Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus vs Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate: After covering 2 of the best ultra high performance tires Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus vs Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4, we would like to continue the trend by introducing another premium competitor in the form of Pirelli’s P Zero All Season Plus and Goodyear’s Eagle Exhilarate. Both tirelines were dedicated products specific for the American market while Pirelli’s P Zero All Season Plus was launched in 2016 and covers most of the 17-20″ popular sizes and Goodyear’s Eagle Exhilarate was launched in 2019 and carries a similar size range portfolio. Let’s put them in a head to head battle and see who comes out on top!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from tire rack’s “Testing Premium Ultra High Performance All-Season Tires 2021” test. A total of 4 tires were tested this time around. The graph below shows the comparison between Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus vs Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate based on the relevant performance category. The P Zero All Season Plus was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.
As both tires are categorized as all season tires, tire rack has included snow & ice in its testing portfolio. A detailed testing on snow including acceleration, braking & handling were evaluated. The tire size of interest is a 245/40R18 which is a common tire size for Audi A4 & Mercedes-Benz C 200 Amg Line. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle for this tire test is a 2020 BMW F36 430i Gran Coupe.
Wet
The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria. With regards to our comparison, Eagle Exhilarate was dominating when it comes to wet braking, as it totally out performed P Zero All Season Plus by braking 10.2 feet (3.1 m) earlier.
Eagle Exhilarate continued the trend in wet handling as it managed a 1.48 seconds advantage in lap time over P Zero All Season Plus. Things were the same direction for subjective ranking, as Eagle Exhilarate was better with a 7.88/10 rating compared to 7.38/10 of P Zero All Season Plus.
Eagle Exhilarate:
It was the easiest to drive on the track, combining braking, steering, and acceleration with ease and allowing our drivers to place the car exactly where they desired and use confident, assertive inputs..
Test driver feedback on Eagle Exhilarate
In a nutshell, from the test results it can be shown that Eagle Exhilarate is clearly stronger in wet compared to P Zero All Season Plus.
Eagle Exhilarate:
- +9.8% in wet braking
- +2.5% in wet handling (subj)
- +4.4% in wet handling (lap time)
Dry
As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. Once again Eagle Exhilarate showed its objective strength in dry braking by out braking P Zero All Season Plus at 2.7 feet (0.8 m) .
Both tires are equally matched when it comes to dry handling with the finest margin separating both of them. Eagle Exhilarate had a rating of 8.06/10 while P Zero All Season Plus 4 had a 8/10 rating. Lap times were closer as they were separated by 0.02 seconds.
P Zero All Season Plus:
The Pirelli felt the most agile of the group, dancing through the slalom and around corners exactly as our drivers intended. A slight deficit in outright traction for braking and ultimate lateral grip kept the tire from leading in every objective metric, but the Pirelli did the best job of easily maximizing everything it had to offer.
Test driver feedback on P Zero All Season Plus
Overall, Eagle Exhilarate had an edge in dry braking while both tires performed really close in dry handling.
Eagle Exhilarate:
- +3.3% in dry braking
- +0.3% in dry handling (subj)
- -0.1% in dry handling (lap time)
Noise/Comfort/Ride Quality
Normally in an ultra high performance segment, noise & comfort is usually not the main requirement. People who drive fast cars prefer to focus more on traction/braking performances rather than subjective comfort Anyhow the ride comfort was tested and the P Zero All Season Plus was ahead with an overall rating of 8.05/10 compared to the 7.63/10 of Eagle Exhilarate. The main differences between the 2 tires lies in the noise category.
Eagle Exhilarate:
- -2.1% in average of Noise, Comfort & Ride Quality.
Snow
As both tires have been rated as an all season tire, we were thrilled when tire rack included snow on its testing list. From initial checks, both tires do not include the 3 peak mountain label to legally certified the tire as a winter tire. Hence they do not have to pass a certain threshold of snow traction level as determined by the legislation.
Both tires were neck in neck when it came to snow with Eagle Exhilarate just slightly better in snow braking as it stopped 0.78 feet (0.24 m) earlier than P Zero All Season Plus. In snow acceleration, P Zero All Season Plus was a small step ahead as it took 0.51 feet (0.16 m) less distance to accelerate from 0 to 12 mph (20 km/h). While in snow handling P Zero All Season Plus had a better subjective score 4.38/10 against the 4.04 of Eagle Exhilarate. However Eagle Exhilarate managed to produce a faster lap time by being 1.5 seconds per lap faster than P Zero All Season Plus.
Overall, both tires were relatively very competitive in snow and we could not single out who is better.
Eagle Exhilarate:
- +1.1% in snow braking
- -1.2% in snow acceleration
- -1.7% in snow handling (subj)
- +2% in snow handling (lap time)
Ice
With the test results being so close in snow, we would expect another close fight in ice. This was however not proven to be the case as Eagle Exhilarate totally dominated in ice conditions. Eagle Exhilarate was better in ice braking as it stopped 10.7 feet (3.3 m) earlier than P Zero All Season Plus. While in acceleration, it took Eagle Exhilarate 0.63 seconds faster to reach 60 feet compared to P Zero All Season Plus. Overall it was absolutely clear from the test results that Eagle Exhilarate was far superior in ice.
Eagle Exhilarate:
- +17.5% in ice braking
- +14.2% in ice acceleration
UTQG rating
We have previously shown that UTQG tread wear rating can be a good indication of your expected mileage. Below are the UTQG values of both of the tirelines.
| Brand | Tireline | Size | Tread Wear | Traction | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodyear | Eagle Exhilarate | All | 500 | AA | A |
| Pirelli | P Zero All Season Plus | All | 500 | AA | A |
Both tires have the same mileage warranty of 45,000 miles while both of them are also having the same UTQG tread wear rating. Hence it would be safe to assume that both tires have roughly the same expected mileage performances. For more in depth information about UTQG, please check out this article here. We even have a free download on the latest UTQG values from the leading tire manufacturers.
Price
As both tires are considered premium in the market, we would have expected a similar pricing. This was in alignment as they are only separated by 2 dollars in terms of price.
Tire size: 245/40R18
Eagle Exhilarate: $211
P Zero All Season Plus: $209
Difference: -1% more expensive for Eagle Exhilarate.
Summary
Overall, Eagle Exhilarate showed clear dominance on wet, dry & ice surfaces. P Zero All Season Plus on the other hand excels in noise and was on the same level in snow. In our opinion, Eagle Exhilarate is the clear winner for this duel with the best all season package!