wingless

FINALLY have a set of four new tires on my 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa.

The prior set had PLENTY of tread depth. They worked fine for my drive home, from Austin, TX, to southern Florida (thank goodness).

Later, the final touches were being completed on my new to me vehicle in preparation for a long east coast road trip when I discovered the rear tire sidewall was all sliced up.

The vehicle was examined and nothing discovered that would / could have caused this damage. Then I recalled reading the service records from the PO and one line said, relocate tire from front to rear.

My speculation is the wide rear tire was incorrectly mounted onto the front, where the narrow wheel housing damaged the rubber. I drove from Austin to southern Florida w/ that sliced tire!

That killed using the 911 for a road trip, plus started my search for the tires I wanted for my vehicle. I settled on the Pirelli Cinturato P7 Collezione tires, in 205/55YR16 N4 for the front and 225/50VR16 N4 for the rear.

Those tires have new technology while maintaining the old visual appearance.

The only problem was they had been out of stock for about a year and a half.

After multiple Tire Rack phone calls and assurances that these tires would eventually become available I placed an order. After about a month the rear tires arrived and FINALLY after about four months the fronts arrived.

These have been professionally mounted and of course balanced w/ the Hunter GSP9700 Road Force Balance Machine.

These tires have exactly the appearance I had hoped and I'm very happy w/ my limited usage. Note that the absolute minimum operating temperature is specified as 45°F and my speculation (and practice) is that operation with a temperature margin above the minimum is a better way to use these tires. That won't be a problem for me, currently living in a tropical climate area.

Note (from observation of this topic's images) I always remove then hand carry my tires and wheels into the tire shop to have the rubber swapped and balanced. Part of my process is to carefully remove the old wheel weights, then carefully remove the old weight adhesive residue, then completely clean both sides of the detached wheels. Part of that cleaning is a final cleaning of the wheel interior barrel w/ isopropyl alcohol, to ensure best adhesion of the weight adhesive to the wheel.

wingless

The tires on the vehicle when purchased were Pirelli P Zero Nero tires, also in 205/55R16 for the front and 225/50R16 for the rear.

Those tires were / are fine, except not currently available in the size for my vehicle.

wingless

A first for me, the tire shop called me over to observe my rotating wheel so I could visually observe the wobble in the wheel.

This was / is a high-end top-shelf tire shop and they offered to repair the wheel, using the machine shown in the image.

After not very long the wheel was repaired. They called me over to again observe the rotating wheel, this time w/o wobble.

There is zero visible marks on the wheel exterior from that repair.

Note that even w/ that prior wheel wobble, I was unable to detect any vibration or handling issues at any of my limited speed operation.

wingless

These images show the tire sidewall slicing damage.

Once it was discovered I then examined the auction site images in great detail and also discovered the damage existed prior to me collecting the vehicle for the ride home from Austin.

bradschauf

So, how are the tires performing?

donv

I have found the best source for classic Pirelli (and Michelin, for that matter) is Longstone Tyres, in the UK. They ship to the US, and they generally arrive within a few days. I believe Longstone is the worldwide distributor for Pirelli classic tires.

wingless

Still happy with tires,

This vehicle is not high on my usage rotation, plus I’m retired, so limited miles.

vehicle is typically used around town and for several hour road trip to see my family. Done the former, no road trip on these tires (in this vehicle) yet.

wingless

Great info, thanks.

The issue with these specific tires is that for some reason Pirelli had almost a two year availability gap before production resumed in November in Turkey.

The BIGGEST domestic US tire supplier is Tire Rack. I’ve purchased dozens of tires (and mounted tire / wheel combinations) from them.

Now that production has resumed and these tires are again in stock availability shouldn’t be an issue.

wingless

Drove the 911 round trip from southern Florida to near Dallas to watch the eclipse, meeting and staying w/ my brother and his wife in their amazing camper after they drove in from Virginia.

The eclipse weather forecast was not great. The actual weather was on and off clouds when the eclipse was starting, but became 100% clear throughout totality.

Can totally understand why people chase eclipses. That was an amazing experience.

WRT to the tires, I was VERY satisfied w/ the tires on this long road trip. This included an extended highway driving section during heavy rain.

The tires performed well in dry / wet / highway / city including some fun entrance ramp cornering. I can continue to recommend these tires for purchase consideration.