MICHELIN PILOT SUPER SPORT UK LAUNCH, SILVERSTONE...
(May 2011)
We threw open the doors to our Pilot Super Sport test at the Porsche Performance Driving Centre, Silverstone in the first week of May and took a group of enthusiastic drivers behind the curtain to try our tyres against the opposition. And if that wasn’t enough of a risk, we chose some people from this country’s most popular and influential motoring forums like Piston Heads plus single marque forums such as Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar and Porsche.
Around 30 drivers were chosen from almost 1,000 entries to be given the unique chance to drive and be driven by experts in a variety of high performance cars such as Porsche 911C 2S, 911 GTS, 911 Carrera 4S, Cayman RS and Boxster S on the dry handling courses plus BWM 325I Coupe and Audi TT on the wet handling section.
The Porsche Performance Driving Centre is probably the only place of its kind in the UK as it offers a wide variety of surfaces and configurations and can artificially simulate conditions such as sheet ice, fresh snow and wet leaves, so our testers were able to give the Pilot Super Sports the ultimate consumer test.
So what did the 'Tyre Testers' think of the MICHELIN Pilot Super Sports?
BMW M3 CSL driver Nathan Bell, who heard about the test on the Piston Heads forum said: “Michelin must be very confident in its product to let us compare it with five other makes in a true performance test, so I’m very impressed to have been given this chance to go behind the scenes and go tyre testing.”
Asking people to become an expert for a day, was a challenging move as Sean Millar, another Piston Heads forum user explains: “I wasn’t sure what would be expected of me as I drove down to Silverstone and wondered if I was good enough as a driver to be able to tell the difference between two brands of tyre. It was amazing how the Michelins felt by comparison to other makes and I felt much more confident to push the car shod with Pilot Super Sports.”
Not everyone at the test would describe themselves as a ‘petrol head’ and some of the drivers had never even been on a track day, like BMW 330d driver Hayat Shafi, “I am a pharmacist and cover around 50,000 miles a year and have used different brands of tyre in the past, so it’s very interesting to have the unique opportunity to try a range of tyres against Michelin.” He found the dry handling section particularly insightful, “I could really feel the difference between the two makes of tyre, just through feedback through the steering wheel.”
Although we used high performance cars and an out-and-out test track environment, our testers did not have to drive flat out to feel the difference between the tyre makes: ““Beforehand I wondered if I would be able to feel much of a comparison between two brands of tyres, but even at a relatively easy pace there was an unbelievable difference” said BMW M3 driver Martin Hull. “The Bridgestone tyres made the car feel very floaty, whereas on the Michelins the car felt much more connected to the track and made it feel much smoother to drive.”
The group responded to the wet and dry conditions in different ways, some finding the wet course giving greater feedback than dry and others totally the opposite! Harvey Neale from Ferrari Club Scuderia liked the dry course best, saying: “I was able to compare the Pilot Super Sports against Dunlops. However, the Dunlops made me feel like a poor driver and did not give me confidence behind the wheel as they had no consistency. I couldn’t believe how much the difference felt compared to the Pilot Super Sports in the dry test. The wet test was also interesting although the difference between the two makes was more marginal.”
Our testers for one day definitely had a rare opportunity to make a proper comparison as Nicholas Moran from the Piston Heads forum said: “I have learnt a lot from coming here as I have been able to drive on so many different surfaces and in both wet and dry conditions so can feel so much more about the tyre’s performance than if Michelin just had sent me down to my local tyre fitter and bolted on a set of Super Sports to drive on my local roads.”
Feedback on forums is a very important source of information about tyre choice but as Jaguar Type S R driver Keiron Fanning from the Jaguar forum commented, “forums are full of opinions which is why they are good fun but you can never be sure people have had the actual experience to back up their comments. After today and the opportunity Michelin has given us to try its tyres against other makes, I feel we can all talk with a good level of knowledge and with some authority.”
A view summed up by reigning Michelin Porsche Carrera Cup champion Tim Harvey, who came to the test to talk to all our testers between the track sessions: “I found the comments very interesting from everyone taking part as they all felt able to really put the product to the ultimate test and give really strong feedback to their mates on the forums.”
Telemetry on the cars used in all the Wet Braking tests recorded the results in every session and Michelin Pilot Super Sport out performed a comparison brand by almost 2 metres.
There was a treat for everyone at the end of the all the hard work behind the wheel, when Porsche’s team of racing instructors gave hot laps in some mouth watering cars such as the stunning 550bhp Lamborghini Gallardo Balboni RWD special edition; BMW M3 Coupe V8; Porsche 911 Turbo S and Audi R8.
MICHELIN PILOT SUPER SPORT UK LAUNCH, SILVERSTONE -- Press Release -- May 2011
...so Porsche, what are we waiting for?!?!?