driver) was also engaged to test tyres being developed for various model vehicles. Some tyres would have very slight changes to part of the trend pattern, but typically they differed in the tyre compound mixtures, and side wall construction, etc. Typically the Pirelli P Zeros have been produced for a large range of vehicles, and a designated accordingly with a letter. J being for Jaguars, AO for Audi’s, F for Ferrari, etc..
So if you are choosing a set of P-Zeros for your Jaguar, they should be designated J.
Having said and researched that, the P-Zeros (recommended tyre fitment for the XK) are a somewhat old design now and the latest PZ4s have yet to be released here. So, I’ve decided to fit the latest Michelin PS4’s, which have had good reviews.
Ah well, time will tell!