Tire Rack Consumer Reviews

Initial Review, 1,200 Miles on Tires
May 23, 2012

These are great tires. Really great tires. --------, they may be the best street tires I've ever run! They're sticky, predictable, quiet and comfortable, and they're not obscenely priced. They increased my gas mileage about 3 mpg above that of the Goodyear F1 GS-D3s that I ran before them and they're not named in confusing alphanumerics! As an added bonus, Michelin claims 50% better tread wear than the previous Pilot Sport. We'll see about that. And it's nearly summer, so I can't speak to their performance in wet weather yet. But I have high expectations of them in the Northern California coastal winter! I'm sold on the Michelin Pilot SS!

Just after the necessary 500-mile break-in, I headed my Mercedes E430 Sport north on Hwy 101 to view the solar eclipse as it crossed the California coastline near the Oregon border 350 miles from home. Traffic was light, the weather was perfect and the road contained a great mix of long high-speed freeway sweepers and tight, twisting single-lane runs through the redwoods. The E430 is a big car, but I found that I could dive through the turns with remarkable confidence at speeds considerably higher than I had enjoyed with lesser tires. I'll take the 5th on actual speeds, but they were impressive. I took turns driving point with two other drivers who knew their stuff, one in an Audi S4 and the other in an Aston Martin, and they were both surprised to see a big Mercedes keeping pace through the turns with their much sportier cars. I'm sure they attributed this to my superior driving skills. But I know it had a lot to do with my driving on superior tires.

I highly recommend the Michelin Pilot Super Sports for the aggressive driver who wants a sporting tire with few compromises (excluding snow and ice conditions). I won't review a tire unless I've put some miles on them first, and at 1,200 miles Pilot Super Sports are great and going strong. Bravo, Michelin! Well done, messieurs!