I've moaned on another thread about the lack of grip I'm getting. It really is pretty bad, and I was being a tad dozy on the motorway this morning and had to stand on the brakes. The fronts wanted to lock way before I thought they should so it's not just rear end grip that's affected. It wasn't close or scary but it could have been if my doziness was worse.
Before ordering I did go and price up some tyres in all the possible sizes on blackcircles. IIRC.....
17's - 440 a set
18's - 800 a set (runflat makes a difference otherwise more like 650)
regular 19's (not a U.K. Option in configurator but should be orderable as parts) 900 a set (and about 1700 for rims)
Quadrifoglio 19's 1100 a set I think for the corsas
If you dig into winter tyres as you've suggested you might it would be good to share your findings here. I'm getting my QF next Tuesday and given what I've heard from yourself and others I am going to be very cautious indeed until March or so. I may just leave DNA in Normal mode mostly during the initial run in.
Caution is good, but you can still have some fun, as long as it's in a straight line... Leaving in N won't help much, it still develops all the horsepower in N. If there is overboost in RACE then God help us all, but I think the mode doesn't affect power.
If you do a search on tyre size, it's easily the most expensive. Conti Sport 5s and Pilot Sports 2s are £100 less, and probably better tyres for year round! I'd still buy winters though. Reminds me of when the M3 CSL came out and owners were horrified when they had zero grip in the wet.
The M3 CSL came with Michelin Pilot Sport Cups that are semi-slick, they were very obviously track tyres and would be horrible in the wet. The PZero Corsas (despite Corsa being Race in Italian :ermm seem to be more of a combination road and track tyre. Pirelli claim the wet performance is "Excellent". https://www.pirelli.com/tyres/en-gb/car/find-your-tyres/products-sheet/p-zerocorsa#/details
The problem seems to be the low temperature performance.
I hope I'm not the only person somewhat bemused by Pirelli having what seems a lot of very different tyres sharing the same family name... simple it is not.
I was pleasantly surprised before ordering to see how much cheaper the tyres will be for the Super compared to the 19" I have on the Brera. Sorry I know this is a little off topic.
PS Tyre threads normally attract someone to pitch in saying how great their Acceleras are, cant wait!
Interesting, would the anti collision/fancy pants cruise control/super duper new brake system not have stopped you Nick before you hit something ? Would love to know who to blame if you did hit something because the system could not take into account the extra distance needed due to the P Zero's dislike for cold weather. :ermm:
I've ordered Michelin Pilot Sport 4Ss all round (£980 black circles) and they are being fitted on Thursday next week. The fronts are the same size as stock, the rears are slightly wider at 295 as 285s aren't available yet (US forum reports no rubbing problems). I'll let you know how I get on. My Corsas are still mostly OK after 14k miles, the outer edges on the fronts are pretty much gone and the rears are around 1mm from the wear indicators, that's after 14,000 miles. Not bad.
I know I'm a scratched record on the subject but most of the QVs on here arrived after the weather improved and you haven't experienced the terror of cold Corsas. January and February were no fun and I would strongly advise no-one to take on a British winter on the Corsas. At best it will be no fun, at worst... well you know what the worst can be. I don't believe in winter tyres in England (recent marketing exercise), but "extreme summers" are a no-go so a year-round tyre like the pilot sport should be a winner.
Performance on none winter compound tyres drops off around 7-8 degrees C so I base my choice to go the winter route on that basis, rather than marketing.
I'm torn between getting some winters to run for a few months or getting some less extreme summer tyres like the Michelins. I still have 5mm left on my Corsas after 10k.
difficult. The corsas are very special when the weather is right and they have been warmed up, but are very un-special when it's not. I've had plenty of instances (outside of the cold months) where the tyres weren't warm enough and I had a moment. They need heat to grip and town/motorway doesn't generate it, even in the summer. If you only do fast driving then it may be worth the ball-ache of switching tyres twice a year, but if not I'd switch the out for something more flexible. Whatever you do, don't be tempted to stretch out the corsas for much longer.
im going to order the teledials and get some allseason or witner tyres on them. based ont his thread and the vagaries of the winter here (im in east anglia, well east saxonia) so no cold northern worries for me, would i be better off getting actual winters or all seasons, given i will put the corsas back on come spring/summer?
