Pirelli P-Zero Corsas & Cold Weather
Discussion
Several comments on here & elsewhere about how dire PZ Corsas are in anything under 7 degrees. Well, a 35 mile journey early this morning saw temperatures of 2 degrees, rising to only 3 on arrival.
Cold enough to make tyre pressures 0.1bar/0.2bar lower than normal (Front/Rear) when I set off, but performance didn't seem particularly effected? Temperatures gained their respective losses within a couple of miles, and rose the usual driving pressures within 5 miles?
OK, I wasn't giving it the full beans, but there seemed no real difference in performance? No loss of grip, no traction control light flickering?
Is the Corsa's cold weather performance over-stated? Or only noticeable in the last few % of performance? Given comments read, I expected to slide off the road at the first corner?
Cold enough to make tyre pressures 0.1bar/0.2bar lower than normal (Front/Rear) when I set off, but performance didn't seem particularly effected? Temperatures gained their respective losses within a couple of miles, and rose the usual driving pressures within 5 miles?
OK, I wasn't giving it the full beans, but there seemed no real difference in performance? No loss of grip, no traction control light flickering?
Is the Corsa's cold weather performance over-stated? Or only noticeable in the last few % of performance? Given comments read, I expected to slide off the road at the first corner?
Sylvaforever said:
AmosMoses said:
Scaremongering is all it is, i had semi slicks on a car and it drove fine in the wet despite people telling me i would die every 3 miles. The only real letdown of these performance tyres is they don't handle standing water too well. But if you are gunning it through puddles tyres probably aren't your first issue...
July. Brand new car, wet conditions.
Thanks but I'll load the dice in my favour as much as I can..
..Did I ever tell you about the time the gritter missed treating the de-acceleration lanes on the A9 at Dunkeld?....
aeropilot said:
Ares said:
aeropilot said:
My experience was that at below 5-6C they felt like they were made of concrete......
Car was much, much nicer to drive on winter tyres in the cold months.
Define 'drive like concrete'.Car was much, much nicer to drive on winter tyres in the cold months.
Rock hard ride, or no grip?
I wrote that they felt like they were made of concrete at low temps, and as a result, it felt 'skittish' over bumps and ruts, with a harder ride and just not very nice to drive on in colder temps, compared to the winters.
Anyway, so just the ride, not grip?
Herbs said:
He wrote "skittish" which is exactly how various cars i've had on similar felt. severely reduced grip when cold - got a bit better once they had warmed up but still not great. I'm not a huge fan of winter tyres so i'm not saying change them but be very aware as it only takes once to get caught out.
Lovely car by the way!
OK. I wouldn't have put 'skittish' as 'severely reduced grip', but thanks for the info. Lovely car by the way!
Edited by Herbs on Friday 27th October 12:50
I'm a big fan of winter tyres, when there is a proper winter. We no longer get proper winters here, and on the basis of how minimal the difference was this morning in 2 degrees, the usual UK winters of fluctuation between 0 and 12 degrees would suggest that I'm not over likely to die a horrible fiery death by running Corsas over winter
Even colder this morning, -3 degrees. Definitely see the comment about the tyres feeling like they were made of concrete, not with grip which remained good, albeit with a common sense filter of not driving like I was setting sector records, but despite all four tyres being 0.3 bar lower pressure, the ride was rock solid and left as if the tyres were overinflated.
Soon settled as they warmed though.
Corsa cold weather performance woes are either wildly exaggerated, or only relevant on the absolute limit of performance.
As you were....
Soon settled as they warmed though.
Corsa cold weather performance woes are either wildly exaggerated, or only relevant on the absolute limit of performance.
As you were....
Herbs said:
Ares said:
Even colder this morning, -3 degrees. Definitely see the comment about the tyres feeling like they were made of concrete, not with grip which remained good, albeit with a common sense filter of not driving like I was setting sector records, but despite all four tyres being 0.3 bar lower pressure, the ride was rock solid and left as if the tyres were overinflated.
Soon settled as they warmed though.
Corsa cold weather performance woes are either wildly exaggerated, or only relevant on the absolute limit of performance.
As you were....
-3?? Jeez! Soon settled as they warmed though.
Corsa cold weather performance woes are either wildly exaggerated, or only relevant on the absolute limit of performance.
As you were....
Don't forget it's not about being wildly exaggerated, it's about the time when you are doing 60 on a damp road with cold temperatures and it throws a corner with a bit of adverse camber at you and the car slides enough to spot you off.
95 percent of the time you will be fine
CaptainSensib1e said:
I have regular P Zeros on my car (400bhp+ RWD) and they were atorcious this morning, temp was 3 degrees but road bone dry. Moderately accelerating in third up a hill the back end was squirming around all over the place. Going to replace them with Michelin Pilot Sports once they are down to 3mm.
Really?I was 6 degree colder, 100bhp more, and mine were planted even on fairly decent throttle?
Still intrigued by the Corsas in cold weather.
-2 this morning, and didn't increase over 10 miles/15 minutes. Icy roads where left untreated, but other wise dry.
Tyres felt hard for first few miles, as suggested before, as if they were made from concrete, and grip not as good. But soon warmed up.
Pressures increased 0.3bar over 10mins as they got warmer and performance seemed pretty much normal then.
