Tyres

[S7 EXG]

Just a heads up, fell victim to a puncture this weekend, screw straight thru the rear and too close to the sidewall for repair. The p-zeroes fitted appear to be a special or new tread pattern so you'll have diddly's chance of getting one from a local tyre merchant. Thick end of

[Al]

Just a heads up, fell victim to a puncture this weekend, screw straight thru the rear and too close to the sidewall for repair.

Ouch, an experience I hope you share alone! Out of interest were you out driving at the time and did the TPM system pick it up and alarm before you saw/felt it, and did you try and use the provided can of sealant. If so how sucessful was it?

[S7 EXG]

the sealant works fine on things like this but I think should only be used to limp the car smewhere safe and call recovery whic I did. \Had driven about2 minutes round corner from house and yes pressure monitor picked it up straight away.

[bolly girl]

Ouch - unlucky with that one.

Funnily enough I was trying to research the cost of tyres last week and didn't really get anywhere - so useful information, thanks.

[footsoldier]

Are these still only available from Lotus?

Looking at a trackday this week which will hopefully finish off a set, and didn't realise there may be a problem replacing at short notice.

Also happy to look at alternative (but as good or better than p-zeros) tyres for summer only if any suggestions?

[Bibs]

What are the sizes? Full members on here get discounts at various dealers/tyre outlets too. If you're getting a full set you could save yourself a decent amount of cash.

[Al]

Front are 225/40 ZR18

Rear are 255/35 ZR19

That is all I have in my PDA offshore at present so don't know the other code letter that follows as not written down.

I was also hearing that these tyres are supposed to be excellent in hot conditions but using them in cold weather accelerates the wear. i.e all the early UK cars have had a cold winter and at least one other owner I know is near end of life at 7,500 miles. I have only done 3,700 so far but they look far from new.

What is everybody else getting out of them? What sort of driving is your main mileage ? Did you have any track time in the figure which is sure shoulder killer.

[Beady]

During evora development the tyres were yoko's for a very long time.

They were only switched to the current tyres very late.

I believe the final tyres were designer specially for the car and made 'big improvement' to the handling over the Yoko's.

Or maybe that is what they want you to believe and it was really all about money ??????

Perhaps Bibs or Guy could shed some more light on this?

[Guy Munday]

It is true that the tyres were going to be Yokohama until a last minute switch was made in favour of Pirelli. This was only done for quality reasons and not money reasons. It would've been better for Lotus to have stayed with Yokohama who are the OE supplier for Elise/Exige, in that respect.

Its heartwarming to know that Lotus, as one of the worlds foremost ride and handling specialists go with what is best for the product and do not sop to any contractual/monetary requirements in search of an easy life. There is a precedent from the recent past when Esprit was on Goodyear, Elise was on Pirelli and Elan M100 was on Michelin! Which other manufacturer would go with three different tyre companies.?! When you had Alistair McQueen and Roger Becker trying to wring the very best out of a car, they wouldn't be interested in where the rubber came from!

Evora tyres are unique to Lotus and do come at a price, sadly. They are about £320 for a rear tyre and about £170 for a front. A small price to keep your car the best handling in the world.!

[footsoldier]

So, are they (rears) different from other P-Zero assimetrico 255/35 ZR19s ? You can buy them from Merrits, for example for £276 inc VAT.

If they have to come from Lotus, what is lead time - my rears are worn out now, and will need new ones by end of the week.

Al, my rears have done 6500 and are finished, but car was demo so probably thrashed! Fronts look fine, but don't know if they are original.

Thanks

Edited April 27, 2010 by footsoldier

[S7 EXG]

Tread pattern is different on the lotus ones. That's the problem I had in that a tyre dealer will tell u they have them but they are not actually the same. Not sure there is a different code or marking on the tyre either! Am at 3200 miles and the rears are past their best. One wet one dry trackday. Would be glad to hear how you get on here. My dealer was able to supply and fit within 48 hrs, but they had to come from the factory.

[footsoldier]

Evora tyres are unique to Lotus and do come at a price, sadly. They are about £320 for a rear tyre and about £170 for a front. A small price to keep your car the best handling in the world.!

Yes, have had it quoted/confirmed at £320+VAT+ fitting = c£400/tyre, which is ridiculous, IMO.

I have had all sorts of cars from R8s to Range Rovers, and that is the most expensive tyre by some distance. Not really a small price to pay, especially as they seem to last c7-8k miles

[Bibs]

The rears on my Esprit are £330 and fronts are £165 (inc VAT fortunately) each. The last 2 sets lasted 14 months, these ones are lasting longer!

[S7 EXG]

£280 + vat = £330 inc fitting was the bill I paid. Which ain't cheap, but there we are. More annoying at the time perhaps was dealer not carrying stock given they r only available from lotus. So 48hrs and an RAC truck to fix a puncture.

[footsoldier]

So, is my £320+ VAT quote over the top, even allowing for Lotus premium? It would seem so if you paid £330 incl from your dealer.

[Bibs]

£280 + vat = £330 inc fitting was the bill I paid.

I'd question if your dealer has fitted the correct tyre to your car. If that's the price they'll selling them at a loss to you which as I'm sure you know is highly unlikely! Can you dig out your invoice and check?

