Pirelli Snow/Ice Tire review: two years of use

[JMatt]

I often get questions about my experience with the Pirelli Snow/Ice tires on my 300C SRT-8, so I thought I'd post a more comprehensive review.

BACKGROUND
I live in Indianapolis, and we get random amounts of snow from around December 1st until the end of February each year. We don't normally see snow covered roads a lot of days, but we often have frost, or just blown snow glazed over roads, or simply asphalt temperatures under freezing. perhaps 5 road days per year I will face 5 inches of snow on unplowed roads to/from work.

In November of 2005, the first morning the temps dropped into the low 30's I took off from a stop light as I normally would (which is a bit heavy-footed). My car nearly slid off the road on the Goodyear F-1 Supercar tires. Those tires are not only horrible in snow, but even cold asphalt makes them nearly worthless and highly dangerous. They are truly, as marketed, a "summer" performance tire.

As a result, I ordered Pirelli Snow/Ice tires in size 255 45R20 and put them on my stock wheels on all four corners. I used them for 3 months during the winter of 05/06, and used them for 3 months this winter, and just took them off yesterday.

CLEARANCE
I have never had the tires rub. Although the SRT-Engineers state that 255's will rub on the front in "extreme" situations, I have yet to rub the fronts. I also am not on the racetrack in December on snow/ice tires either. In daily driving I am not aware of anyone yet reporting these tires rub on the fronts.

TREAD LIFE
I have now accumulated 6 months of driving, and about 7,000 miles on the Snow/Ice tires. After removing them yesterday and inspecting them, I would estimate I have used only 1/4th of the tread life. I expect the tires would last me 8 seasons, or 28,000 miles of driving at a minimum. This number could be as low as 6 years, or as high as 10 years, but I think with 3 months of typical driving, an individual will likely get 8 years of winters from these tires.

SNOW-COVERED ROADS
Although we don't get a lot of snow, several times a year I am forced to drive to/from work on 15 miles of roads with enough snow on them that I hear the bottom of my car scraping the entire time. I accelerate as well as anyone on the road, with the possible exception of SUV's with mud/snow tires. I accelerate as well as SUV's on all-season tires. I face several stoplights with uphill starts (you know - the ones where traffic gets backed up because once stopped, people can't get going again). I have never had a problem - even with 5" of snow on the roads. (note: we get/got much more than 5" of snow. That's just the accumulation that remained on the roads). Stopping distance and control was great. However, as always, be prudent with your stopping distances in any snowy/icy conditions. These tires are great, but they won't offset complete stupidity or lack of awareness.

WET ROADS
In wet roads, which we experience often in the winter here, the tires handle and perform as well as any all-season tire. Some concerns have been expressed about how these would handle without snow or ice. I believe they are at least as good as typicall all-season tires.

DRY ROADS and HIGHWAY SPEEDS
I've taken a number of road trips around the state with dry/warm conditions. I don't notice any additional noise, and certainly no handling issues. My only concern was that I would be wearing the tires down too quickly. At my current 8 year pace, I'm no longer concerned. I think the rubber may go bad more quickly than I wear these out.

DRY TRACTION
You will certainly break these tires loose at stoplights on dry roads more easily than RSA's or F-1's. However, if driven like a responsible adult would, you will not approach the limits of these tires. Control your burnout urges until Spring. That being said, I have done numerous burnouts, and did not experience any adverse "chunking" of the tire tread. I certainly sped up my wear a bit, but appear to have done no harm to the tires.

CONCLUSION
It's a no cost option. Every mile you spend with these tires on is simply another mile longer before your summer tires wear out. I get the benefits of summer performance when I want it, and winter performance/safety when I need it. The net increase in cost over time approaches zero. My tires are in bags in the garage now, and I'll keep putting them on for years to come.

I realize this thread is more timely in October than today, but I thought it good to post a review having just removed them yesterday after my second consecutive winter of use.