-2 this morning, and didn't increase over 10 miles/15 minutes. Icy roads where left untreated, but other wise dry.
Tyres felt hard for first few miles, as suggested before, as if they were made from concrete, and grip not as good. But soon warmed up.
Pressures increased 0.3bar over 10mins as they got warmer and performance seemed pretty much normal then.
smarty156 said:
"But otherwise dry" - that's the key comment.
In the warm, wet or dry, they're great.
In the cold traction is a bit of a problem until you get heat into them but that's quite easy to do.
In the cold AND wet they are truly horrendous. I suggest you post back on here your experiences in those conditions. Then you'll know what the fuss is about. It's not lack of traction (which you can deal with, or the traction control can deal with), it's a total lack of grip and you can't really do much about it because you can't get any heat into the tyres. Having been on a skid pan with the Quadrifoglio in the summer on the Corsas I think the traction control is absolutely fantastic. 1st gear on a wet circle and floor it and you can't lose it unless in Race mode. But if theres no grip from the tyres then that means nothing - no traction control can overcome the laws of physics.
Take care in the cold and wet. The rest of the time enjoy.
It's not even winter yet either!
Got back from travelling on Wednesday and immediately immersed into -5 degrees temperatures and wet.In the warm, wet or dry, they're great.
In the cold traction is a bit of a problem until you get heat into them but that's quite easy to do.
In the cold AND wet they are truly horrendous. I suggest you post back on here your experiences in those conditions. Then you'll know what the fuss is about. It's not lack of traction (which you can deal with, or the traction control can deal with), it's a total lack of grip and you can't really do much about it because you can't get any heat into the tyres. Having been on a skid pan with the Quadrifoglio in the summer on the Corsas I think the traction control is absolutely fantastic. 1st gear on a wet circle and floor it and you can't lose it unless in Race mode. But if theres no grip from the tyres then that means nothing - no traction control can overcome the laws of physics.
Take care in the cold and wet. The rest of the time enjoy.
It's not even winter yet either!
Edited by smarty156 on Friday 24th November 19:06
Edited by smarty156 on Friday 24th November 19:12
Easy to break traction and an obvious performance loss, but that's no surprise with 500bhp across 2 wheels.....and I certainly wouldn't give it 'large' in the wet, but I absolutely wouldn't describe them as horrendous? A couple of times you could feel the LSD/e-diff working as an inside wheel broke traction, but nothing dramatically worse than Michelin SuperSports on my old 640d.
And without snow, it isn't going to get much worse than -5 and wet.
I'm interested to hear how Allan Muir fairs with Sottozeros on his.
Mr2Mike said:
Hang On said:
AmosMoses said:
Quite, i also drove the MX5 in the snow and Ice with non winter tyres and i didn't die.
Come on people, what did we do before winter tyres and rain specific ones? We drove better!
We avoided wCome on people, what did we do before winter tyres and rain specific ones? We drove better!
kers like you on the wrong tyres hopefully.
Total comprehension fail.Did this BS about sumer tyres ceasing to work below 7 Celsius stem from a particularly crap set of Chinese death tyres? As per the OP, the amount of grip available on my summer tyres in low temperature conditions is still more than adequate, certainly no cliff-like drop in grip as some seem to suggest. Performance in snow is very likely dire, but there hasn't been any signifcant snow for years down here.
unpc said:
mac96 said:
This is absolutely true, and the difference since the weather got colder is very noticeable, although, like others have said, OK if you treat the go pedal with respect.
Seems to be widely believed that the P Zeros fitted to Mustangs are a US compound, and less suitable for cold weather than P Zeros sold here.
If tyre manufactures generally sell different compound tyres under the same name in different markets, perhaps that accounts for some of the disagreement in this thread.
Yeah I heard that too about them being a unique US spec. Not sure how true that is but they were very bad in cold temps. It didn't take long to get rid of them though Seems to be widely believed that the P Zeros fitted to Mustangs are a US compound, and less suitable for cold weather than P Zeros sold here.
If tyre manufactures generally sell different compound tyres under the same name in different markets, perhaps that accounts for some of the disagreement in this thread.
GroundEffect said:
Ares said:
Still intrigued by the Corsas in cold weather.
-2 this morning, and didn't increase over 10 miles/15 minutes. Icy roads where left untreated, but other wise dry.
Tyres felt hard for first few miles, as suggested before, as if they were made from concrete, and grip not as good. But soon warmed up.
Pressures increased 0.3bar over 10mins as they got warmer and performance seemed pretty much normal then.
You're being too obsessed by the pressures. The pressure isn't the main variable here - it is the rubber compound. When they get cold, the rubber will get much harder and just not grip as well. The Michelin Pilot Super Sports on my M3 don't like the cold either. They probably take 25% away from my total available grip. -2 this morning, and didn't increase over 10 miles/15 minutes. Icy roads where left untreated, but other wise dry.
Tyres felt hard for first few miles, as suggested before, as if they were made from concrete, and grip not as good. But soon warmed up.
Pressures increased 0.3bar over 10mins as they got warmer and performance seemed pretty much normal then.
Having tried them on several cold days, the lack of grip is no where near as much at 25% on the Corsas, ceteris paribus.
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