The Winter Snowcontrol Serie 3 is Pirelli’s Performance Winter / Snow tire designed to provide a high level of security on cold, dry, wet and wintry surfaces. The Pirelli Ecoimpact* icons on Winter Snowcontrol Serie 3 tires’ sidewalls highlight the tire’s contribution to the environment with regards to energy efficiency, clean air and low noise.
Winter Snowcontrol Serie 3 tires feature a silica-enhanced winter tread compound that promotes rubber flexibility in cold temperatures. This compound is molded into a directional tread design that blends cold weather traction and handling. Rounded shoulder blocks and interlocking center blocks featuring Pirelli’s Interactive Brickwork Siping creates a brick wall pattern that increases lateral and longitudinal stability while providing more biting edges to increase snow traction. Two wide circumferential channels and numerous lateral grooves help channel water and slush to the sides to enhance hydroplaning resistance and wet traction. The tire’s internal structure includes twin steel belts reinforced by spirally wrapped polyamide that enhances thermal stability and makes the tires less sensitive to changes in road and air temperatures.
Snow Wear Indicators (SWI) in the tread design identify when the remaining tread depth begins to deliver diminishing snow performance (in addition to the bottom-of-the-groove treadwear bars that indicate the tire is completely worn out at 2/32″ of remaining tread depth). In the case of the Winter Snowcontrol Serie 3, notches of selected center rib blocks wear smooth when approximately 5/32″ of tread depth remains.
Winter Snowcontrol Serie 3 winter / snow tires meet the industry’s severe snow service requirements and are branded with the three-peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) symbol.
Install Pirelli Winter Snowcontrol Serie 3 tires in sets of four only.
Due to the traction capabilities of the Winter Snowcontrol Serie 3 tires, Pirelli recommends using them only in sets of four to provide the best handling characteristics and tire performance.
*Specific sizes utilizing eco-focusing manufacturing methods are identified with Pirelli’s Ecoimpact designation on the Sizes tab, as well as on the tire’s Specs tab.
Founder at Tiresout. Used to be working as an engineer at Bridgestone Tires Akron Technical Center. The responsibilities included but were not limited to technical computing, indoor & outdoor testing of new tires.
The 2015 FIAT 500 Sport came with Conti Contacts and after a year and 4000 miles the best I can say about them were they were round, black, and kept the rims off the ground. I moved to the mountains recently and wanted tires that feel a bit more connected to the road.I have always preferred Pirelli’s on my cars and motorcycles. The Snow Control tires dramatically improved how my FIAT handles on the wet and dry twisty mountain roads around here. The aggressive tread really grips the road. It’s Spring, so there’s no snow, but there are wet leaves after it rains. Yes, there is a “hum”but it’s subtle, an indicator that the tires are gripping the road.I don’t expect to test them in deep snow since the FIAT rides low, but if they handle this well in the rain, I doubt a few inches of snow are going to be a problem for these tires.”Spirited” driving style means something when you live in the mountains. Roads are sometimes narrow, they often don’t have shoulders – or even barriers to keep you from impromptu off-roading, there’s no street lights at night, lots of blind turns, and various animals that cross the road at the wrong time. Also, it’s a FIAT 500 Sport. It’s easy to get a little enthusiastic when you drive these cars.
Drove with these tires on my Fiat 500 Abarth in 16 inches of snow and felt as confident as my Subaru Forester with all season tires. Amazing value for the price.
These tires were the best tires in the snow! I put these on my 2009 Ford Focus and was amazed on how well they gripped the road! I could not even get the tires to lose traction in the light snow or deep! The Snow Control Serie 3 tires is a set I would put on my mothers car.I took these tires on a road trip from MN to CA on xmax day of 2015. There were some blizzards and lots of snow and ice across the country and these tires never let me lose confidence even in white out conditions.Noise level was above acceptable! quietest snow tires I have heard!
Quiet and smooth riding on dry roads with good wet, snow and ice traction. Good handling as well.
I am a Lyft/Uber driver, so I put a lot of miles on tires. These Pirelli’s kept me on the road, with confidence, all winter long. Love the traction they provide and tire wear isn’t bad either. Would recommend.
So far so good…….love them…and the Tire Rack Customer Service Department is great!
Obviously not many miles yet. Today, I was out and about while a winter storm was beginning. It was cold out, so the snow was light and fluffy, not wet snow. With maybe an inch or two of snow, compacted in some areas, traction from a standing start was OK. Even with throttle modulation, there was some wheel slip invoking the stability/traction control. Even without electronic intervention, I felt as though there was a hint of step out to the right with the rear wheels. I felt as though there was a slight need to correct for this ‘dogtracking’. Modulation was required while turning and braking as well, moreso than I would have anticipated.Tire selection for the given size is a bit limited, but I had Dunlop WinterSport 3D tires years ago in the same size tires with a ’97 BMW M3. I never felt out of place or without good control with that car and winter set up including getting caught in an unplowed parking lot with perhaps 6-8″ or accumulation (enough so that I was ‘plowing’ snow). Even the SottoZero Serie 2 (225/50-17) on the E46 M3 I had the past few winters seemed to perform better despite being reviewed as being somewhat lower in performance. Maybe it was just particularly slippery today. Others were proceeding with caution as well. In dry winter conditions, the ride is a bit harsher than I would expect for non RFT, 50-series tires. On colder, wet surfaces (not freezing/icy), it is difficult to provoke the rear tires into losing traction under throttle, which is a pleasant surprise.I’ll return with further comments as winter continues and I travel more miles here in eastern MA, but so far I am disappointed with the performance.
