Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 Review

The Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 comes as a fresh face in the range of touring all-season tires. It comes with an upgraded winter traction abilities, where you also get superb wet and dry performance as well. And all that while enjoying a quieter, more comfortable ride. Let’s explore this tire in greater detail.

Available Sizes (Specs)

The Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 comes in 17 to 22 inches wheels. And all of those sizes have following specifications.

• Speed ratings: T, H and V.
• Load ratings: SL and XL.
• Tread depth: 11/32″ on all.
• Weight range: 29 to 42 lbs.
• Treadwear warranty: 70k miles.
• UTQG rating: 800 A A.

Tread Design

The Pirelli Scorpion comes with an asymmetric tread design.

In the middle where the 3 ribs form 4 longitudinal grooves, there are a ton of biters seen. And looking at them, it makes sense why the tire offers such epic winter traction efficacy.

The central most rib is very carefully engineered, where it hits all types of terrains.

I mean, with continuous running design, it offers commendable directional grip on dry. And with a combination of linear and wave-like siping, you also get wet traction too.

And yes, with curved in-groove notches, the winter performance is not left out either.

The other two ribs also have similar features. They although have laterally aligned grooves, only one of them is equipped with rectilinear sipes, while other one only has interlocking one.

Moreover, the shoulder lugs are a little more straight forward as they don’t carry as many biters. These blocks have a combination of longitudinal and lateral siping and of course prominent lateral grooves dividing them up.

Find all the tires compared with Pirelli Scorpion Scorpion AS Plus 3.

Wet Performance

When it comes to wet performance, the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 comes with a mixed bag of results. Let me explain those while dividing this section in two parts.

Wet Braking and Handling

On wet surfaces, this tire stands out as a dependable choice. It offers full-depth sipes with a blend of wave-like and linear patterns. And this unique design ensures the sipes remain flexible, avoiding rigidity during both handling and braking.

(If you don’t know, sipes suck up water particles coming underneath, the lugs, and they need flexibility to do so).

However, while its handling performance is superb (as it gives out one of the best wet lap times, on average), its braking leaves a bit to be desired.

For context, it took an additional 2 feet to stop compared to the Crossclimate 2, which also isn’t particularly renowned for its wet braking. Review the tire here.

Nonetheless, the Pirelli compensates it, with exceptional handling times, attributed to its effective biters on the shoulder lugs.

Hydroplaning Resistance

Hydro or aquaplaning is nothing more than a tire floating on water. This happens when a tire isn’t able to make proper contact with the ground (as water comes in the way).

To tackle this, tires are equipped with spacious grooves, which channel the water out in time.

However, at higher speeds, water may not disperse quickly enough. That’s why this resistance to hydroplaning is measured by float speeds, which indicate how fast a tire can move over a watery surface.

Now, the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 although does pretty great in straight aqua tests, the curved testing has some mixed bag of results.

In essence, the tire exhibits a tendency to understeer, especially in deeper water, resulting in a somewhat unpredictable handling.

I mean, it offers a sharp initial turn but then feels overly soft and slightly unstable.

So why is that?

Well, although the tire is armed with four evenly broad water channels, proficiently designed to support adequate “straight float speeds”, with missing lateral grooves, it’s not able to effectively clear water out laterally.

So you see slight lagging on curved aquaplaning. Again, don’t let the word “unstable” bum you off, its a very marginal difference comparing other tires in the category.

Dry Straight Grip

When it comes to directional grip, the Pirelli AS Plus 3 is a worthy successor to the Scorpion All-Season line, as it now features more streamlined central lugs offering superior braking capacity.

Actually when it comes to directional grip, central portion of the tread engages with the road surface better, as it gets the most weight concentration (while the tire rolls straight).

That’s why Pirelli with continuous running 3 central ribs (having reinforced foundations underneath), offer above average results.

Furthermore, upon examining the tire’s tread pattern, you’ll observe multi-directional in-groove notches, alongside a mix of linear and wave-like siping.

These elements serve as effective grip enhancers, providing the lugs with subtle mobility, ensuring they don’t interfere with each other when the tire comes to a stop.

Note: Despite its impressive features, the tire’s directional grip and stopping efficiency leave room for improvement. This becomes evident when observing its dry handling performance, as reflected in the lap times, (see below).

Dry Cornering Grip

Discussing lateral or cornering grip requires one to analyze the ability of the tire’s shoulders to maintain contact with the road, (during turns).

Like directional grip depends on central lugs, when the tire corners, the weight focuses on the sides of the tread, so how well those sides or shoulders contact with the ground tells you about the tire’s basic lateral traction.

In this context, the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 outranks nearly all of its direct competitors, due to its expansive shoulder contact area, with a combination of thick longitudinal slits joining up with the lateral shoulder grooves, (or in groove notches), giving tire with the needed stability and traction.

But traction is only half the equation, as the overall handling (seen by lap times) comes from cornering feedback.

And for that the tire presented with a very satisfying steering, where you know exactly what the vehicle is doing, with minor steering adjustment translating to very quick and equal minor outputs.

