Since early 2011 the Michelin Pilot Super Sport has been the king of Max Performance Summer tires. Their innovative design set a high standard by which all other tires in their class are judged. However, Michelin didn’t just settle for being the best, they wanted to build on what they’d done and improve even further on their already advanced design. The result of their years of hard work and testing is the Pilot Sport 4 S (PS4S).
Know Your Mods Episode 16: Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
Building upon a revolutionary design is always tough. When the Pilot Super Sport came out with its Multi-Compound design it completely changed our perspective on what a tire can be capable of. To take that design further and improve on it takes enormous effort in every step of development. Michelin’s team of engineers and designers went far beyond the call of duty with the Pilot Sport 4 S, improving tire stability, wet grip, dry grip, tread life, and reducing road noise. In short they knocked it out of the park and we’d like to take you on a tour of the PS4S construction so you can see what makes it special.
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S Treads
Dynamic Response Technology
One of the hallmarks of a good performance tire is its ability to keep its shape under high speed and hard cornering. When you take a corner at high speeds your car has a lot of inertia pushing it towards the outside of the corner and your tires have to work hard to keep you on track. When the tire is being subjected to that much pressure from weight shift and inertia it needs to keep its shape to properly distribute the pressure on the tire. Uneven pressure on the tire will result in a loss of total grip because too much of the pressure is being applied to one area.
You’ve probably seen a diagram promoting proper tire pressure before [pictured below] and the principle is similar. If your tire cannot fight the lateral forces acting upon it the pressure differential will cause one zone of the tire to have more pressure exerted on it. This inefficient use of the contact patch will result in a loss of grip and extra wear in that area of the tire.
Tire Inflation Guide
Along those same lines, when you’re doing speeds of 100+ (hopefully on the track) then centrifugal force is exerting outward pressure on the tire. If the tread of the tire is not properly reinforced then it will warp [pictured below] and cause instability. Michelin’s solution to counteract these problems on the Pilot Super Sport was to add a Twaron band around the tire [pictured below] to preserve the tire’s shape and contours under high speed and hard cornering. Twaron is a brand of synthetic material classified as an Aramid Fiber. Its properties are very similar to Kevlar for those of you more familiar with that brand of Aramid Fiber. The reason Michelin used Twaron in the Super Sport is because for its weight it is five times stronger than steel, making it a lightweight way to add stability.
For the Pilot Sport 4 S Michelin used their own hybrid blend of Aramid and Nylon in the same configuration for even greater stability. The new tire utilizes an ultra-reactive tread pattern in conjunction with this hybrid blend to maximize the adaptability of the tire to road conditions while minimizing warping.
Michelin Pilot Super Sport Twaron Band
Multi-Compound Hybrid Elastomer
The next feature that makes the Pilot Super Sport, and subsequently the Pilot Sport 4 S, an amazing all rounder is that it is not limited to a single compound. Normally when you buy summer tires or all-weather tires you get a tire made of a single specialized compound designed to either work great in hot dry weather or keep you safe in colder rainy weather.
The genius of the multi-compound design is that you get almost the best of both worlds. Obviously a full on track tire will perform better in the dry, but in the Max Summer Performance class the PS4S really is the best of its kind. The way the technology is implemented on the PS4S is that on the inner portion of the tire is the “wet” compound and on the outer portion is the “dry” compound [see below]. This may sound a bit weird but it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S Multi-Compound Zones
To properly explain how the multi-compound benefits this tire we need to quickly cover contact patches and weight shift. The contact patch is what we call the portion of the tire that is actually in contact with the road at a given moment. When you are driving along normally in a straight line you will have very similar contact patches in all four corners, with some variation depending on weight distribution or if you run staggered tire sizes [see below, far left].
In a straight line your tires are tasked with maintaining grip under acceleration and braking forces. Under these forces the weight of your car will shift forwards or backwards and while the corresponding contact patch does increase in size it will retain its overall shape so you’re getting full utilization of both the inner and outer portions of the tread if you’re not running extreme camber [see below, middle left and middle right]. When you take a turn your car’s weight will shift diagonally in the opposite direction of your turn because the inward force of your tires is fighting the inertia of your car. This puts extra load on the outer tires and especially the outside front tire [see below, far right].
Tire Contact Patch Illustration from left to right: Cruising, Acceleration, Braking, Turning
In the example above you see the weight shift of a car lightly accelerating during a slight right turn. See how most of the weight has shifted off the front right tire but there’s pretty even contact among the other three? The faster you go around a corner the more the weight will shift to the outside tires and consequently more of the outer portion of the tire will be utilized [see below, left].
This is where the beauty of the multi-compound design comes in, the faster you turn the more of the PS4S‘s dry compound is utilized, giving you excellent road holding. Michelin also implemented their Variable Contact Patch 3.0 technology [see below, right] which is a specially designed tread pattern built to maintain a consistent contact patch area between turns and straightaways. Keeping a consistent surface area helps to keep pressure evenly distributed and subsequently to improve grip by reducing hotspots and uneven wear.
Tire Contact Patch in hard corner (left) Variable Contact Patch 3.0 technology (right)
Jump to Section 2: Test Results
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Michelin Total Performance
Of course this all sounds great in theory but typically when any company tries to make a product that excels at everything you end up with a jack of all trades but master of none. Michelin spent years of development and testing to avoid adding unfortunate drawbacks to any aspect of this tire. This involved testing hundreds of different wet compounds, dry compounds, and tread patterns to get the optimum combination. The results speak for themselves: in independent third party tests The Pilot Sport 4 S takes the top spot.
