Tyre reviews

[Busterboo]

Reviews of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S like this seem very good:
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Michelin-Pilot-Sport-4-S-Press-Release.htm

Such reviews, however, are often nonsense and downright misleading. So, for example, in this one, the Michelin is shown beating the Goodyear Eagle in Wet Braking from 80km/h by "0.10m".

Yes, that's 10cm - 4" in old money - which is neither here nor there, but which the graphic makes look like a bonnet length.

The extreme basis of the tests can be nonsense, too. 'If it brakes shortest in the wet, it's the best wet tyre', for example, is obviously questionable. Driving in the wet needs much more than straight line braking - not least, changing direction - but the 'review' makes it appear to be the be-and-end-all criterion.

I suspect that many drivers skim several such reviews and come to a general consensus: 'The Michelin does best in most, so it must be the best tyre' sort of thing. Sadly, like a lot of journalism, many such reviews are bo//ocks.

 

[Ewazix]

Some good points, also my local tyre guy was talking about a track day he attended for tyre dealers where they demonstrated tyres that were part worn down 2 or 3 mm from new, the point being that some brands go 'off' quickly whilst others remain fairly stable, which probably should be of more interest to a long term owner than 'fresh' tyre reviews. Unfortunately I've never seen any comparisons like this.

 

[Nictrix]

You have to take most reviews with a pinch of salt. There cant be many people who have tried and tested every tyre.
Even members on here who swear by a certain tyre wont have a huge amount of data to back up their choice. They may be able to say they grip well but when it comes to life of the tyre there will be less info.
Most of the big brand names will be good enough for most. As long as they grip well, last a fair amount of time, have good comfort and are competitively priced they will do for most.
I went with the almost forum favourite of Good Years and have no complaints, but I cant say they are better or worse than others as I have not tried them. Furthermore I probably wont try any others as I am happy with what I have and if it aint broke don't fix it.
Same goes with my bike, it came with Michelin Pilot Powers and I have stuck with them.

On another note though...... you really do have a rubber fetish don't you :lol:

 

[buzyg]

Happily I manage to find another set of rear MPSS, last week, for Just £304 plus fitting. Cheapest I have ever managed to get them by some margin.

http://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-finder/s=1/summer/t=1/car/p=1/michelin/r=1/255-40-r18

Clearly the new MPS4 has taken over as top dog. Look forward to reading reviews once a few people have had them fitted for a while.

 

[Busterboo]

I should say that I have nothing again Michelins. Indeed, quite the opposite. My last set of Pilot Sports were on a 911 and were excellent. They weren't as grippy as Pirelli P Zero Rosso N3s, but lasted much, much longer.

 

[mmm-five]

What I liked about the MPSS when the first came out - and that was a gamble of course, but I wasn't going to put on another shitty set of SportContact M3 - was that they promised better than PS2 performance in dry & wet conditions plus an increase in durability.

My only issue with PS2s had been their relatively poor durability for an expensive tyre, and had tried loads of other mid-to-top brands on my E34 M5 (and even tried a set of Interstate XL tyres courtesy of Pistonheads - which were rock hard, but gripped quite well when my car was set up with lots of neg camber for the track, no so well once half worn and set up for the road though) and had come to the conclusion that it was PS2 for the road (and wet track days), and anything sticky for the track (Toyo R888, Pirelli P-Zero Corsa, Michelin Pilot Cup, Silverstone S585, or whatever else I could get at a good price that week).

The problem with reviews is that they tend to be subjective - even when they follow the same test procedure - as a test driver will drive it differently to any member of Joe Public. My chassis engineer friend used to have a 5 second tolerance for his laps at the Ring when he was testing for Aston Martin. I'm lucky if I can keep my times to within the same minute - although I probably have more traffic to contend with on a public day

It all depends what you want out of a tyre. Do you want wet performance over dry? Do you want dry performance over wet? Do you want precise steering inputs, or trade off a bit for a softer sidewall? Do you want to change your rears every 12,000 miles (Continental M3) or 22,000 miles (Michelin PSS)? Etc.

If you use the MPSS as the baseline, then the MPS4S is better on all fronts - by a little bit. If you want better wet weather performance (braking, aquaplaning, handling) then the Goodyear F1A-3 or Continental SportContact 6 are better, and cheaper initially. But when you calculate how much longer the Michelin lasts, you end up with a very similar (or cheaper) cost per mile for the Michelin.

 

[Busterboo]

Some good points, also my local tyre guy was talking about a track day he attended for tyre dealers where they demonstrated tyres that were part worn down 2 or 3 mm from new, the point being that some brands go 'off' quickly whilst others remain fairly stable, which probably should be of more interest to a long term owner than 'fresh' tyre reviews. Unfortunately I've never seen any comparisons like this.

Also a very good point. My experience is that tyres need to go off by at least 1mm before they perform as well as they can. Perhaps it's to do with them 'adapting' to the car's suspension.

 

[Busterboo]

On another note though...... you really do have a rubber fetish don't you :lol:

Like many people, I suspect, I used to put off buying new tyres until the old ones were near the 1.6mm limit - at, say, 2mm. Then I discovered that 3mm was actually much better. And, indeed, that a tyre's optimum life is probably in the 6mm-4mm range.

So then I started factoring tyres more obviously into running costs and changing them as soon after 4mm as possible.

The outcome's been that my cars drive better than they used to and I enjoy the retail therapy. What's not to like? :wink: