Pirelli P6 report

I just got Pirelli P6's to replace the Goodyear Ingegrity's, stock size 15" replacement.

They have much better grip, reducing understeer and making the car feel much less insecure in a quick lane change or just making the sharper turns at 75 in the carpool lane. Subjectively, maybe twice the improvement of the BT Tech stiffener plate, which I also have and really like. I am getting somewhat worse mileage, but I think that this is because I have been driving faster, since the car feels much more secure. The tires only weigh 1 pound more than the stock Integrity tires (not too relevant anyway since I mostly commute fairly constant speeds), and are said by the Tire Rack to be Very Low Rolling Resistance tires, so I didn't expect much change. My daily driver for the last 4 years until a got the Prius was a BMW M3 with a track car-like TC Kline Racing supension, but now I no longer miss the security of the BMW suspension when commuting on the 405 Freeway in LA.

I am also hopeful that the stopping distances will be reduced, having noticed that the Prius has the longest stopping distance from 80 mph that Road & Track has recorded in the last few years.

The only downside is that the tires have a major case of squirms when running on rain grooves, the worst I have experienced -- like having marbles underfoot, which is alarming until you get used to the fact that the car still goes straight. Hopefully this will improve as the tread depth decreases

Overall, this seems like a good choice if you aren't changing sizes, and as far as I can tell is the only tire that combines better grip with nearly the same weight as the OEM tires. All the higher performance tires seem to weight 3 to 5 pounds more.

Next steps for me are the suspension stiffening upgrades from Japan.

Dave Anderson

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dave Anderson @ Nov 23 2007, 02:41 PM) [snapback]543358[/snapback]</div>

How much do the Cinturatos weigh? I must admit that I didn't look into the 195/60 variation