Well, after a great deal of deliberation, I took the plunge and had four of these fitted yesterday.
I've only driven about 25 miles on them so far, which has been made up of a short trip home through traffic after fitting, followed by a fairly restrained 20 or so miles after I'd washed all the stuff off the tyres and wheels.
The first and most apparent difference compared to the original CSC M3s is the difference in the ride. It seems the Michelins absorb much more of the shock, and the ride is noticeably less 'crashy' when driving over grids, uneven joins in poorly repaired roads and the like. Also the car seems less 'jiggly' (please stop me if I'm getting too technical) on undulating surfaces. This wasn't something I expected to find in a tyre like this, and although I was happy with the ride before, the improvement in refinement is nice.
Although the Continentals don't have the same reputation for tramlining as the RFTs on non-Ms, the Michelins seem less inclined to follow every rut in the road. But the steering still feels sharp and the car still feels very responsive to inputs. And the 'characteristic' drift to the left is less noticeable (mine wasn't too bad before though).
I've not yet done the sort of driving that enables me to comment on grip and braking (and I'm probably not a good enough driver to fully exploit the improvements these tyres are said to give). But even on tyres straight out of the mould, the car feels reassuringly planted. Also there's been no rain in these parts for a day or so (wahey
) so I can't comment on their behaviour in the wet.
Not sure how much of the above is the placebo effect of having new tyres, but my first impressions are that they have made a noticeable improvement to the car.
As a result of the change, I have two 225/45/18 CSC M3s knocking around in my garage. They've done around 14,000 miles (all but 800 by me) have around 5 mm of tread all around and are in good condition (no kerbing and no repairs). I'll put these in the Buy and Sell section when I've measured tread depth properly and taken photos. But if anyone is interested in the meantime, please let me know.
I've only driven about 25 miles on them so far, which has been made up of a short trip home through traffic after fitting, followed by a fairly restrained 20 or so miles after I'd washed all the stuff off the tyres and wheels.
The first and most apparent difference compared to the original CSC M3s is the difference in the ride. It seems the Michelins absorb much more of the shock, and the ride is noticeably less 'crashy' when driving over grids, uneven joins in poorly repaired roads and the like. Also the car seems less 'jiggly' (please stop me if I'm getting too technical) on undulating surfaces. This wasn't something I expected to find in a tyre like this, and although I was happy with the ride before, the improvement in refinement is nice.
Although the Continentals don't have the same reputation for tramlining as the RFTs on non-Ms, the Michelins seem less inclined to follow every rut in the road. But the steering still feels sharp and the car still feels very responsive to inputs. And the 'characteristic' drift to the left is less noticeable (mine wasn't too bad before though).
I've not yet done the sort of driving that enables me to comment on grip and braking (and I'm probably not a good enough driver to fully exploit the improvements these tyres are said to give). But even on tyres straight out of the mould, the car feels reassuringly planted. Also there's been no rain in these parts for a day or so (wahey
) so I can't comment on their behaviour in the wet.Not sure how much of the above is the placebo effect of having new tyres, but my first impressions are that they have made a noticeable improvement to the car.
As a result of the change, I have two 225/45/18 CSC M3s knocking around in my garage. They've done around 14,000 miles (all but 800 by me) have around 5 mm of tread all around and are in good condition (no kerbing and no repairs). I'll put these in the Buy and Sell section when I've measured tread depth properly and taken photos. But if anyone is interested in the meantime, please let me know.
Liverpool
i will look for my invoice