Don't think there are any all seasons available yet. I wanted some too. Going to go down the winter route, but not on an extra set of wheels. Where are going getting the teledials from tpmmt?
Corsas struggling for traction the other day when wet and 13c...
Corsas are epic tyres, under the right conditions.
Had them on a previous car as well as the Quad and they are on my new car arriving just time for the winter ! When up to temp they are absolutely fantastic, albeit rather short lived.
I?m glad Alfa fitted them but also agree that they are an extreme choice for a 4 door saloon.
Per HF I suspect MPS4s are the best all round option and have these on the M4 currently. Pirelli PZeroes seem to wear much more quickly in my experience and if it were me I would be looking at how to get he Michelins.
I don?t think that using non Alfa homologated would be an issue but the change of size niggles more.
Nope - I don't think there is one. I can't even find Winter tyres that are in the right sizes for the staggered set up, let alone ones that are also recommended by AR. As far as I know, the Corsas are it!
Weirdly, you can often get different sized tyres in Europe than UK. For eg, UK tyre suppliers don't seem to be able to provide Michellin Alpin PA4 winter tyres in the 245/35/19 and 285/30/19, in XL that are needed for the QF, but some of the European online suppliers can. In the UK, you can only get Sottozero II for one axle, but Sottozero 3 for the other. It's mental and frustrating!
For summer tyres, the course that Nick has gone demonstrates the issue - he has had to go to a wider rear tyre to get a matching front and rear set (MP4S). You can get MPSS in 285/30/19, but then you'd be mixing tyres - not ideal in my view.
So the answer is, it isn't a 5 minute task. You have to make a list of tyres available for one axle and then compare to the list available for the other, and guess what - there aren't (m)any!
..... and they are expensive relative to some of the other online tyre dealers. The Corsas for the rear are £15 more expensive supply only (excl del) than supplied and fitted with some of the UK suppliers.
At least they have Alpin PA4s for front and back as you say.
So based on horsepowers website, there are no all season that are available to exactly match the corsa sizes, but there are a few winter options, those being:
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 - 245/35 R19 93 W XL 285/30 R19 98 W XL
Continental ContiWinterContact TS 830 P - 245/35 R19 93 V XL, FR, MO 285/30 R19 98 V XL, FR (or 245/35 R19 93 W XL, FR) whats the difference between V and W, speed?
Pirelli Sottozero II - 245/35 R19 93 V XL 285/30 R19 98 V XL
other sites suggest Conti ExtremeContact DWS 06 can be got in the right sizes as can Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's (or 3 plus's) (at least on US sites?)
The Michelins Pilot Sport 4Ss are on. I've only driven in town but the roads are really greasy and it already feels more sure footed. Also - there was no evidence of the tyre skipping at full lock when I parked up. The car was reading 18 degrees outside so maybe it wasn't cold enough to skip but I would have expected a skip especially with the greasy surface. The rim protectors are cool too, the tyre will definitely hit a kerb significantly before the rim. The rears are wider than stock and you can tell. They seem to bulge out more than the Corsas did. I'll feedback more when I've put some miles on them.
These tyres transform the car. The only two significant weaknesses of the car (for my needs) are the low front end and the lack of grip in anything other than ideal conditions. It's early days but it seems like the PS4Ss fix the latter. You still have to be careful but I now have far more confidence on wet/greasy roads. It's still warm so maybe when the temperatures drop I'll have problems, time will tell. There has been no evidence of tyre skipping at all either.
Happy days.
I'll keep the feedback coming over the next few days.
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