Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive Review

The Scorpion WeatherActive presents a solid all-season (all-weather to be specific) touring tire choice for SUV and Crossover enthusiasts. Although it provides a decent mixture of performance across multiple scenarios, there are few important things to note about this tire. Let’s check them all.

The Bottom Line: The Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive tire excels in traction, steering, and comfort across various climates, offering excellent dry grip, adequate wet performance, and solid winter capability. Its soft composition leads to shorter tread life and lower fuel efficiency, with room for noise reduction improvement. Ideal for modern CUVs and SUVs, it provides a firm, yet comfortable ride, effectively handling small impacts for a dependable driving experience.

Speaking of sizes, the tire comes in 15 to 19 inches rims, having following specs.

• Speed ratings: H and V.
• Load ratings: SL and XL.
• Tread depth: 11/32″ on all.
• Weight range: 19 to 32 lbs.
• Treadwear warranty: 60k miles.
• UTQG rating: 700 AA.
• Winter Rating: 3PMSF only.

Side Note: If you having a hard time understanding these terms, you should definitely check out, how to read tire sizes?

Tread Pattern

The Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive comes with directional tread pattern, with a pretty packed up middle.

It’s tread is basically separated up in to 5 total columns, (with the help of longitudinal slits, on the swooping lugs).

Due to this, you get an interconnected web of grooves running in all directions.

Though the most prominent among these grooves, and perhaps the most biting, is the central zigzag one, made by interlocking lugs (in the central most area).

These lugs have chamfered edges, and a ton of linear siping (though its a common trait with the rest of the blocks/ribs).

Speaking of internal construction, the tire features 2 ply polyester casing with twin steel belts and a 2 ply polyamide cap plies.

(It’s a pretty common construction type, among these tires, I should add).

Compare WeatherActive With:

• Pirelli Scorpion AS Plus 3
• Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady
• Michelin Crossclimate 2
• Bridgestone WeatherPeak

Dry Performance

Dry performance is the overall picture you get, when you combine the tire’s traction, with its steering response. Let’s check out both of these factors here.

Overall Grip

So this Radial, Pirelli’s tire showcases exceptional proficiency on dry surfaces, when it comes to longitudinal traction.

This is because of 3 main things:

• It’s directional design allows for central lugs to meet better with the road, allowing for greater rubber to road connection. (Central lugs gets the most weight, when tire runs straight, so they are judged for “directional grip).
• It’s rounded contact patch allows for more uniform pressure distribution across the tire’s contact area.
• And its central lugs form an interlocking pattern, and create zigzag grooves (which act as biters), providing grip.

Similarly the tire’s also gives out above-average side-ways traction (measured by lateral g forces). I mean it’s not top-notch, its just fine.

So overall grip-wise, this tire is going great.

Steering Feedback

Now the Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive offers pretty decent steering response to inputs, where it offers optimal balance in steering effort, (not being too heavy or too light).

This is mainly because of the tire’s lighter weight, and tread design offering rounded contact patch.

With reduced weight, the lugs are not pressed down as heavily, reducing flex and enabling quicker response. Additionally, a rounded contact patch ensures a smoother transition between driving straight and turning.

(Basically with this design, the weight get transferred smoothly from the central area towards the shoulders).

Though on the negative side, the tire with slightly a more improved responsiveness would have been more in tune with the vehicle’s handling characteristics, potentially improving overall performance and handling balance.

But yes, its steering is still above average here.

Wet Performance

In wet conditions, three things matter the most, overall traction and steering. And resistance to hydroplaning.

Let’s check them all out.

Hydroplaning

Hydro or aquaplaning happens when tire loses its contact with the ground, as water comes in the way. That’s why grooves exist (in all tires).

Now when it comes to directional tires, like Pirelli here, they are the most efficient in expelling water out with their V shaped lugs, and usually rounded contact patch.

This patch creates more pressure in the middle, and so water gushes out through the designated channels out of the shoulders.

That’s why the Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive offers one of the fastest float speeds, (in both straight and cornering tests).

Wet Handling

The overall wet traction depends on siping. And let me tell you, the more water going out through grooves, mean less is there for sipes to work on. So half of the work is already done, as discussed in the above section.

Though the remaining half is however not so efficient, and this is because of two things, tire’s missing interlocking sipes, and stiffer rubber compound.

I mean don’t get me wrong, its overall wet traction is still above average (comparatively), but it could have been better, still. Basically sipes are slits which soak up water particles, and with them having a linear structure, they tend to get stiffer and can’t offer as much water suction abilities.

