Jaguar XJR Tyres

I've had these on my 2004 XJR the last 2 winters running and they are outstanding.

On regular dry or wet winter roads they feel, grip and sound like any other premium tyre would during the summer. Once snow and ice comes in they still just keep going. I haven't yet managed to get the Jag stuck anywhere and I'm driving past other vehicles spinning their wheels away.

For reference my summer tyre of choice is the Continental SportContact 5P - great at everything, except winter!

Tip: don't try buying them once you see snow - it's too late, you won't find any. Order them by October ideally.

Truly phenomenal performance in snow, car drives as if the roads are just wet, no problems while all around me were slipping and sliding all over the place.
Performance in wet & dry is comparable to good quality summer tyres.
There is a lot more road noise, but it's a small price for being able to drive normally in the snowy conditions of Dec 2010 in the UK.

I had a problem with my XJR tramlining. I changed the standard Pirelli P zeros for Conti sport contact 3's. I placed the part worn Pirellis on the rear axle with 3mm left, thinking I would wear them out reasonably quickly and had the new Conti's on the front. I've only done about 8,000 miles and the Conti's are shot to bits, the Pirellis on the driven axle still have 1.8mm.

The tyres gripped well in both the wet and dry. I was very happy with them for the last eighteen months. Its not until I checked them recently and found they were due for replacement.

On the plus side they cured the tramlining but that has since returned and I have been told its a Jag thing down to being very fussy for correct geometry.

I would buy the tyres again if they didn't cost ?200 each for 8,000 miles. I'm a traffic cop so I stick to speed limits religously in the towns but in the twisties I like to take advantage of the cars performance. Having said that they should have lasted twice as long as they did.

I've got the main dealer to fit four new Pirellis P zeros and sort the geometry. My flexible friend has had another spanking this month.

I have used Eagle F1's (GSD2) on a number of other cars (MR2, BMW325 and 2 TVRs) and have previously been reasonably happy with the tyres; although they have always tramlined in every car I have had. This is my first set of GSD3's and I had them fitted these to the front of my Jaguar and in about 6000 miles they are worn to the limit. Whilst I drive quickly I do avoid understeer (no fun) and try to avoid squeeling tyres in every corner. The tyres now squirm all over the road and transmit so much noise I thought the bearing had gone. This is enough for me to move away Goodyears. I suspect they are fine on smaller lightweight cars, but on a big super saloon they just can't hack it. Back to the OEM Pirelli's for me.