Has anyone heard reports on these yet? They are being marketed strictly as an aftermarket tyre "for those who want to exploit the sporting character of their car" to quote EVO. Supposedly they offer fantastic wet and dry performance and Pirelli hope to sell most to track day customers who don't want the hastle of changing tyres or worrying about unpredictable road conditions.

Too good to be true? Unavoidably compromised ultimate performance? I don't know but they might find themselves on my spare rims instead of F1 D3s....

Edit: just found the website: P Zero Nero and whilst they do 205/55ZR 16 and 225/50ZR 16 there aren't any 245/45s out yet so I'm SOL there

 

I'll let you know what they're like next week

 

Seriously..... I've just spoken to Pirelli. The Nero's have a much stiffer sidewall than the standard PZero's and the compound ought to remain stable at high temperatures. On a track day it's the high temperatures that the tyres get to which kills them off. At Llandow recently you could clearly see where the rubber had melted

Also, the PZN tread blocks shouldn't deform as badly as normal road tyres. Normal road tyres after a track day show a quite clear wearing of the tread blocks..... Imagine that the tread block looks like this normally:


_____
| |
| |


After a track day it tends to look like:

/|




Well you know what I mean. There's an obvious deformation of the tread block in line with how the weight of the car's been distributed through the corner. The PZN is supposed to be more resistant to this.

How will they drive?

I'm having a set fitted on Sunday morning so I'll let you know how they drive. In the mean time, it looks like my F1 DS2's are scheduled to meet their makers

The PZN is designed to push the boundaries of a good road tyre/track tyre. Normally you'd be stuck for A038's as a decent track tyre or A539's (and road handling suffers). PZN is supposed to be the "best" compromise. Here's hoping it's going to save me on my annual tyre bill

 

Hmmm here's hoping that Pirelli start making a 245/45/16 version.

Currently I've looking at:
Yokohama A-32R
Michellin Pilot Cup Sport
Pirelli P Zero C

As tires for my track wheels (which I should have soon.). These would be for driving to the track, round it, and home again.

The Nero's look like being a nice comprimise.

-Brian.

 

GY Eagle F1-DS2's compared to PZN's



My initial impressions are WOW!

OK now the detail bit..

When they were fitted I was shown how soft the sidewall of the F1's were in comparison to the PZN's. In fact, I put my "anorak" on and compared the F1's & PZN's to a number of tyres. The F1's have, by far, the softest sidewall (sorry Pete but it's true!). The S02's have a very, very stiff sidewall. The S02-JZ (?) were very stiff (surprisingly they had them in stock!), stiffer than S02PP's and S03's. The PZN's sidewall's don't appear to be as stiff as the standard PZero (PZ = S02PP IMO). However, their stiffnes isn't constant. from the bead up to about 1cm off the end of the side wall is very stiff. At the end of the side wall it appears to soften. Seems bizzare.

On the road the PZN's have transformed the car, some good and some bad.

The tread blocks on the PZN must have a very high torsional stiffness as the response from the front of the car is almost instantaneous to the steering wheel. This has made the front of the car very darty which (I imagine) will make for great cross country dashes, however, on the motorway I had to be very careful as the front of the car could wander and PIO could occur ( ). Under acceleration the PZN's appear to be getting a much better grip on the road (they're AA rated for traction) and the torque of the Impreza felt much stronger.

The big downside to the PZN's, and why I guess they're described as a no compromise tyre, is the NVH increase. OK it's not dramatic, but there's a definate increase in the vibration and harshness under m/w cruise. The tyre noise on hard surfaces is reminds me of my ITR Still, they are marketed as a no compromise tyre....

Looks wize the photo doesn't really do the PZN justice. On the car it looks almost like they're F1 style grooved slicks. The rain X-channels are quite difficult to see and the central grooves look huge by comparison.

All in all I think the PZN's suit the Impreza much better than the F1's. The F1's gave the Impreza a slightly nervous feel, which I suspect is to do with the soft sidewall. The F1's made for a nice M/W cruise and were very quiet.

One huge advantage the PZN's have over F1's is that they're asymetrical rather than directional. This means on a track day the sides can be swapped and save on tyre wear!

 

No need to apologise Andy . All I said was that, once fitted, the appearance of the F1 sidewall was almost no different to the 02's I had previously, and that running the F1's at 35 psi gave me just as good dry weather grip and much better wet weather grip. Whether the sidewall is actually softer or not is not an issue with me; it's the practical aspect of how they drive on the road and how confident I feel on them, again on the road, that matters, (particularly in the wet where I had little confidence in the OEM Potenza S02's)

Tif came out with me on Monday evening and we shot around a few bends and powered out of several traffic islands causing him to grin and say, "Not much wrong with these Eagles, is there!"

 

I'm not sure you'd notice the difference in grip on the road, assuming there is one. On the road in the S2000 on S02JZ's you are unbeleivably far from the limit in the dry.

-Brian.

 

I doubt those people who have had accidents due to loss of traction would agree with you, Brian And, yes, I know that's down to individual driving abilities and realising where the limit is.... I'm just saying that it is very possible to reach the limit of adhesion in the dry, on whatever tyes you have, on a normal road purely through bad driving and lack of awareness of what the car is doing (we all saw that US guy in that .mpg clip go off totally in the dry) IMHO, for newcomers to the car to think otherwise would be a dangerous assumption

 

I wonder how many of these accidents were caused by people realising they were carrying 5-10mph in excess of what the corner would take and either lifting or braking.

Pete - book a Don Palmer day and you'll find out how quickly you'll swap ends at 60mph It really isn't going to matter how good your rubber is on that day (unless it's the Pamper liner)

 

Yep, Andy, that's pretty much what I was trying to say.

As to Don Palmer, it is on my "Must Do" list but I'll wait until I get my 02 and then book him. (We don't want to put off potential buyers of my 00 in July by letting them know I've been doing such things in it, do we?!)