And consequently, you end up with just an average overall traction. You can read more about it in details here: https://tiredriver.com/are-all-season-tires-good-in-rain/

Nonetheless, the (wet) steering response was pretty great. I mean, while testing, it reacts promptly to any adjustments (made by driver’s inputs), and only small correcting adjustment (to the steering wheel) is needed to change the car’s direction effectively.

Performance in Snow

The Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive, being a winter-focused all-season tire and coming in with a dedicated 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake certification does pretty well here, no doubt.

This tire employs resilient rubber compounds suitable for colder climates, has numerous sipes that provide micro-level grip on icy surfaces, and features unique notches and grooves to enhance snow-to-snow contact, (critical as snow bonds better to itself than to rubber).

Let me explain how all these factors work here.

So with its rubber being thermally adaptive, it’s biters are able to flex properly, biting in to the snow/ice, even in harsher winter conditions.

And with countless siping, like mostly seen on dedicated winter tires, its also able to offer above average ice traction too.

Lastly, for soft snow, where its biters enhance overall traction, its directional pattern further enhances that, as with those V shaped lugs, the snow is scooped out backwards, consequently generating forward momentum (or you can say acceleration).

For Your Info: Its overall snow traction reminds me of Firestone WeatherGrip (review).

Fuel Economy

Fuel efficiency is directly linked to the tire’s rolling resistance, weight, tread depth, and its overall composition. And considering these, it can be seen that Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive does not offer a satisfactory enough performance here.

Basically, here, the main factor (harming its fuel economy), is its soft, winter tire-like tread compound, coupled with a slightly less optimized tread depth of 11/32″.

Both these basically compel the lugs to bend, generating not only heat, which affects tread wear but also consuming additional energy (derived from fuel).

Though the good thing is that the tire is pretty light in weight, so the lugs aren’t pressed as hard against the road, and the overall rolling resistance is still kept at bay.

Furthermore, the rounded contact patch of its directional tread pattern also contributes to maintaining an acceptable level of fuel efficiency by optimizing the tire’s interaction with the road surface.

Comfort Performance

So overall ride comfort is 2 parts, one has to do with the tire’s ability to dampen road noise, while other, to dampen road impacts.

Let’s start with later.

Impact Comfort

The degree of comfort offered by a tire is largely determined by its structural composition. Generally, a softer constructed tire is more proficient in mitigating road vibrations, enhancing ride comfort.

This is an area where the Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive distinctly excels.

It’s winter tire like pliant tread is particularly, really effective in minimizing road vibrations, significantly improving the overall ride experience.

During subjective testing, it showed decent ride quality, being both supremely cushioned and highly controlled.

I mean it dampened down minor impact to a degree that they were barely noticeable, and in case of larger impacts, they were also isolated effectively.

Road Noise

Regarding road noise suppression, the Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive secures a good position among its competitors, having directional tread pattern.

Though it still needs some improvements here, nonetheless.

This is mainly because of the it’s voided shoulders. Let me explain what I mean.

So basically noise mostly comes form air, as these air particles enter through the shoulders and then hit the walls inside the tread, where they create various sounds, including in-groove resonance.

Now without any hurdles in this tire’s directional design, air is freely able to move in and create significant noise, which is heard in the form of medium-volume grind, especially when the tire is on a coarse or cross-cut concrete surface.

Moreover, with its heavily siped structure, you also get a tread growl sound (at a decent volume), though it goes away on highway speeds.

So, yes, overall, this tire can use a quieter design.

Tread Life

The overall tread life of Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive is not as impressive, especially when you compare it with direct competitors, in fact, its the weakest point of this tire.

So why is that?

Well, this is mainly because, the tire employs a rubber with a very soft and pliable composition.

While this construction yields exceptional performance in wet and snowy conditions, preventing the tread from stiffening up, as the tire maneuvers, it does so at the expense of the tire’s longevity.

In other words, there’s a trade-off for superior traction, especially on snow.

So, one has to choose here, either opt for extended life or superior winter traction. I mean regrettably, in the case of this tire, one cannot enjoy both benefits.

What’s The Verdict?

The Pirelli Scorpion WeatherActive emerges as a highly proficient tire, demonstrating exceptional capabilities in both dry and wet conditions.

It’s directional structure, combined with its rounded contact patch, provide you with decent dry grip, where its lighter construction adds to its above-average steering response.

In wet, the tire combines both the traction and handling efficiently, though it still faces some limitations due to the absence of interlocking sipes and a stiffer rubber compound.

But thanks to its overall superior resistance to hydroplaning, there aren’t complaints here as well.

However, these performance attributes come at the expense, as the tire with softer, pliable composition, while offers superior comfort performance, its sticker properties also increases its rolling resistance, negatively affecting both treadwear and fuel economy.