The track testing was administered by TÜV SÜD and included tests for showing the average dry braking distance from 100 kmph (62 mph), wet braking distance from 80 kmph (50 mph), and average lap time around a 2.6 kilometer track (1.62 miles). During the dry braking test the PS4S averaged a braking distance of 33.6 meters (110.24 ft) which beat out the competition by a range of .83 to 3.87 meters (2.72 to 12.7 ft) [see below, left]. Even the lowest difference of 2.72 feet could easily be the margin between crushing your front end or stopping in time.
In the wet braking test the numbers were a bit closer but the speed was reduced to 80 kmph (50 mph) so that is to be expected. Again the PS4S is the top contender in this category with a 27.73 meter (90.98 ft) stopping distance, edging out the next contender by about .10 meters (.33 ft or 4 inches). The rest of the tires averaged between .64 meters (2.1 ft) and 2.41 meters (7.91 ft) [see below, right] which, as in the case of the dry braking averages, could be the difference between a near miss and a crash.
TÜV SÜD Dry Braking and Wet Braking Test Results (click to enlarge)
The final TÜV SÜD test was average hot laps of their 1.62 mile race track. This is where all aspects of the tire come into play, the car will brake aggressively, corner fast, accelerate hard. If a tire is not up to the task its performance will drop quickly and make for a poor average. Luckily the Michelin engineers seem to know what they’re doing. The PS4S was able to set an average lap time of 80.33 seconds with the other Max Performance Summer options averaging between 0.40-1.39 seconds slower [see below, left]. This may not seem like a lot, but in the world of high performance Motorsport every tenth or even hundredth of a second counts.
The fourth test the tires were subjected to was a longevity test run by the DEKRA Test Center. Michelin claimed to have improved the PS4S tire wear approximately 9% over the old Pilot Super Sport and the longevity test shows that gave them the lead over other brands as well. In the test the PS4S lasted for 52,032 km (32331 miles) with the other contenders ranging from slightly worse (-5%) to notably worse (-43%).
The longevity test gives good insight into how well the compounds were designed. The most common way to produce a tire that has good dry performance is to use a soft compound. You can see from the test results [see below, right] that the Continental Sportcontact 6 achieves its faster lap times thanks to a soft grippy compound but suffers increased tire wear because of it. On the opposite end the Pirelli Pzero Nero GT had an unimpressive lap time but had some of the best tread-wear of the group. The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 actually preformed admirably in all the tests so they seem to have found a decently well balanced compound that is unfortunately overshadowed by the multi-compound design of the PS4S. The Dunlop and Bridgestone unfortunately achieve poor lap times and even poorer longevity. This goes to show how impressive it is that Michelin’s design doesn’t have the usual trade-off of tread-wear for performance.
TÜV SÜD Testing Lap time averages and DEKRA Test Center Longevity Test (click to enlarge)
Quality of life improvements
In addition to their impressive achievements in performance and longevity, the Michelin engineers have added a few more subtle improvements to make buying a set that much sweeter. On the aesthetic side of things Michelin improved an aspect of the tire that is often overlooked. Usually tires come in a slightly glossy finish, you can always tell who pays for the extra tire shine at the car was because their tires will look unnaturally shiny and oily. On the Pilot Sport 4 S they implemented a satin finish [see below, left] instead of the old gloss look on the Pilot Super Sport [see below, right]. This gives a very unique classy look to the sidewall that really accentuates your wheels rather than distracting from them.
The other quality of life improvement on the PS4S is the NVH reduction. NVH stands for Noise Vibration and Harshness, which is a more all inclusive term than just mentioning road noise. Michelin made all their performance and longevity advancements while still improving overall ride quality over the old Super Sports. This was achieved using a combination of their ultra-reactive tread pattern and their Aramid Nylon Hybrid Blend so the tire reacts well to road irregularities but thanks to the more flexible nylon it doesn’t transmit as much of the noise and impact as the old Twaron band.
Pilot Sport 4 S Satin Finish vs Pilot Super Sport Glossy Finish
What’s the catch?
Despite their impressive performance in wet conditions, these tires are not the perfect choice in every situation, no tire can be. Due to different weather conditions or varying levels of usage there’s no tire that encompasses all situations. If you live in a snowy area you will still want to have your usual winter tires, although the PS4S will work further into the cold season than other summer performance tires. You can use them up to the period when it is maybe a bit damp but hasn’t started snowing yet. Just make sure that you give the tires adequate time to heat up before any aggressive driving as they do lose traction as it gets close to freezing temperatures. They also are not a good choice if your vehicle spends all its time on the track. These are not a DOT Competition tire so while they do work well on the track they’re not going to give you the same level of performance as a Sport Cup 2 would. That being said, if you’re looking for a max performance summer tire that will give you amazing grip, excellent tread life, and won’t betray you in the wet then you can do no better than the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S.
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S Installed
If you’re ready to take your performance to the next level you can view this item on our website. If you’re not sure what size you need or have any additional questions about these tires our Mod Experts are always happy to help. You can reach us at (714)-582-3330 or by email at Sales@ModBargains.com.