I’ve driven on several full snows and winter oriented all seasons for years in Colorado and absolutely love these tires for year round use on my daily driver. They’re not totally unstoppable like an aggressive snow tire in winter, but they have great responsiveness and perform consistently well in a variety of snow conditions. The only winter situation they don’t do excellent in, is light (1-2inches) slippery snow, e.g. icy compacted powder. I’ve found in that situation, they tend to do best with a little bit of slip, keeping some power on until they eventually pull through (less ideal, but this reliably get’s my front wheel drive Civic through the tricky snow). Outside of winter these tires have good year round grip in the wet, dry, hot and cold. Overall, they preform well year round and they’re lasting tread-wear wise.
This review for this tire is very dependent on the car I put them on (Fiesta ST). The car comes with Max Performance Summer tires that are incredible/ So grippy, responsive, and clearly the car was designed with these tires in mind. On to the SnowControls however; these tires kill the fun of the car completely. I live in Massachsuetts and I drove in snowy conditions 3 times the entire season (Abnormal, usually snows more). So maybe I put 100 miles of the 8000 total this season where I was happy I had the tire. So less than 1 percent of the time was I happy about my tire choice. The point I’m trying to make is that I dont think full-bore snow tires are worth sacrificing the fun of the car for the extremely rare situation of driving on snow covered roads. Now onto the specifics of this tire:- Steering response is surprisingy good. The FiST asks for 39PSI in the front tires so Im sure that helped, but still, I really liked how quickly the tire responded to my inputs. Easily the best part of the tire.-Snow traction is also really great. Driving on packed/plowed snow is not great, but an inch or 2 of powder? Amazing. You fell like a a superhero compared to everyone on no-season tires and the car is tossable, but always in control making it just so —- fun. I never really drove in deep snow over an inch or 2 except a unplowed driveway but it was still really good.-Noise and treadwear are both decent. I noticed no real increase in noise once the tires got broken in, and tread wear is pretty typical I feel. I drive pretty hard and I expect to get 2 full seasons out of them, but the 3rd will probably start to see a decrease in performance.In summary, I wont buy again. But I also wont buy a snow tire again. Unless youre required by work to drive in storms frequently, or live in a VERY rural area where plows are scarce. I just dont think killing the fun of a car is worth such a race snow situation. Next time I get tires for winter I will go for an all season.
After a harrowing trip down the icy freeway with my stock tires on my 500 I bought the bullet and ordered a set of these tires and a set of wheels from tire rack. The difference is amazing. I installed the new mounted wheels in a neighbors garage. had to take 4 runs at his driveway to get in the garage. put the wheels on, pulled back in the street and walked right up the driveway with no issues. No more spinning out at icy intersections or wallowing all over the road in the snow. I have never had winter tires before but I will always have them now. The price I paid is a lot less than the cost of a beat up suv that I was thinking of buying just to get around in the winter. Also the service at Tire rack was top notch. Everything I needed was included including new bolts and a spacer ring for each wheel that I didnt know that I needed.
have a 2012 fiat sport equipped it with this tire now. Really impressed with the tires. Pittsburgh driving and its been below freezing with a few inches and have had total satisfaction. Grew up in NY and have never had a 4×4 for snow, all you need is good tires.Spend the $$ and make yourself safe.Additional note: all I see here is Subaru’s in ditches with all-season tires on them.The tires make the car!
Only have a couple hundred miles on these tires but they are impressive for snow tires. In fact, they are impressive for any tires. They hold well on dry, they hold better than the original Pirelli PZeros in the wet. Can’t wait to see how well they do in the snow.They’re smooth and don’t follow all the ruts in the road. Only down side is a tiny bit of road noise is noticeable.
Only a few hundred miles on these so far, but great tire in snow/slushy winter conditions. Road noise is a little loud but not bad. Car feels like it is glued to the road. I even notice it feels less affected by strong cross winds vs my old tires. Steering input is now more deliberate compared to the old tires I had on it. Vehicle wants to track straighter and seems less willing to want to follow “road groves” made by heavy vehicles. When I turn the wheel for lane changes or passing at speed on the highway steering wheel feels weighted (like a summer performance tire)with positive feedback. Great tire to “get you through winter” and more.
This tire provide great dry and wet traction in winter. The dry and wet traction is as good as high performance all season tires. It is quite comfortable and provide good fuel economy. It is a little noisy but not very bad. For slush, ice or light snow covered road it is excellent, provide great grip that you can travel with confidence. When snow is deeper, the traction is still good, but triggers the traction control a lot more.Overall great winter tire for small performance car!
These tires have given me the confidence to get through the cold, snow and icy Alberta Winter!! Last year during winter I stayed with the OEM all seasons and let me tell you, I got a few more greys hair because of it! Due to the cars light weight, winter driving was horrendous with the OEM all seasons last year! This winter I put on the Snowcontrol 3 and it has made driving this little car in the winter a breeze! Great in deep snow, slush and even ice! The only down side, my fuel consumption has dropped dramatically compared to last year this time with the all seasons. Other than that I would purchase them again for sure!
Great snow tire for the Fiat 500 Abarth. Good performance in snow/ice and allows no-drama commuting in poor conditions. Blows right through light and deeper snow. Can get a little bit of hydro plaining on slushy mix once they salt streets but only at higher speeds and deeper slush/water. Handling in general is great at 7/10s but I purposely dial it back a bit in the winter for conditions and to keep wear down on the tires. Not much alternative for the Abarths but you can’t go wrong with these tires and they are at a wonderful price/performance point.
Excellent in dry and wet conditions even when it’s very cold. But when there’s snow on the ground especially more than 2 inches it’s as good as a good all season tire. I almost got stuck in light snow several times. The main problem with this tire is that it doesn’t clean itself well from snow. It’s more of a winter tire than a snow tire.