I was advised by my tire supplier, Bridgestone RE11 or Toyo 888, ANY ADVICE????? and I know PZero Corsa is very good but he claims it is too expensive and not worth it. Any comment??? Thanks
Bridegestones, Michelins and Pirellis are standard on the F430, all three brands have their specific tire inflation guidelines in the owners manual. I would stay with one of the three, my personal choice being the Michelins.
My 2007 F430 came with Goodyear Eagle F1 run flats.This eliminates the spare tire up front.Very happy with the ride and handling of the car.
Michelin PS2, Bridgestone RE050s and Pirelli P Zeros are OE tires. RE11s are not. I suggest you stay with OEM spec tires; any one of the three will be fine.
Of the three OEM tires for the F430 I have tried 2, the Pirelli and the Michelin PS2. I talked to several 430 owners and everyone described the Bridgestone as a poor match, so I never tried them. Also as you order tires be aware that the OEM Michelin PS2 has a special code that is different from any other PS2. The other OEM tires may as well have special codes. I tried the PS2 after using the Pirellis for a couple of years. The PS2 had better grip in both wet and dry but the front tires will wear quickly if you track the car. Without track workouts the PS2s will last about 5K to 10K, YMMV. Seriously, I took a new set of PS2s to Road America race track and even during a light shower they never once lost contact. In the dry they were absolutely phenomenal, never once did they put a foot wrong and I was doing 160 in the straightaways and pulling some very high numbers in the turns as well. The only down side was that I did 5 track sessions of 30 minutes each, along with driving over 1000 miles on the road and after that I had to replace the fronts. The rears were still good, but to keep that excellent cornering ability I went ahead and replaced the fronts. I had PS2s on two of my other cars and liked there performance there as well. But even with tire rotation they never made it past 20K miles.
The extra wear on the front is due to the understeer. PS2 are the best OEM tires available for the F430. The Pirelli Corsa system in the Scuderia offer better dry grip but less wet grip compared to PS2, but the Corsa are race compound tires and they don't last. The RE-11 have better dry grip than the PS2, but in the rain the PS2 is king. If price is an issue, the Corsa for the F430 are close to $2,000 a set, PS2 around $1,500, RE-11 around $1,000. Keep in mind that sometimes car manufacturers certify tires when developing a car, but that doesn't stop tire manufacturers to make better tires through the years. The F430 hit the market in 2005. The PS2 was the best street tire in dry conditions 5 years ago, today the RE-11, Kumho XS, Toyo R1R, Yoko Ad08 and dunlop Z1 exceed the grip levels of the PS2. Pirelli is coming with a new track tire to exceed the Corsa performance, it was presented at SEMA, Pirelli Trofeo. I'm curious whether the F458 will use the Pirelli Trofeo, Bridgestone RE-11 and Michelin Sport Cups. Ferrari needs at least the Pirelli or Michelin to start advertising Nurburgring lap times.
F430GT sums it up nicely. I would add that the Pirellis for the 430 Scud were just recalled, something about tires coming apart at speeds over 150MPH. Seems that some well to do middle easterners were running their Scuds in the kingdom of sand and more than one of the Pirellis came apart. Consequently all the Scuds have been given the opportunity to get new tires depending on current miles on the car. I would think that a new set of Pirellis would be good but beware of buying a slightly used set. Just an FYI.
