How bad are the stock 235 Pirellis for a road trip?

[LeroyJohsan]

Going to be taking a road trip later this year of about 2000 miles. Lots of warm open straight roads.
I’ve seen lots of posts about how bad the stock Pirellis are on the GT.

how bad are they really and will it ruin my drive?
Do I need a better tire or a wider tire?

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[sjmurphy34]

For normal driving they should do perfectly fine and probably net you better fuel economy since you have less friction than a wider tire. Where they typically suffer is any type of performance driving or if you have a bit of a heavy foot and try to accelerate from a stop too hard.

 

[LeroyJohsan]

For normal driving they should do perfectly fine and probably net you better fuel economy since you have less friction than a wider tire. Where they typically suffer is any type of performance driving or if you have a bit of a heavy foot and try to accelerate from a stop too hard.

So no issues with rolling starts like if I want to do a 40-80 pull on the freeway?

 

[sjmurphy34]

So no issues with rolling starts like if I want to do a 40-80 pull on the freeway?

Well I don't think I would say no issues but less so than from a stop I'd think. Any time you go WOP with those tires, assuming you're not in a high gear, you'll probably have some traction issues. Sorry I must have misunderstood your initial question. I thought you were more so just referring to normal cruising.

 

[LeroyJohsan]

Well I don't think I would say no issues but less so than from a stop I'd think. Any time you go WOP with those tires, assuming you're not in a high gear, you'll probably have some traction issues. Sorry I must have misunderstood your initial question. I thought you were more so just referring to normal cruising.

I mean I’ll be driving normally for a majority, but I do like some light pulls.

 

[K4fxd]

Cross country the 235 is probably the best choice. A narrower tire will deal with bad weather better than a wide one. You will be able to play a bit but will not hook as good as a wider tire. If you have throttle, steering and brake control you can do some pretty spirited twisties also.

There are several very vocal people on this board who think if you have a mustang gt you need 11" wide tires, full coil overs and shift at 8000 RPM. If you don't you need to buy a diesel.

Ignore these people

 

[accel]

Going to be taking a road trip later this year of about 2000 miles. Lots of warm open straight roads.
I’ve seen lots of posts about how bad the stock Pirellis are on the GT.

how bad are they really and will it ruin my drive?
Do I need a better tire or a wider tire?

Warm weather I'd say no issues.

I autoXd and car control clinic'd on stock Pirellis with no issues. It's when it is cold and wet when I have to be cautious.

zEven then once you warm them up they get better.

 

[MRGTX]

Try to keep this in perspective. These no-season 235 section Pirellis are still a superior performance tire to any DOT legal tire you could buy through the 1980s and maybe beyond that. Even “bad tires” are pretty good these days.


They’re FINE.

No, you will not be able to experience the limits of the Mustang’s performance potential and they won’t save someone from driving like a baboon like many real performance tires but they’re reasonably grippy, relatively long wearing, relatively low rolling resistance, safe tires.

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