I really do not like the feel of these run flat tires....heavy, hard side walls making the car jumpy and uncomfortable. Wish we had better choices when getting the car.

I am going to look into the following tires that I am familiar with and see:

- Conti ExtremeContact
- Potenza RE760 Sport
- Potenza S04 Pole Position

Love the Michelin PSS but a little too $$$ from my taste. Contis are great I think and lightest of the bunch too.

Anyone else swapped?

 

you will find the vast majority of people here will tell you that ditching their runflats was one of the best decisions they ever made with their cars.

 

I have always abhorred runflats but am surprised to say the Pirellis on my 3 week old car aren't too bad. The ride/handling balance is light years ahead of previous ones I've experienced. You might try checking your tire pressure, I think the US recommended number is too high, I'm running around 39psi on all four.
The Michelins are awesome, I priced some for the JCW and it was around $660 a set from TireRack, compared to $1400 a set for my 911, that's a bargain. A bargain tire that I can recommend is the Sumitomo HTRZ III for around $110 a piece.
If you do replace them soon, save the runflats for when you turn in your lease. Pretty sure MINI USA will gig you for non-RF's.

 

Other than the fact that they seem to be wearing out pretty fast I have no issues with them. Ride is a lot better than the Pirelli RF's on my 11 Countryman, then again that is a really different beast altogether.

 

I am definitely not a RF fan on any of my vehicles! I run Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ on the JCW and they are wonderful. I don't track the mini, but I do extreme twisting a lot and they have held better than the Dunlop RFs that were OEM when I bought this JCW. I have juiced it and in low setting it is putting out 270 HP and they still hold just fine. If they become available in the sizes I need I will probably try them on my other sports cars as well. I also had them on a C7 Stingray and they worked decently on it as well for highway use.

 

Agreed on the Michelin PSS and checking the tire pressure, had them on my 997 C2S and loved. I just think they are a little too much tire for the JCW. Contis or the S04 will be a huge improvement over the RF and less $$.

 

I know this is the JCW, not the Clubman world, but, FWIW, I ditched the Pirellis on my Clubman S All4 and am glad I did. Much to my shock and amazement, I fitted my Clubby with 17" Vogues and am delighted with the result so far:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...man-tires.html

 

P7s are my first ever run flat tire and I have to say, I don't mind them at all. The ultimate test will be how they wear, but the piece of mind I receive from a runflat coupled with a surprising level of performance makes it an easy decision for me. Every day I see people on the side of 294 (a very fast highway) on my way to work in the freezing cold changing out a flat tire. That makes for a bad day. If I was someone who had my JCW as a third car that just drove around town, I would probably look into pilot super sports.

 

But the P7's are summer high performance tires....why are you driving them in bad winter weather? Other than that I agree...my P7's are fine with me....never had runflats before and for now I'm fine with them. Time will tell as I run them in more I suppose.

 

There is a Grand Touring All Season version. Which one is supplied by MINI? Oddly Pirelli has eight versions all named Cinturato P7, in different performance categories and both runflat and non-runflat.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/pirelli-tires.jsp

 

I think FDR has the same 'all-season' P7's like on mine. I guess you have to be very specific when referencing the P7 line as to which model. I am also on FDR's wavelength, I don't find the RF ride bad at all and am impressed with the grip they have for an OEM supplied all-season donut. Same crappy Chicagoland roads even.

When you compare these GTAS P7's to the likes of the Bridgestone RE-01R & RE-71R that I have been running on my SVO, they are still 'soft'. I even have taller side walls on my current RE-71R's in a 245/45R17 size, but when unmounted, you could lay the tire flat, stand on the bead and it had virtually zero deflection. So I almost always chuckle a bit when folks gripe about how the RF's ride.

 

Yes, although confusing, I am aware of that anomaly of naming different tires the same....weird! But afaik only the summer P7 comes from the factory on the JCW with 18" wheels, not all seasons.

 

I think you're right. All MINI USA literature says summer performance tires for the JCW in our market. On some models, i.e. Countryman, you have a choice of summer or all seasons.
In Texas I have no need for all seasons when summer tires are generally good to around 40 degrees. We don't get below that enough to worry here in Houston.

 

You could just get the non-runflat Pirellis. I have them on my car and I love them.

 

My 2014 Coupe came with Dunlap SP1 summer tires and they rode fine, I used 2-3 psi less pressure than it said on car (38psi). But they only lasted 16,000 miles! So I replaced them with a higher mileage RF tire that was "on sale" at the dealership for about $700 total price. I think the Dunlaps were $1000.

