I have gotten the tire decision down to two choices. Goodyear F1 and Pirelli P-zero nero. I want a sporty tire but I also want a quiet one. any thoughts?

Anyone run these on there mini? anyone replace them? How many miles did you get? How did they run as they neared there life end?

 

I have the P Zero Nero MS and it rides quite nice. Much nicer than the Toyo Proxes I had.

I can't say too much regarding the Goodyear, except that it totally began to fall apart in chunks on a freinds R32 after a day at the track. My Pirelli's held together OK, although they did show some signs of wear. But no large chunks came off like on the Goodyear.

Just my 2 cents.

 

I have P ZERO Neros on my Cooper S. I did alot of research myself and felt that this was the best NON RF tire out there. Anyway, I like them alot. It took awhile to get them "dialed" in to my liking (Tire pressure) because I was so used to the stiffness of the runflats but, I think if you get them and play around with your pressures you like them also. They are very grippy for an M+S tire which was really surprising to me. Anyway, good luck and I hope this helped.

 

Another happy P-Zero Nero user ...

 

I ran the Goodyear F1 GS-D3 this summer on the road, autocross, and track. I'm not exactly sure what people mean when they say "chunking"... My tires really showed wear after the first time on the track, but nothing that I would instinctively call "chunking" without knowing what the true definition of that term is. What happened to mine was the outside shoulder of all the tread blocks got rounded off.

I didn't keep track of miles, but I got a half dozen autocrosses and 9 track days along with daily driving on them. They are toast now, but they served me well. Like all tires, they get noisy as they get worn. Great rain performance, at least when there's still a legal amount of tread depth left on them.

Lots of Volkswagen R32 folks complain about the Goodyears, but an R32 is a much heavier and more powerful car than a MINI.

 

I did some similar research and went with the F1s. I read a lot of positive thoughts about them here and on www.tirerack.com. They won't be installed 'till the spring, so I don't have actual experience.

mb

 

And agree that they are better than the Proxes (I had T1-s). I killed a set of the F1s in a weekend at a track, but that was because the stock front camber settings aren't track worthy at all. Camber plates have fixed all that. When I was looking, the F1s were cheaper than the Neros. The best thing I like about the F1s is the wet grip. The T1s scared the crap out of me on the freeways here in the winter, and the F1s handle almost as good wet as dry (or so it seems). I beat the snot out of my poor little car, and the F1s are now the milage champs, with 14k being the record. I think I'll get closer to 20k on this set. While I'm not driving any softeasier, the suspension is more set up for cornering. You'll find that with directional tires and stock camber settings, you shoud rotate every 3k or less, and do an inside-outside swap (mounting and balencing costs here) so you can grind off what was the inner edge (that doesn't get too worn with stock camber settings). If you don't watch them, and drive hard, the outer fronts will be gone before you know it.

A friend drives (uh, drove) the Proxes R1s as all season tires, till he saw his life flash before his eyes last winter, and when he came home, he ordered some winter tires (like S03s or something) and rims to go with them.....

Either way, you'll be happy. If you're cheap like me, look for something you can drive in the rain, and will give you good stick in the dry. If you go to the track, get camber plates for the front, or bank on a lot of tires a year.

Matt

 

For agressive street and some track work the P-Zeros are great. I have used them and still do on my Porsche. Once they warm up the P-Zeros are sticky and have a bit of road noise, dont trammell and wear pretty well. I say pretty well, my Porsche as a bit of negative camber and I can go thru a set of 285-35 18" in about 8k miles on the rear. I'm afraid of trying something else since they may come up short in comparison. I like the Michelins too for high performance. But as they say - to each their own. I have the Neros on the Pooper and they are pretty good, a bit harder and trammell but not as bad as the run flats. Good luck and have fun with what ever you pick. You can allways change later.

 

So I guess the question I should have asked was I dont go to the track and prob never will. =(. Which tire is the best one for plane old highway driving?

 

I have the 19" PZero Neros on my mini and love them. I never track my mini and these were the best choice for me. They seem to grip really well in wet and dry conditions and they have a nice looking tread pattern. Also very low noise on the freeways.