In other words, you get a good over/understeering balance, allowing for a confidence inspiring control.

Fuel Efficiency

The fuel efficiency of the Scorpion AS Plus 3 is another area, where there are no complaints, I mean relatively, when compared to other all-season tires in its category.

This tire comes out with lower rolling resistance due to its comparatively lighter structure and well-crafted, streamlined central ribs.

Although the lugs of this tire are somewhat softer and might appear stickier than those of its competitors, their reinforced foundations ensure they maintain rigidity under pressure.

(So lugs don’t flex, which uses up or should I say wastes fuel energy).

So overall, while the fuel economy of the Scorpion AS Plus 3 may not be super great, its still appreciable. I mean sure, there are certainly more impressive options available in the market (in terms of fuel efficiency), but this tire’s balanced performance is what sets it apart.

Winter Performance

When it comes to maneuvering in wintry conditions, the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 isn’t bad at all. I mean sure it lacked a little compared to (the best in the category), the Crossclimate 2, it was only a little far behind.

Though this does not go for the ice testing where the tire braked 12 feet short (on directional grip testing). And so it makes sense why the tire doesn’t own the 3 peak mountain snowflake rating.

In terms of handling and acceleration, the traction was up to the mark. But still the overall handling times lacked a little, due to the tire’s susceptibility to understeer.

I mean don’t get me wrong, the tire seems to be stable and user-friendly around corners, not giving any sensations of nervousness or anything like that. But it’s front axle appears to struggle slightly more for grip compared to its direct competitors.

Noise Dampening Ability

Pirelli provides fairly commendable comfort overall, with the presence of noise primarily manifesting as background white noise at lower speeds.

However, on highways, there is a distinct tone that somewhat overshadows other ambient noises.

Furthermore, the acoustic properties of the tire are generally favorable, displaying a tad more volume across various surfaces and exhibiting noticeable sound interaction between the tread and the road during turns, or while navigating on-ramps or off-ramps.

Basically Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 comes with a fantastic blend of polymers within its tread which offer quite a sophisticated variable pitch technology, wherein the tire’s lugs create diverse sound frequencies at different points, preventing the sound from amplifying and contributing to a noticeable reduction in noise levels.

Moreover since most of the noise is air particles colliding with the tread walls, and those air particles come through shoulder voids, the tire places connectors there to block excessive noise form coming in, reducing noise.

Tread Life

The longevity of the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 is truly notable, especially after the update. I mean compared to its predecessor, it now offers 15% more mileage.

That’s why the tire comes with the UTQG of 800 and a treadwear warranty of 70k miles.

So, what makes this tire last so long?

Well, it boils down to three key elements: the depth of the tread, the composition of the compound, and the overall weight of the construction.

Mostly where its competitors only offer up to 10/32″ tread depth, the Pirelli gives you 1/32″ extra (on all its sizes). This allows it to take more time reaching down to tire replacement tread depth levels.

Moreover, it although has a softer rubber composition, all its lugs are backed up reinforced foundations, so they don’t get to flex too much. So minimal heat gets generated and wear is minimized.

Side Note: A better tire for tread longevity is the Goodyear Assurance MaxLife (review).

Impact Comfort Performance

The overall comfort performance of a tire is largely dependent on its construction. Meaning a softer more pliant overall build would settle down road vibrations better.

That’s why owing to its softer rubber composition, this Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 is exceptionally proficient at absorbing the road’s vibrations seamlessly.

The tire settles down small bumps to make them almost imperceptible but still it does not do as effective of the job mitigating large impacts.

I mean its compound is a little too soft. So with the initial impact, it takes longer to recover, extending the ride disturbance longer than other tires in the test.

Durability

When examining the durability aspect of a tire, the primary focus is on its internal composition.

And looking at the tire’s construction, you get to see its a little more durable than the average all season tire you see out there.

I mean sure, it comes with dual-layer polyester casing that forms a robust 2-ply sidewall, and those have 2 layers of steel belts, the tire also comes with 2 ply nylon cap plies too (where usually tires only have one).

And it does that without making its weight too heavy.

So you get decent durability and with it a little off road traction too.

Off Road Performance

Now of course the Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 is not made for off-roading, but still I have to mention this that it shows decent capability in this area.

I mean on light off-road terrains, like a little bit of sand, gravel and even mud.

And that’s where its highly soft tread pays off, as they cushion up the bumps pretty nicely, providing a smoother ride relatively.

So what’s the verdict?

So overall it comes down to this.

The Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3 is a notable upgrade where although it does have areas for improvement in terms of directional grip (on dry) and wet braking efficiency, its handling is stable.

Though in terms of aquaplaning, it does reveal minor unpredictability due to its slight susceptibility to understeer.

And same goes for winter conditions as well.

Moreover, the tire is relatively comfortable, where noise is efficiently managed with advanced polymers and technologies, and the tire’s softer composition also contributes to its capability to absorb road vibrations very nicely.

And yes, you can expect a little off-road traction with these tires too.