P.S. I purchased from Tirerack (no affiliation): Pirelli Snow/Ice tires in 255 45R20

[GoofyTimL]

Thanks for the write-up. I tried to order these through my local tire company and they said they couldn't get them for my MSRT or my 300C H.E. Ended up putting two Blizzacks on the H.E. in January, and just running on the RSAs that came with the Mag.

So... where did you get your Ice/Snows, and if ordered on-line from TireRack, etc., please provide specific links and/or part nos.

Thanks!

[DaveW68]

Thanks for all of the valuable info Matt!! Did you consider getting some 18 or 19" rims for winter use? My concern is that the stock rims would get pretty beat up on the winter roads with the salt and potholes.

I'm of the opinion that we make this thread a "sticky". Anybody want to second this?

[JMatt]

Originally Posted by DaveW68

Thanks for all of the valuable info Matt!! Did you consider getting some 18 or 19" rims for winter use? My concern is that the stock rims would get pretty beat up on the winter roads with the salt and potholes.

I'm of the opinion that we make this thread a "sticky". Anybody want to second this?

Some people have done this with 18". I didn't want to buy extra wheels. Maybe VVV will ultimately put this in his tech forum? (but let it here for a little please so people can see it for now, and reference it in the other forum in the future)

[TTP]

Excellent review and info!!

I live in the land of snow and ice.
We had a tonne of it this year.
I am trading in my daily driver
for the SRT-8 which will be used as my
daily driver.
I was a little concerned of the winter aspect
of driving and figured I would worry about that , when
the time came.
Anyways,,Your post puts confidence in myself
purchasing the SRT-8 as a daily driver.
I know I will certainly need winter tires and these are the ones that I will get.
The ratings on Tirerack are pretty great for this tire as well!!

Thanks for the review!!

[JMatt]

Thanks! To add a little more reassurance to our northern drivers, I grew up in a rural area that got tons of "lake effect" snow coming off lake Michigan. We went months with snow-covered roads, and learning to do donuts in the school parking lot was just a rite of passage. That was also a time before snow/ice tires existed and when every car was rear wheel drive.

I'm very comfortable on snow in general, but still cautious and prudent. If I lived in Saskatchewan (been there many times) I'd be very comfortable driving an SRT-8 in the winter with these tires.

[Dante]

I have to agree with JMatt. I too have had the Pirelli Scorpion Ice/Snow 255/45/20 tires for two seasons. My experience is about the same - including the burnouts. The only primary difference is the amount of snow we get in Canada. In fact, we get so much that we allow it as a free export to the U.S. under the NAFTA Agreement. As this was a mild winter, we were only able to let JMatt have the equivalent of a 5" build-up.

I'll be swapping tires in about a week. I have two sets of rims and will be burning off the F1s before I buy new summer tires. I think that I will go with the Toyo Proxes 4 as they seem to cost only about 60% of the cost of the All-Season Pirellis and have a good write-up. I haven't had any rubbing issues with the 255s so I'll probably put them on all four corners. That will allow me to rotate them every season. The F1s wore out quickly and as they weren't rotated, showed obvious signs of wear. On the fronts, the outside edges are smooth like a baby's bottom and down to the cord in places, and on the rears, for some unknown reason, they are bald in the middle almost to the outside edges.

Cheers.

Dante!

[Chrispy]

I have these Pirelli Scorpion Ice and Snow (255s) all around for my winter tires on ASA ST3 rims from Tire Rack.

They work very well in all conditions. I was living on the east coast of Canada and we received 10 feet (300cm) of snow in just 4 weeks. I was driving in bad weather all the time and never had a problem. braking, moving from a stop etc was no issue at all.

Tires handle well and are quiet too. Completely satisfied with them...

Cheers,
Chris

[Dante]

I see that you didn't get much snow this winter either. That's why we could only export 5" to JMatt.

Dante!

[TTP]

We just had a little tiny bit of snow here as you can see in the photo.

Snow tires are pretty much manditory in this part of the country.

Note,,I took this photo during my test drive.
I have a deposit on the car,,mid April she should be
a permenant resident.!