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Michelin Pilot Sport 3

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Thanks for the info. I find it odd that 2 tires that are identical in other specifications except for a difference of 20mm in the cross section have such disparate rolling resistance ratings. Can someone explain?

That specific dimension probably has a tweaked rubber compound or some other design difference. Note that the wider 265/35-21 has a lower rolling resistance (C) than the narrower 245/35-21 (E).
 
Got a chance to drive the car about 13 miles today, so it's still early. Here are my observations so far:

Ride: Vast improvements here. I have the standard coil supension, but the ride is just as absorbant as the air-suspension equipped cars. I actually was convinced the tire pressures were too low when I couldn't feel the bumps so I pulled over at a gas station and checked the tire pressure. 45 PSI! I couldn't believe it

Handling: I had a chance to do one exit ramp and you'll fly out of the seat before you reach the limits of the tires. The limits are so high now it really highlights the shortcoming of the seats which have next to zero lateral support.

Steering: Seems to have woken up the steering quite a bit. Now there is some semblance of feel coming through the wheel. I know it's an electric system and electric systems all generally suck, but the steering feels sharper and more lively now and I have greater confidence placing the car in corners.

Noise: I have yet to drive at high speeds, but the noise at low speeds seems about the same or maybe a tiny bit better with the PS3. Not much difference though.

No comment yet on wet weather performance, but that is supposed to be this tire's party piece. I'll do an update when I get some more experience in different weather conditions.
 
I had a blowout in the right rear tire and had to replace both rears. I originally had Goodyear Eagles. I purchased the Michelin MVMX4s and I took them back. On the Goodyears I could corner a very high speed. Not so on MVMX4. I had pretty bad rear slippage. Discount Tire was very accommodating and gave me credit for new Michelins so I went with the Pilot Sport 3s. Better, but still NOWHERE NEAR the Goodyears! The Goodyears don't last as long as the Michelins but they grip a lot better in my experience. I am more careful now in hard cornering on the Michelins. I would stick with Eagles if I were you.

Come on dude, the Eagle RS A2 that comes with the 19" wheels is an all season tire and you are saying that it's nowhere near a dedicated Max Performance Summer tire like the PS3? If you are talking about driving on snow and ice, you might have a point, but the level of grip and the the immediacy of the steering response of the PS3 in the dry/wet puts it in a completely different league.

It's raining outside and I'm about to leave the office. Will drive a lot this evening and be able to do a more comprehensive update.
 
But the weird thing is that the wider 265/35/21 has a better rolling resistance rating (C) than the 245/35/21 (E). Go figure.

Newer tire--different construction. In tires all things are seldom equal. And the book which can be written about what we don't know about tires is still way bigger than the book covering what we know about tires.
 
Astonishing traction in the wet. Just like that graphic showed. I put the pedal on the floor in a downpour and the traction light didn't even blink for even a split second. Even on a dry road I didn't have that kind of traction with the OEM goodyears. Very pleased with the purchase even at a whopping 358 dollars a tire
 
Astonishing traction in the wet. Just like that graphic showed. I put the pedal on the floor in a downpour and the traction light didn't even blink for even a split second. Even on a dry road I didn't have that kind of traction with the OEM goodyears. Very pleased with the purchase even at a whopping 358 dollars a tire

Just for reference I was able $312 per out the door installed with a local dealer.
 
You are running the 255/45 19R 104Y, correct?

Astonishing traction in the wet. Just like that graphic showed. I put the pedal on the floor in a downpour and the traction light didn't even blink for even a split second. Even on a dry road I didn't have that kind of traction with the OEM goodyears. Very pleased with the purchase even at a whopping 358 dollars a tire
 
Wore the original MXM4s down to the wear bar just shy of 28k miles. Thanks to this thread, installed a set of Pilot Sport 3s. WOW! Just Wow! What a difference. When I used to bank a freeway exchange curve at 75-80 mph, my rear would fish tail a bit & I would hear an occasional squeak as the wheels struggled to regain traction. And forget about rain traction, the MXM4s just spin when you hit the accelerator on wet pavement due to the tremendous torque.

However, as others above have said, the PS3s ride like rails. No fish tailing on sharp cornering and no loss of traction at all. Can't wait until the first rain to check out the wet traction.

My only concern is the tread rating of 500 on the MXM4s versus 320 on the PS3s. However with performance like that, I'm willing to shell out a bit more.

Anyone try the Kumho ECSTA LE Sport or Kumho ECSTA PS91? Both are max performance summers, but with tread ratings of 280 & 260 respectively. However their prices are also about 30% lower than PS3s. If I plan on replacing max performance summer tires more frequently, I want to consider a cheaper alternative to offset the cost. Do they perform as well as the PS3s?
 
Many Japanese Model S with 19" wheels have PS3 standard, so I have driven 20K miles with it. Since my car is Classic and RWD with air suspension the impression might vary, but I don't give a good rating for PS3. It is one of the eco tires I felt. Medium dry grip, medium to lower wet grip, low noise, low rolling resistance. I personally didn't like it. The tire life is very high - over 20K miles at least.

I had a lot of slips on highways here - in Tokyo highways are mostly above ground and connected by iron joints so very slippery at curves. PS3 lost grip many times in such places in wet conditions, causing the rear to break a little and I had to apply counter-steer to correct. Many eco tires perform that way I know, I wouldn't call PS3 a performance tire.
 
Good to hear another view point Hiroshi. I just installed the PS3s so that's just my initial impression. Also, I'm comparing them to all season MXM4s, so perception wise, they are a lot better. However, my brother has Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2s on his ride, which I drive from time to time. So perhaps over time, I'll have a better "apples to apples" comparison.
 
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If I'm correct the contact patch size of a normal vs a wide tyre (measured on the same car) is equal but only the shape of the contact patch differs.
So it's not "more" road contact but "different" road contact which causes a bit more rolling resistance.
Tire experts please chime in ;)
It's in linear proportion to the width. So a 245 has 245/255ths the footprint of a 255 and so on.
The front to back footprint dimension is not quite linear (some function of pi) but generally increases as diameter increases.
Rolling resistance is again more complicated, being a factor of both total footprint, rubber chemistry, tread pattern, tire pressure and so on.
 
Yes. In EU, all tires by law have a rolling resistance marking in classes A-G. The difference between A (best) and G (worst) is 6.5%. These all fall into class C, there is no 245/45/19 tire with better than C.
I never talk about all-seasons since I consider them crap. In europe, cars (except for Tesla) are delivered with proper summer tyres (my low-end BMW came with Continental Sportcontact 3's).

Continental sport contact 5:
You need to get the "102Y XL MO FR" version, not the "102Y XL FR" or any other version to get the LRR.
Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 2:
"102Y XL FP"
Michelin PS3:
"102Y XL FSL MO"

My choice would be the Eagle F1's since they have the lowest noise rating of the three and I've had that tyre on a previous car and really liked it.

I wish in the USA we had access to that kind of information. Here, I have no way of knowing the class of rolling resistance a tire falls in. Does anyone know if an EU website where I can look up these various classes of rolling resistance?
 
2015 EVO Magazine Performance Tyre Test - Tyre Reviews

Found this site and thought it was probably the most comprehensive tire test I have seen

They publish all the rolling resistance scores, info that is vital to tesla owners because we need to be able to get our rated miles

the question is, I suppose, do you buy the best performance tire (the winning continental) or the one that has the lowest rolling resistance (Goodyear)