**Unofficial Tyre Thread**

Associate
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Looking at changing my tyres in the next few months, f1autocentres have michelin pilot sport 5 in 255/35/19 at ~£750 with a £100 cashback atm.

I'm just a little confused with the naming scheme, are the pilot sports s5 a different tyre all together?

Also ahould I get the 4s instead for a little bit more.
 
Caporegime
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Looking at changing my tyres in the next few months, f1autocentres have michelin pilot sport 5 in 255/35/19 at ~£750 with a £100 cashback atm.

I'm just a little confused with the naming scheme, are the pilot sports s5 a different tyre all together?

Also ahould I get the 4s instead for a little bit more.
The PS S5 is the new naming convention for the Pilot Sport 4s in the 5 variant. Seems a strange step. What car is it? And the PSs5 is very new with not much known about very cold weather performance or wear. Another option is the Continental Sport Contact 7 or the new Good Year Asymmetric 6. Both are excellent tyres
 
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Yeah I thought that was the case but hard finding a comparison between the sport 5 and the sport s5 :confused:.

I've had the Bridgestone Potenza S001 on an 2017 Audi S5 for about 18 months for 15k miles and the rears are running low and stupidly I hadn't rotated them to even out the wear on the front and rear set.

I had a set of sport contact 6 i think on a previous car and the wear on them were frankly rubbish so rather avoid them.
 
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Caporegime
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Yeah I thought that was the case but hard finding a comparison between the sport 5 and the sport s5 :confused:.

I've had the Bridgestone Potenza S001 on an 2017 Audi S5 for about 18 months for 15k miles and the rears are running low and stupidly I hadn't rotated them to even out the wear on the front and rear set.

I had a set of sport contact 6 i think on a previous car and the wear on them were frankly rubbish so rather avoid them.
The wear on the CSC7 is supposedly much improved. I have Pilot Sport 5’s on my BMW 428i and can’t fault them, even in negative temperatures we’ve had recently. I can’t talk about wear though, I’ve only had them about 6 weeks.
 
Soldato
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Found ATS doing the ps4s for roughly the same price.

Wondering what should I go for? Ps5 or ps4s?

I think if you value out right performance then the PS4S still has the edge over both PS4 and PS5, The PS5 is a direct replacement of the PS4 and not the PS4S.

According to multiple online sources, the PS5 seems to have very similar performance of the PS4 it has replaced, almost identical but the major benefit of the newer tyre is an increased durability/tread life.

I can only assume the PS4S will be replaced in the near future with a PS5S.
 
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I think if you value out right performance then the PS4S still has the edge over both PS4 and PS5, The PS5 is a direct replacement of the PS4 and not the PS4S.

According to multiple online sources, the PS5 seems to have very similar performance of the PS4 it has replaced, almost identical but the major benefit of the newer tyre is an increased durability/tread life.

I can only assume the PS4S will be replaced in the near future with a PS5S.
I think it already has, just now called, confusingly, the PSs5
 
Caporegime
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In the end i had to go for the Goodyear.

In stock and i need them now, since mine are pretty bold in the middle for some reason.

Being fitted tomorrow.
If they’re bald in the middle your tyre pressures may be too high causing the tyre to ‘crown’ reducing your tyre contact patch and ultimately your grip. What pressures do you normally run?
 
Soldato
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If they’re bald in the middle your tyre pressures may be too high causing the tyre to ‘crown’ reducing your tyre contact patch and ultimately your grip. What pressures do you normally run?
Yeah i'll be double checking them once they are fitted tomorrow.

I think i usually put about 33 PSI for the rear.

What do people follow here ? the spec for the car ? mine is inside the filler cap.

Or the tyre manufacturer ?
 

DRZ

DRZ

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Here's a bit of an update on my experiment to change to the Continental ContiSportContact 7 on my McLaren.

I took the car to the world-famous Millbrook proving ground and had a bit of a play. It goes without saying that I didn't get to do the PZero vs CSC7 testing back to back which makes this all extremely unscientific but it is the best I can do. It was at least damp for the entire day, sometimes raining enough to be wet. The surfaces on the mile straight, the dynamics pad and the bowl are generally excellent, the alpine road circuit has some deliberately pretty poor surfaces and other surface defects and the handling circuit is pretty decent but is concrete rather than tarmac.

