Ferrari F12 - what tires for daily driver?

Picking up the F12 next week and will use as a daily driver come rain or shine.
(Will report back on how that goes).

I would like tires that are the best compromise for daily driving. During the summer period (temp >10c/50f) the dealer is suggesting using all season tires where you will lose grip at the high end, but gain a lot of grip in the wet.
(Below those temps will use full-on winter tires obvisouly).

So choice for summer is summer sports tires or all season tires for better grip in wet.
If anyone has any thoughts (or specific tire models) please share. Thank you.

 

"All-season" tires are safe middle ground, though I am unsure what (if any) specific "all-season" tires are available for the F12.

The Pzero's (which are F12-specific) work well so far for us, high 40F-60F. To be clear, the F12 has enough power to break any tire loose, the issue with Pzeros is the colder temps.

Pirelli makes Sottozeros for winter (low temps, light snow) we use with great effect on the FF. Those tires (as well) are tuned for the FF.

IMHO you should be fine with Pzeros in the wet, in cool to hot temps. Come cold weather the Pzeros will be useless, you can put Sottozeros on.

 

All season tires' only advantage isn't wet vs. dry. It's cold vs. warm/hot. At near freezing temperatures, all season tires remain flexible and continue to grip. They don't necessarily have any advantage in the rain but because they remain flexible at low temps, will grip even in light snow. But in all other aspects, all season tires are easily out performed by a good "summer" tire like the Michelin Pilot Super Sport, which has very good wet traction. Just don't expect them to grip well at 32F/0C.

So, unless it gets near freezing where you live and you actually drive your F12 in such conditions, get the Super Sports. And if you do drive in winter, get a second set of wheels and mount an actual winter tire.

 

Thank you for the replies. I have been doing some research and basically came to the same conclusion, above 50F go with the F12 specific P Zeros and put proper winter tires on below that. Goal is to put 100,000 miles on the F12, will be retiring the 575 with around 80,000 km.

 

I don't know where you live but I would pick something else as my snowy icey day car. There is no point in driving a super car on days when you can't exploit the power or handling.

 

Of course you are correct about it being a waste, but there is something great about living with a car in all conditions, really getting to know it's character. I drive my 575 in the snow (live in NE) with snow tires and it handles well. If it's really bad I have a Cayenne with Pirelli scorpion ice and snow tires which are great. That's a good car for the really bad days.

 

I use Continental extremecontact DWS on my 360 for the cold weather. Unless you drive very aggressively you will not lose much if any performance in warm weather and they are awesome in the cold and for that occasional unintended light snow. IMO actual snow tires are terrible in anything but snow on most cars.

However with as much hp as the F12 has I can't guaranteee your experience will be the same in temps above 40-50F.

 

PZero's for the summer and SottoZero's for winter, pretty simple. The PZero's stick much better then Michelin's but others will say different. I have had both and will stick with PZeros. Mine will go back on my FF tonight! I think winter in NW Ohio might finally be gone. I would never put an "all season" tire on any Ferrari.

Rick

 

I actually have michelin Pilot Sport AS on my SL65. Does pretty well

 

I have a Cayenne for such purposes too, but not much snow and ice where I live.

 

Mine has pzero and it loses grip even in 3rd gear. I can never push the pedal all the way. Have to be really gentle with it all the time. It is OK for it demands respects from me, and for that I am seriously careful of what I am doing with the car. But, I am also suspecting the tire not supporting F12.
Next tire is on order and it is not Pzero.

Aventador was painful to drive around in slow speed but it gave me the confidence.
F12 is joyful to drive around but never really can drive all the way.
High speed stability is another issue with it unlike aventador.

Most of time, I want to drive F12 but ends up with FF.
FF is better car than F12 if one wants to enjoy the drive itself.

Hope tire change can take care of problem...

 

Let us all hear what kind of tires you switch your F12 to, after the PZero's, and your traction thoughts between the two.

Rick

 

Try the Michelin Super Sport. I've found the PZeros are really not that good.

 

The tire sizes for the F12 are:

255/35ZR20 front and
315/35ZR20 rear, so i think the only summer tires that have those sizes are:

Bridgestone Potenza S007 (which is new tire I believe),
Michelin Pilot Super Sport and
Pirelli P Zero.

Interstingly on tiretrack.com the feedback seems to prefer the Michelins (9.12/10 from 685 reviews) by quite a margin over the P zeros (7.84/10 from 222 reviews).

