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New Michelins. Pilot sport 4


chrisgixer
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lol

 

Pilot super sport is, for me in my omega with 18's, a cracking tyre. Ticks every box.

 

Quieter than the sports contact 3, more grip obviously, but crucially for me, more stability in a straight line. Better wet grip too. ...and not massively expensive.

 

Only down side is pilot super sport is limited in sizes.

 

However it does look like the Mps4 fixes that and will improve on the Mpss as well.

 

Lordy! :)

 

 

Weather it will improve my lap times round the ring remains to be seen though. ;)

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Indeed. Some tyre reviews and descriptions attempt a rating for stability these days. And as you know it's one of my pet hates. Shame the omega is built for comfort more than most models as, if a tyre has the slightest tendency to wander the omega will seize on it like a dog with two was'names. ....although typically I have been unlucky with bad experiences with inferior pattern wishbones with crap bushes, picked an Elite model with very soft suspension as standard, and then threw it around to wear the already quite comparatively compliant Falkens edges off, as the camber deflects quite a lot with the long suspension stroke. ...a recipe for instability in very few miles if ever there was one.

 

The Falkens work very well on tighter more rigid chassis from what I can tell, as they are compliant. ...and quiet as it happens. Mrs gixer has an is300 sportcross. Double wishbone front suspension, v the omegas McPherson strut (as you know obviously) and the ride suspension is much tighter than the omega. Far more accurate at speed than an Elite certainly. (Although the rear might have soft bushes or a damper issue as it does unload a bit over long frequency bumps ( wumps as I call them ) in a corner.... but fit a more tramliny less stable tyre like the Dunlop rt and it seems to benefit from it over a more accurate tyre that works on the omega.

 

Anyway, point I'm failing to get round to is, the Michelin bumpf on the web site mentions faster steering response, (something that was used in describing the sc5 as I recall. The sc5 was a disaster for TheBoy on the omega and was later described by a conti technician as being more suitable for small cars :o ) but then the same or similar construction description was used for the pilot super sport. A cracking tyre in my experience in 245 40 18 97y. Really pleased with those. But then they aren't available in the 265 sizes for the rear of mine. Or in any standard omega size either come to that. ....so, given the fast steering response descriptions I was a bit worried they (mps4) would not be stable enough for me on the omega.

 

An email to Michelin support reassured me though. Customer support manager also gave an insight into the effect different sizes have on handling. As sizes for large rear wheel drive cars that are also coincidentally used on on smaller wrong wheel drive cars are or can be compromised to allow compliance on the smaller vehicles, apparently. Or at least that was the explanation he gave.

 

Given tyre manufacturers don't test their products on older models, like the omega for example, for obvious financial reasons I will contact manufacturers first from now on, before taking the plunge on almost £600 worth of tyres that are un tested and unproven on any vehicle I own. It's a potential minefield if you want performance. ...so that's all the Eco crap tyres out the window obviously.

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  • 1 year later...

I tried (at considerable expense :sad01_anim: ) a set of these earlier this year with mixed results  :blink:.  OK, once worn in (which is an exercise in itself, at least 1,000 miles) and up to temperature (see below) they have very good grip wet and dry, braking is also superb. Steering response however is less than ideal: it's rather on the light side and whilst the tread blocks seem very good, the rest of the tyre  seems very "wobbly", it gives you the feeling that the tyres are going to fall off the rim on a tight bend even if the tread is showing no signs of letting go. So they get you round the corners, but they don't feel like they're going to - OK for safety, but low on driving enjoyment. The light steering feel might be down to the rather narrow tread width - 180mm on my 225/45R18's as opposed to 200mm on my previous Nokian Z-lines. And they take a LONG time to warm up, likely they'd be great in central France on a summer day, but on a cool damp morning in the North of England, no thanks.

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From your description you are feeling the tyres slip angle which is the movement between the road and the rim ( sidewall ) Through the ages the slip angle has been reduced from cross ply to run flat tyre ( RFT ) There's little can be done about the slip angle other than increase the tyre pressure but in doing so this reduces the tyres contact patch.

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  • 2 months later...

Since the tyre wear low mileage was the drip any better?

I presume that was meant to be grip not drip  :D

TBH, I couldn't say the Michelins were any grippier than the Nokians, both were very good  - TBH you'd need to take the car to a track day (or drive extremely irresponsibly) to find that out, performance tyres are that good these days the public road is not a place to explore the limits IMHO.

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