Calendar girls tyres? (Pirelli Tyres)

Member Name: firemanspam

Product:	Pirelli Tyres
Date:	24/07/08 (763 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Grip

Disadvantages: Cost

For the second time recently, I acquired a full set of four tyres, and that particular brand was Pirelli P7s. I am reminded of the fact that mine being sixteen inch, were a tad more expensive than fifteens, or even seventeens! Apparently this is because of supply and demand, they don't manufacture as many sixteen inch tyres.
These went onto Vauxhall alloys, and the balancing weights went on the inside, where they should be, why is it some fitters put them on the outside?

I had shopped around, at local tyre fitters as well as on t'internet, and I know that there are places selling bargain price tyres, but you must pay for delivery, and fitting, plus balancing, Oh and a new valve, then there is a charge for disposal of your old rubber. I decided this saving just wasn't worth the hassle.

My tyre fitter is worth his weight in gold, and he always runs his hand across the tread before doing anything else. He immediately knows if the steering geometry is wrong, in some cases it can save premature wear on your tyres, and will save the customer a fortune, never mind affecting safety.

The P7 range was designed as a Sport oriented tyre, on a generation of high-performance saloon and estate cars. These have an asymmetric Design, plus Extra Low Rolling Resistance, this gives flex and smoothness while the overall weight is reduced, also integrity is optimised.

These are made for good handling in dry and wet conditions.
The tyres feature something called "STEP" - short for "Safety-from-Technically-Engineered-Profile&q uot; which according to their sales blurb is "giving a more harmonious interaction between the various components of the tyre: the result is a new profile that reduces deformation in the critical tyre areas, producing greater reliability and structural resistance. In essence, less rigidity without reducing resistance during use and thus less wear in the critical areas." I do hope you are following this, OK, I won't do any more quotes.
If you want to visit the Pirelli website, take a look here:-
http://www.pirelli.co.uk/web/default.page

New tyres need running in, and then checking as often as you can, for pressure, and wear. The modern way is not to rotate your tyres onto different axles, and although this does even out the wear, plus make tyres last longer, the problem is that all of your tyres will wear out at the same time, and most people prefer to change two at a time.
As for grip, they seem to grip better in the wet than most others, and in my opinion this is when you really need the grip.

I don't like designer tread, and I firmly believe a lot of tyres have tread designed more for looks rather than function. These may not have modern "cool" tread, but I do think they look good, not only when they are brand new, but after a lot of wear.
My Pirelli's which are fitted to highly polished alloy wheels, look great.

Mpst tyres nowadays have a "direction of rotation" on them, signified by an arrow on the sidewall, these don't, however, they do have "outside" marked in a prominent position, so make sure yours are fitted the right way round. Also, do you know what your pressures should be? What it says in the handbook may not always be correct. This is due to the fact that they have to state a pressure suitable for the average driver with an average load. Yours may be much different, so it is best to have a decent tyre fitter's opinion after a while, you may well find yours are wearing on the middle for instance, indicating too much pressure, even though it is exactly what it says in the book.
That is just my opinion, these look good, they are affordable, they grip very well, and don't wear out too quickly. They offer everything a tyre should to me.

I must just mention that Pirelli is the same firm that does the famous calendars, I will not go on about these as they are not relevant in this review, however, if you wish to see the calendar website, it is here:- http://www.pirellical.com/thecal/home.html
I must also mention that tyres will look better for longer if you use tyre slick, this gives your rubber a wet look, but also protects against extremes of weather.

Right, just for interest, there is a tyre site that allows you to look up any vehicle, just by typing in the registration,. It will give you the make, model, and colour, plus of course the recommended tyre size. Have a go with your own reg number:-
http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/tyre-search.asp
I would normally give the RRP, but in this case, it obviously depends on the size, there are plenty of outlets, and websites, just be careful about delivery prices, and allow for fitting.

Thank you for reading, and remember to check your tyres for wear and pressure.

Summary: Worth it

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