I read a bunch of the negative reviews on the Pirellis and most often they cited: tires noisy particulalry when becoming worn, wore out quickly, poor wet handling

It looks like the reviewers are from users that have those tires in any sizes and there is a wide selection of cars that the tires were used on.

I thought the scores were interesting as at least the sample sizes are pretty big.

I'm guessing F12 drivers will not necessarily agree with the guy from Des Moines who put 30,000 miles on the tires with his 2005 3 series beemer.

I think I'm going to start with the standard P Zeros and try the Michelins next, I'll report back on how that goes.

 

Follow up question: has anyone put a front license plate on F12/FF?
It would be a shame to drive past cops and just be inviting them to pull you over. How bad does it look?

 

What tires will it come with? I believe you can ask the factory for Michelin.

I would not put the front plate on it. Why not ask the dealer what most clients do. Nice avatar!

 

On my California I found the opposite to be true so I stuck with PZero on the FF. The Cali goes sideways WAY too easy with MSS's. MSS's do last at least twice as long, maybe 3 times longer but don't stick as well. Again that is with my 2012 Cali and I assume the same would be for the FF.

Rick

 

hope to see your around mark! i have yet to see an f12 in ct, let alone in person! haha
congrats on the car, and for my little add in, i have run continental ultra high performance all seasons on my cars for the last 6 years to great effect. rain/sleet/snow

 

Rick, did you get the MPSS specific to "Ferrari"? There seem to be two formulations for the exact same sizes on TireRack. One is "Ferrari" specific.

I say this because I found that the MPSS I put on my Cali (Ferrari specific version) gripped great. At least as good if not better than the PZeros that came with the car.

But I got MPSS for my Jag XFR and had the same impression you had; they seemed to slip more than the tires they replaced (on the Jag, they replaced Dunlops, not PZeros, but despite the MPSS getting better reviews than the Dunlops, the MPSS slip more, even after well broken-in).

 

Can't comment on how they'd perform on the F12, but my MSS work perfectly well on my FF as an all weather, all year round daily driver tire. Living in the UK, we have average annual temp variations of -5C to +25C and I've no complaints. Admittedly, I've never driven in more than a couple of inches of snow, but even then they've performed admirably. So much so that I have never seen the need to change to Sottozeros in winter.

I'm sure it's more to do with the FF working its magic than the tire's all weather ability, let alone the driver's!

Mac.

 

I did NOT get Ferrari specific tires, didn't know the difference at the time. The Cali came with the older Sport version from the factory (I forgot to specify tires and the factory screwed me with the Sports). Those things were ridiculous, VERY slippery, so after owning the car two months I had the local tire guys get me a set of MSS from Tire Rack without knowing they should be specific. Now I get all my tires from my Ferrari dealer and pay about the same price except I have to drive a couple hours to get them put on ... and a WONDERFUL drive usually, more Ferrari time

Rick

 

To my surprise, my dealer also charged close to TireRack prices for my tires, too. The labor to install them was more than a standard tire shop, but that was no surprise. For the convenience and peace of mind that they would be installed correctly without damage to the rims, it was worth it.

 

As for MPSS, original spec to get is;
Front: 255/35ZR20/XL (97Y)
Rear: 315/35ZR20/XL (110Y)

Now, I can find some other 255/35zr20s and 315/35zr20s
Only difference is the last digits; 97 and 110.

So my question is as long as one gets the tires above with 97 and 110 speed ratings, it is the same one with ferrari spec MPSS?
or Ferrari spec MPSS is the only ones with 97 and 110 ratings?

 

No. The numbers you are refering to, are not speed indicators, but load ratings. The letter Y which is the speed indicator, indicates a speed of 186 mph and when the Y is in a parentheses, that indicates that the tire is rated for speeds over 186 mph.

While the size, speed and load rating is essentially the same, what you need to look for, is the K2 Spec tires. Those are the Ferrari specific 2nd. adaptation MPSS tires for the F12. There are som key differences between the stock MPSS tires and the Ferrari spec tires for the F12.
The front K2's are lighter by 1 lb., they have a thread depth of 7/32" vs. 10/32" for stock, the tread width is 10" for the K2's vs. 9.2" for stock 255s and the compound is different.
The rear MPSS 315/35ZR20 only come in a Ferrari spec tire, but both in K1 and K2 spec. You would want K2's to match the K2 fronts.

Front is: 255/35ZR20/XL 97(Y) K2 Ferrari
Rear is: 315/35ZR20/XL 110(Y) K2 Ferrari

Fronts have part no. 48527 and rears have part no. 79340

 

So true!