PZero Neros all the way for the average joe who don't track.

 

I'm about to get the goodyears. I asked almost the same question a week ago. I was debating between Kumhos or goodyears. You should read what the people on the thread I posted said about the goodyears. I will also be using them for street only. From the reveiws I got it seems they give a quite ride while still giving great performance. That is what I was after. They also seem to provide great perfomance in the WET(very important where I live). I will autocross on a different set to keep the goodyears around longer. On Tire Rack you can read the reviews of each tire. The goodyears got great reveiws among MINI owners. Good Luck!

 

The following is highly recommended reading:

Car & Driver/TireRack Max Performance Tire Test

I concur with the subjective description and performance stats that they present for the Goodyears, and have posted my experience on the following thread about Mini_Monkey's similar comparison questions:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=54519

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Goodyear or TireRack, just a satisified customer.

Please realize that ALL tires must be built around a complicated set of opposing design challenges & goals (wear rate, ride comfort, noise level, dry traction, wet traction, stability, steering response, braking response, predictability, etc.). You will never find a single tire design that is able to satisfy ALL of these criteria equally. Instead - it is a matter of finding the tire that seems to have the least number of compromises for YOUR needs.

The GS-D3's are by far the 'Best Overall Compromise' I have yet experienced, with the fewest regrets. I will heartily stand by that statement until I manage to find something better, but for now, I will continue to buy and enjoy the GS-D3's .

Hope that helps, but as usual, YMMV....

Good luck with your purchase. Please let us know what you end up with and how they perform.
.

 

There is the link to the thread I was talking about. Thanks Coopernicus

 

If you drive and corner aggressivly, you'll get outside wear on the fronts pretty bad, and all the rotation, watching pressures like a hawk and the like will be maniditory.

But think about how you drive, and what you want. If you never turn hard, and want good gas milage, the tallest, skinniest, hardest tire will be best. It will last, get good milage BUT you'll get increased braking distance and much poorer traction (turning, stopping and starting).

I live in hills with fog that sometimes acts as rain, and because of this, I choose performance tires that don't fail miserably in the wet, because I never know when I'll be driving in it. But I can't afford two sets of wheels and tires and go seasonal, or track and street tires either.....

So before you listed noise as one of the highest priority, but for all the performance tires that are wide & low, they all seem to make a lot of noise when worn...... And they wear faster, but they stick like gum in hair....

I find the Tire Rack rating system a very good starting place, that and what's on special! But there is no best in something this subjective.

Matt

 

Which tire is just going to be the quitest stinkin' tire on the road...I dont want to know Im even driving kind of quite and still be a great tire all around?

 

you can rank by catagory. Look here....
http://www.tirerack.com/index.jsptires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp&type=MP&VT=null&sortValue=12

Goodyear F1 GS-D3
Michelin Pilot Sport SP2 (tied with Goodyear)
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
Pirelli P-zero Nero

are the top four for noise, in that order. But this is driver impression, and wasn't a quantitative test. FWIW....

Matt

ps, you'll be happy with any one, but when worn, they are wide and all will make noise. Softer sidewall will help, but they will all be noisy.

 

May I know what tire sizes are you guys running? In 17's.

 

most popular sizes:

205/45/17 = stock size
215/45/17 = store recommended size due to load rating
215/40/17 = works great but slighty under load rating

 

About 14,000 miles on em. Looks like they'll make 20K. LOVE them. Have 215 / 45- 17's. Ran one track day, and also a full week at the Dragon. At the Dragon I did 2-3 runs most days, worked them very hard. I saw some outside edge wear (no breakup or chunking) at Dragon, no noticable wear at the track. They were super on the wet skidpad too.

They are vary linear and haven't found any surprises as you get to or beyond the limits.

Also like any non runflat they're much less harsh than the 16" run flats. They're quiet. Both in normal driving and spirited. They don't squeal and such...

 

and I run tire pressures 36-38 psi...

Matt

 

no comparison P ZERO