991 tires....
 

The 991 (aside from the base car with 19s) seemingly only comes on Pirelli Pzeros - regardless of which country you're in, the engine size, suspension or any other spec.

This begs an interesting question - How will it feel on Pilot Super Sports? (b/c you can damn sure bet those will be the first set of replacements on my car)

I'm not a race car driver, but I have experienced the impact of switching tires on performance road cars. You can really alter stability, turn in response, grip and general steering effort just by changing types of tires.

I'm a huge Michelin fan. Although these Pirellis grip like glue once your in a steady state mid corner, they don't strike me as a particularly sophisticated tire? Tire rack effectively rates the PSS above the Pzero in every category. I'd love to hear from a 991 owner once they go to Michelins. I wouldn't be surprised if the french rubber restores a bit more feeling to the new steering.

P.S. anyone notice there is no curb guard on the rear pirellis? The side wall is totally convex - a bit odd.

Regards,
DRP

It appears the 19s are using Goodyear so count your blessings. Chris Harris has an article in Excellence where he tests a 3.4 with 19s and was not impressed with the tires.

ChuckJ
PS: Aside from the good looks of the Carrera S wheels, one of the reasons I got them was to ensure I would be getting the Pirelli tires

I can speak for the change but not on the 991. I have an RS60 with PASM sport and ceramics and this car has been so stuck to the ground with it's original Bridgestones that it could make you dizzy on a tight 180 before it would break loose.

Upon replacement I switched to the Pilot Super Sports and had the car realigned which troughs a extra twist in evaluation. I noticed the alignment right away as the cars tendency to slight understeer if more neutral now. We expected that. The one thing not expected was a steering that was a little on the heavy side is now noticeably lighter. I also noticed the squirm of the new rubber as my old tires were well past the wear bars. This was somewhat expected but maybe not as noticeable as it is.

The car does ride way better and tire noise is at least 1/2 of what it was. I felt that I had lost some confidence in the car at first as it was more reactive but moved around more on the extra rubber.

Now, after about 300 miles and starting to push them hard I can say that they are now more predictable and the grip, even new, is equal to or greater than my old tires. They are still a lot quieter and better ridding and am really starting to love them.

Had PZero's on my 20" rims at delivery of my 991S. Hated them. Fortunately they were gone in just 5 kmiles. Replaced them with Michelin PSS that are fantastic: better road feel and grip both on dry and wet surfaces (even had a rainy track day with the PSS's), less road noise, etc. I have had PS2's and PSS's replacing Pirelli's and Dunlop's on my Audi S4, VW GTI, Cayman R and now 991S and they have always been great tires.

I think Car & Driver recently tested a bunch of 'performance' summer tires and PSS's came first (Pirelli's last). They were not the best in all tests but had the best all around performance.

Are your rear Michelin PSS tires 295s or 305?

ChuckJ

295's

Hopefully Michelin will make a 305 by the time my P-Zeroes wear out.

The PZeros on my 991s will be replaced with Michelin SuperSports as soon as they wear out.

hope they put PSS on 991 C4S.. all wheel drive with stickiness of PSS!

I guess I am not am no tire expert. The p zeros seem just fine on my 20 inch wheels.

Most of us know that Michelin tires and like them. Less of us have had P zeros to experience. Now we have some quantitative data with people taking g measurements as there are meters in every car. A couple of people have warn out their P Zeros and bought Michelins and qualitatively measured that they sound quieter. I'm looking for some folks to get the 1.15+ measurements with the Michelins that they got with the P Zeros- and it's only a mater of time until we find out.

ChuckJ

Agreed, my thinking is based on past experience as I have not found the limits of the P-Zeroes and have no issues with them. I can only compare some time in the cab w/o PASM sport and ST wheels and can say there is a huge difference in ride, turn in and ground clearance. The tires felt great on both. I will be watching to see what others judge about the difference between Michelin and Pirelli.

Corect. For the 19" standard equipment is the Goodyear Eagle F1.

But Porsche is giving Pirelli tires for some reason on the 20", both 295 and 305...! They said that the engineers (Porsche & Pirelli) worked together to develop a tire for the car and only for this car. So the Pirelli is custom made for the 991.

Now I'm really interested to see G data on the Michelin tires, although it's hard for me to believe that they didn't work with Michelin also (especially if they have an "N") number.

ChuckJ

Has anyone noticed the 3D online configuration shows Michellin tires?