[S7 EXG]

it is the correct tyre, came straight from the factory. I checked my tyre wear yesterday.. 3500 miles and v close to the wear indicators. That's ridiculous.

[Bibs]

Your dealer are then selling them to you at a loss. Honestly, they are paying more than £280 + VAT from Lotus as the margin is very tight on these tyres.

[Al]

So when are the Lotus Forums moving into the tyre business then Bibs? Seems like if you get the price right you will have a long line of bald Evora owners (yes I know - I'm only thinning ) lining up every 6 months to hand over lots of mullah to buy short lived black rim protectors !

Quite a price to pay to maintain the handling title etc. eh? How long until somebody starts experimenting getting 90% of the feel for 75% of the price or whatever?

[Bibs]

I run Michelin Pilot Sport 2's on my Esprit, not the Goodyear Eagle that it was initially specced with but if the PS2 is good enough for the Veyron @ 250mph it's good enough for me!

Incidentally, Camskill can't discount most tyres as they only make £3/unit as is, it's a volume based business sending out over 5,000 tyres/week! The only people making serious money from tyres are the manufacturers.

[footsoldier]

So when are the Lotus Forums moving into the tyre business then Bibs? Seems like if you get the price right you will have a long line of bald Evora owners (yes I know - I'm only thinning ) lining up every 6 months to hand over lots of mullah to buy short lived black rim protectors !

Quite a price to pay to maintain the handling title etc. eh? How long until somebody starts experimenting getting 90% of the feel for 75% of the price or whatever?

I just changed rears, to keep matched with fronts (basically illegal at 6k miles). Will definitely try something else assuming that I need 4 next time.

I really can't see that a slightly different tread pattern is going to make a difference 95%+ of the time, on the road. I am not looking for the last tenth of a second (most of the time...), and IMO there is going to be a barely discernable impact on damping, handling and balance below the ultimate tyre limit, which is where the Evora stands out on a day-to-day basis anyway.

Edited May 4, 2010 by footsoldier

[Beady]

just dropped my car in for a few minor bits plus getting sports exhaust fitted.

Have also had to order 2 new rear tyres as both were shredded and highly illegal.

Done 4000 miles.

I checked them yesterday morning and would say they were about 50% worn.

I then did a driver training day with andy walsh yesterday which has killed the tyres completely.

(Training day was brilliant by the way - just make sure you already need new tyres before you start the day)

So normal road driving I would think 8000 miles is about the limit of these tyres.

This sounds very low to me.

Does anyone have any experience how long the tyres last on say a 911 or an aston with road use only as a comparison?

[Bibs]

Personally, I'd bear in mind that Lotus selected a tyre which was 100% as good as it could be on the car and their criteria were to have the best of the best. If I were an Evora owner, personally, I'd want to keep this kind of performance all being well however if it caused problems I'd happily look at alternatives of a similar calibre. If I was only trying to eek, say, 90% of the cars performance at any given time and others were cheaper and currently more readily available...

Pirelli P Zero 255 35 19 @ £203!

(PS As a happy coincidence, ^ that company offer free shipping and discounts to full forum members, handy eh!)

Now from my understanding the OE tyres on the Evora are Pirelli P Zero's but a special compound so not the same as the ones on that link, but how different are they? I don't know. Would I notice the difference? Again I don't know...

I heard from someone who works close to the A14 (!) something along these lines...

A colleague got 10,500miles on his before it was sold, with tread left on the rears so 6,000 seems a little excessive. Tyre wear is very dependent on usage and driving style (obviously) and any track use is going to significantly reduce tyre life. Based on my experience of 911s, Astons and similar cars our tyre life is in the same region.

For a response about the Yoko/ Pirelli debate...

We tested several brands of tyres. Through testing it was the Pirellis that proved to be the best suited and gave us the ultimate dynamic solution. In total, well over 100 tyres, of various brands, designs, compounds and constructions were tested to select the Pirelli P-Zero. To maintain the multi award wining dynamic performance of the Evora, we highly recommend that customers continue to use the specified tyres.

[Al]

Probably not a fair comparision as now about 10 year old info now and just too many variables over that time but just asked my mate who had a 996 C4S and used for business so was racking up a lot of comute and m-way miles and was getting about 12K from rears. His F355 at the same era was getting about 10K he thought as originals still on car at sale with that mileage, but they tend to be much lower milage cars anyway and different use as very much a toy. Now he's in Houston so although still has all the toys like AMG's F599 and DB9's just too dissimilar to quote.

My Boxster S that I got rid off before the Evora is not dissimilar drive layout or performance and driving on the same roads and in the same style mix as the Evora was getting about 10-12K out of rears and 15K out of fronts on Michelins of approximate similar sizes to Evora. Also 1 track day on each set near the end. The Evora I'm not going to get that for sure as rears looking say 50% worn at 3,800 or something and 1,000 of that was M-way 3 weekends ago.

Not saying I'll change but I will cost equivalent Michelins at Costco next time home and post. They only do Michelins but are cheap.

[Justin182]

I got about 5000-6000 miles out of my Exige slicks. Anymore than that and I'll be happy!