Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

[Duke W.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

The 215/70ZR-15 97W Pirelli P4000 Super Touring is not a racing tire. It's a high performance all-season grand touring tire originally designed for a Jaguar Sedan, and it has a "W" (168 MPH) speed rating.

I doubt if many, if any vintage Corvette owners will ever go this fast, though I do know a couple of guys with this tire whose car's have the power and gearing to get close if they ever what to find out what they'll really do.

But it's not a matter of speed alone. I've explained a zillion times why a high speed-rated tire with a spiral wrapped nylon cap belt offers considerable safety and longevity advantages.

A little archive searching should reveal several threads on the subject.

Duke

[Joe C.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

A friend of mine has had these tires on order for several months now. He told me that thay are now in and he is picking them up this Tuesaday (12/27).

Give your dealer a call and see if yours are in also.

FWIF

Did your friend pick up his tires yet?

[John K.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

Tire rack called me today the tires are in..wahoo

[Jephrey S.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

I run the Pirelli P4000 Super Touring on mine at autobahn speeds. Another advantage is that they have the mud & snow (M +S) rating (the touring part in the name I suppose) that counts as winter tires for the now enforceable winter tire requirement here in Germany.

I have been hearing for at least 10 years that "this is the last batch that they will ever make." Yet, thankfully, every year another batch shows up. I suppose that one day this will stop and I (and many others) will be a very sad panda.

Oh, and no rub problems for me.

[Duke W.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

If front/rear camber is set at 0/-0.5, there should be no interference in normal driving. If there is, more camber in the negative direction will provide more clearance.

Avoid entering steep inclines at an angle at near full lock, and at full lock the tire shoulder may rub against the steering gear bolt heads.

I hope for everyone's sake they still keep making that one batch per year.

For those of you who will be taken delivery, can you look on the sidewall and tell us the country of origin?

Duke

[Peter M.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

Did your friend pick up his tires yet?

Yes, Joe. He did pick them up and he is delighted that they finally arrived.
He got them at Discount Tire in Charlotte. I think he paid about $167 for each tire plus $26 for a road warrantee.

Their contact information is below:

Discount Tire
9440 South Boulevard
Charlotte, NC 28273
704.554.8333

[Mark H.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

I've had a set of these on backorder from Tire Rack for months, and several weeks ago sent an email to Pirelli North America asking when they would be available. They responded that the tires are on backorder and are expected to be available in mid-January. I'm assuming that's January 2011.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all!!

The set I ordered in August have now shipped.

[Steven A.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

I just got off the phone with Diamondback Tires and asked them if they could put a whitewall on a Pirelli P4000. I was told that there is something in the Pirelli rubber compound that does not allow them to apply a stripe to these tires. Has anyone else heard that?

They have a Michelin X tire with an "S" speed rating only.

[Scott S.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

For those of you who will be taken delivery, can you look on the sidewall and tell us the country of origin?

Duke

I thought I was onto a set a month or so ago, but they kept pushing the arrival date back like everyone else. Tire Rack has them since at least January 7th, my set arrived last week.

Country of origin: Romania.

Romania?

[Duke W.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

Romania, huh! Well, all I can say is that the tire industry "globalized" a couple of decades ago.

Something in the back of my mind says that a decade ago or so they were made in Canada.

If anyone has a set going back at least two or three years, can you check the country of origin?

Duke

[George J.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

Romania, huh! Well, all I can say is that the tire industry "globalized" a couple of decades ago.

Something in the back of my mind says that a decade ago or so they were made in Canada.

If anyone has a set going back at least two or three years, can you check the country of origin?

Duke

Duke,
isn't your set older than that? Please don't tell me your running repro Coker white wall bias ply's.

George

[Duke W.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

I don't have a set of the P4000s. I've run 225/70s since the seventies, but I had to trim the fender flanges, and I'm not going back.

IIRC you have had the P4000s for a few years. What's the country of origin?

Duke

[John G.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

Just got an email from Tire Rack - P4000's have shipped out. What to do but mount that new rubber on new wheels. KO wheels sure look nice. Thinking to go with the Bolt On wheels.

[George J.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

Made in Spain. I am sure I have had them for 6 years or more. What type of tire are you running in the 225 size?

George

[Duke W.]

Re: Pirelli P4000 Super Touring Update

Here's the whole story. In early 1968 I bought a set of 205HR-15 Pirelli Cinturato CN-72 tires. Pirelli said they were 70 series, and the dimensions basically support that though the size designation did not.

Once installed on the OE 5.5" wheels I was disappointed with the performance compared to the previous 6.70-15 Michelin X radials.

According to Pirelli's tech literature, wheel width is critical, and a suitable wheel width must be used to ensure maximum tire performance.

Based on this, I purchased a set of 7x15" '68 Corvette Rally wheels. These have -0.28" offset compared to the OE wheels +0.44", so the outside plane of the tire/wheel was pushed outboard nearly 3/4", and there was no way they would fit without shaving the horizontal fender lips down, which is what I did.

On the wider wheels the tires were terrific - more grip than the Michelins with equally instant steering response, but more benign breakaway characteristics.

In the seventies, I replaced the CN-72s with 225/70VR-15 CN-73s, which are about the same OD, but slightly wider, and they fit the wheelwells okay, but I have to be careful entering steep inclines with much steering lock or the outside shoulder of the tires can contact the center of the fender opening when the suspension compresses. These tires are still installed.

Interestingly, both Pirelli models have fabric-only, not steel with nylon cap belts as do modern high speed-rated radials. Back then Pirelli said that using only fabric rather than steel or steel/fabric belts resulted in more gradual break-away. The Michelins were known for sudden breakaway, and I spun my SWC twice on them. The first time the road was wet (circa 1964) and the second time I was wet (circa 1965), but that was the last time I lost control of a car on either road or track.

In the first spin - a 180 - the RR tire hit the curb on the opposite side of the road. Years later when I rebuilt the rear suspension and inspected the stub axle, it had slight flange runout and Magnaflux revealed a small crack, so I replaced it. The damage was probably caused by the curb hit. The second spin resulted in no contact and no damage. After opposite lock failed to check the oversteer I turned the steering wheel back, which caused the car to spin along the line of the curve, and I avoided the row of No Parking signs on both side of the street. The car only rotated about 120 degrees along the line of the curve because the road was dry.

If anyone is from Seattle, the first spin was northbound on Magnolia Blvd. on that 90 degree left curve just past Perkins Lane. I was dicing with an older guy in a Daimler SP-250, who was not able to keep up, but being about 17 or 18 I wanted to keep pulling away. There's something dicey about the pavement on the exit of that curve, and the last time I was in Seattle, it was still that way, and I got into some oversteer in my Merc 190E exiting in the wet, but I was ready for it, and The Merc's occasional oversteer has always been easy to catch with modern tires.

The second spin was on Viewmont - the first 90 degree right curve coming up from Magnolia village.

Yeah, those were the days!

As the years passed manufacturers learned how to make steel belted radials with more progessive break-away, and I think the CN-73 was the last fabric-only belt radial produced.

I have an email into a buddy with one of the "327 LT-1" engines who installed the P4000s - probably about the time you did. When he tells me the CoA and date codes, I'll post them.

Given that tire production is globalized, the tooling can be sent to any plant, and it's the manufacture's option to build the tires at any worldwide plant based on economics and markets.

If anyone is concerned about country or origin - don't worry. Plant quality standards and raw materials are the same no matter where the tires are manufactured.

Duke