Under 10/10 braking (threshold of ABS kicking in), the CSC7s felt great. I've done similar stops on red hot days on the PZero that felt about the same, which is a win for the CSC7 really given the conditions. On the bowl you can safely do more or less any speed you care to do. I took the car up to about 120-130mph and road noise vs the PZero is drastically lower than the PZero at any speed. I hadn't really thought about the road noise from the PZero vs just being in a carbon-tubbed, minimal sound-deadened car but switching to these tyres really has highlighted the PZero noise. Are they quieter than PS4S? Very hard for me to say objectively because all the cars I've had those on have loads of sound deadening etc (M2, M3, M5) but my gut feel is that the Continentals will be louder.

On the dynamics pad I was able to push the car miles harder than I've ever managed to push the car on PZero. In the dry, I was able to max the front tyre's capabilities safely on an airfield and it felt very nervous/sketchy approaching the limit. CSC7s on a wet day were able to get me to the point of running out of arm strength to corner any harder (repeated 15-20s of sustained max lateral G will do that to you!), with the limit being eventual slight understeer and my own personal skill at keeping it on the road. Still, spinning is good fun :D

On the Alpine loop there is *absolutely no way* you can push hard on most of it. There is less runoff than on a typical UK B road and there's stuff designed to upset (or ruin) the car all over the place. That said, there's a few little sections where you can push the car a little, particularly when trail-braking into the hairpin and getting on the throttle on the way out. Quite honestly, I think I'd have crashed it on the PZeros at those speeds in the weather we had. Every one of us who've driven cars on PZeros in the cold and damp know exactly how nervous the feeling is until (if!) you can get the heat into the tyre... Gone completely on these Contis, just drive to the conditions with confidence.

On the mostly dry concrete of the handling circuit I think showed up something I have felt from the start, the CSC7 doesn't quite have the ultimate peak grip under acceleration that the PZero does when it is fully hot and sticky. Given that braking feels quite a lot better than the PZero and the lateral grip certainly feels quite significantly different I think this might be a construction/stiffness thing? I don't know exactly but the really high torque demand from low speed corners onto a straight seemed to feel a little more limited than I recall the PZero being. That might just be because the most similar experience I've had with the PZero was on circuit at Croft which has a decent surface and the weather was screaming hot, vs low-teens temps on concrete. More testing needed here. Still, you get more grip more of the time from the CSC7s even if the ultimate peak grip for both tyres is lower. I drive mostly in the UK in UK weather so this is a much better use-case fit for me regardless.
 
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I think that’s pretty much my experience. In absolutely perfect conditions and once warmed up the P Zeros are excellent, but in anything less and with any reasonable wear on them they can become quite unpredictable. I’ve not had a chance to push the CSC7s in optimal conditions yet, but I was impressed when we had an absolute deluge of water and they didn’t even flinch in the conditions, inspiring confidence the whole time. I’m actually impressed how effectively they clear decent levels of standing water without a hint of aquaplaning. Chuck in AWD with the CSC7s and the car is an absolute beast even in the winter.

You make a good point too, even with a soft top convertible the road noise is barely there with this tyre.

It frustrates the hell out of me that every time I buy a performance car it comes with P Zeros fitted.
 
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Soldato
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Forgot this thread existed.

My car is being used as a PHV. It currently has Audi spec pzeros. Usually Volvo oem spec has the NCS (foam inside wheel), to reduce road noise. The road noise on the Audi spec tyres is awful.

They’re due a change soon and I can’t choose whether to stick on the oem pzeros or go with csc7.
 
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Forgot this thread existed.

My car is being used as a PHV. It currently has Audi spec pzeros. Usually Volvo oem spec has the NCS (foam inside wheel), to reduce road noise. The road noise on the Audi spec tyres is awful.

They’re due a change soon and I can’t choose whether to stick on the oem pzeros or go with csc7.
You stated the Pirells are awful and they always are vs the better brands. Why would you entertain them again?
 
Soldato
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You stated the Pirells are awful and they always are vs the better brands. Why would you entertain them again?
Simply because I have the ones without the NCS foam. I thought I’d try the NCS versions and they’re a tad cheaper.

You put a good point across and having a gander last night, it does seem the csc7 perform better.

I was interested in the mps4’s but they don’t wear that good from what I’ve read.
 
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