Direct methanol fuel cells are promising electrochemical energy conversion devices. But, more efficient and stable and less expensive catalysts are still required. Here, we successfully synthesized Pt/C and Pt-0.5-Ir-0.5/C, Pt-0.6-Ir-0.4/C, Pt-0.7-Ir-0.3/C, and Pt-0.8-Ir-0.2/C nanowires by the chemical reduction of the metallic precursors by formic acid and tested them towards methanol electro-oxidation in acidic media. Neither surfactants nor templates were used during the syntheses. The nanowires catalysts were compared with a commercial state-of-art catalyst aiming the observation of the properties improvements derived from both alloying Pt with Ir and morphology change from nanoparticles to nanowires. Well-defined and slightly agglomerated over the carbon nanowires (diameters and lengths of approximately 5 and 20nm, respectively) were obtained, the fact that is ascribed to the 40 wt% metal loading. In addition, accelerated degradation tests showed that Pt-0.6-Ir-0.4/C, Pt-0.7-Ir-0.3/C and Pt-0.8-Ir-0.2/C catalysts are more stable than commercial Pt/C. All synthesized nanowires catalysts were more active towards methanol electro-oxidation than the commercial Pt/C. The Pt-0.5-Ir-0.5/C sample shows Pt mass activities 7 times that of commercial Pt/C. However, the Pt-0.8-Ir-0.2/C catalyst presented the best specific activity (6 times that of commercial Pt/C), have the highest currents in the derivative voltammetry and the oxidation potential shifts negatively 100mV in comparison with the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Hence, the nanowires developed in this study are indicated as potential promising catalysts and can be applied successfully as direct methanol fuel cell anodes. [GRAPHICS]