 

Sorry for the confusion, I do in fact have the summer p7 tires. Now that's it's winter, I have the pirelli wintersotto zero 3 run flat and am very fond of those as well! My point about seeing people on the side of the highway applies to all seasons, but it really sticks out during winter during single digit temps.

 

Do you have runflats on all of your vehicles?

 

"compared to $1400 a set for my 911" lol, Yes, my wife would just get all twisted when I had to replace the tires on our 996 C4S. Especially the rear tires if I was lucky to get 7,000 miles on them. God bless the Mini, so much fun, so little cost. Motor on!

 

No. My wife has a 2012 Cooper justa with non run flats. It's definitely smoother than mine but then again, it's a 15x7 wheel so it's a monster sidewall.

 

As stated I am not a runflat fan and the first thing I do is change them out. It is a personal preference as I have had terrible results in the past with runflats. Granted the ones that were the real problem tires were Dunlops, or as I refer to them Dunflops. But I have (had) the Michelin Pilot Super Sports on two high performance cars and I really didn't care for them either. I am not worried about side of the road issues as I carry a VIAR 12volt compressor, a Dynaplug kit, and if necessary a large can of aerosol Slime. In the event of a catastrophic tire failure I will wait for the rollback, not fun, but as a last resort resolution. I have owned a lot of high performance cars over the years and never had runflats on most of them. I left the OEM Dunlop runflats on this mini and if Michelin Onsite had not of been there my last MOTD would have been a disaster. On a hard run on the OEM Dunlop RFs did a hard slide on the triple twist, and when I returned to the hotel and was washing the mini I notice a large knot on the right front. I called Michelin and they had a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s there the next morning and they mounted them at the vendor area at the lodge. They showed me the Dunlop and there was a 6" tear on the inner sidewall. I repeated the run multiple times during our stay with the Michelins and they held better and there was no slide in the same turns at the same and greater speed. My personal thoughts are that a more compliant sidewall takes hard cornering better than most runflats although the new Michelin Pilot Super Sports seem to do better than any RFs I have driven on before. Still the non runflats are quieter and better riding in my estimation.

 

On another note, I thought the RF would be much heavier but after looking at the specs on Tirerack and comparing to similar non RF performance tires, there is little to no difference in weight!?!

Unless the specs listed are not correct but I have yet to see RF tires lighter than similarly sized performance tires.

 

 

Maybe I'm misreading, but the Michelin Super Sports I spoke of are not runflats. You mentioned a C7 Corvette before, I think they haves RF Super Sports made just for them.

 

Yes, the Stingray Z51, the Grand Sport, and the Z06 all require 20" rear tires and the selection is extremely limited in the 335 width for the rears. They are huge tires. Michelin and Continental were the only suppliers and Continental has discontinued their winter tire in that size. Michelin has a runflat snow tire that works in the Alpin series. However, the demand for an all season non runflat has generated enough interest and market potential that they, Michelin, Pirelli, and possibly Continental are working on a line of HP all season non runflats for them.

 

As this is my third MINI I have had a lot of experience with RF and non RF tires. My first MINI, a Clubman came with RF and I bought RF winters for it (I am in the Great White North after all). The Dunlop "no seasons" were horrible and I quickly exchanged them for Hankook Ventus, then for Bridgestone REs. Since the clubman had room for a compact spare, I got one of those. I kept the winters, since no one wants to mess with a flat in a snow storm, they were Dunlops and not too bad but not stellar either.

The next MINI (Hardtop) came with Cintaturo P7 tires. What an improvement! It seems that the suspension and the tires were well dialled in. I pushed them hard and was pretty impressed. Since this car had no room for a spare I stayed with RF. I also bought Sottozero RFs for the winter. I can't praise the Sottozeros enough, they are splendid in the snow and ice. They perform very well at speed too.

Now I have a JCW. It came with P7s and I kept the Sottozeros on new rims for the winter. I haven't had much of a chance to throw the car around with the P7 tires so I'm unsure if I will keep them. When I had the Clubman I noticed quite a difference in handling and comfort with the non RF tires. The big downside IMHO is COST. Before I traded in the Hardtop I had to replace a perfectly good RF because of a half inch screw that found it's way into a groove. Yes according to the manufacturer I should have replaced two, but I told the dealership about the new tire and they were okay with it. However, one week before the trade, one of my winter tires also picked up a nail and since I was keeping those I choose to replace two. Bottom line in two weeks I spent almost $900 on tires. That IMHO certainly creates a pretty good financial case for non RF tires. However since I like the security of RFs I have decided to roll the dice for a while and stick with them. In the summer I will assess the Pirellis and see if I want to keep them for the JCW.
LW