Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4 vs Continental Extreme Contact Sport

[EVO SVO]

After 5 months of use, here are some preliminary comments about the Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 tires. These replaced a very good tire, the Continental Extreme Contact Sport, that is no longer available in sizes that fit our SVO’s.
Hard driving under very different weather conditions is not the same as comparing competition A to A track times, but they still show enough individual characteristics to make some comments on their street handling.
(Note, I have included the Costco dated receipt for confirmation that I did buy a set)

So in no particular order of importance, here are comments:

1.The Michelin’s have a symmetrical looking passenger tread. The Continental’s had an asymmetrical performance tread. More rubber surface area and less tread grooving, noticeable on the outer threads.

2.The Michelin’s I call a “singing” tire. On grooved concrete roads at 60+ MPH, they make these tires (front and back) translate those road surfaces into noticeable whines and hums. Interestingly, above 85MPH it quiets down a bit. Something, driving Continentals I did not notice on dirty highways in Iowa, flooded roads in Nebraska, hailstorms in Colorado or bbq hot freeways in Arizona.

3.The Michelins seem to have a slightly faster reaction. Odd, since they have a deeper groove depth. But this could be that they are just newer.

4.The Continentals do hold the turn in better. The Michelins with a quicker turn in start to scrub off with a bit more oversteer. Might be due to a harder tire compound. Just a wild guess based on the Michelins having a longer tire wear warranty. Note, front end wheel geometry changes are minimized with a bumpsteer kit, lowered/stiffer springs and bushing.

5.Can’t compare the wet characteristics yet. But I have driven and stopped the Michelin’s at 50+MPH on wet asphalt. Didn’t notice any large differences – yet. If I do, I will update this post.

6.On cold mornings, both drive the same. The Michelins sing when hot and cold.

7.And this might seem an odd comment but the Michelins keep the Amourall shine appearance better than the Michelins. Again, might be due to newer rubber.

8.The way this SVO is driven, stop and go, 15 minute cold trips to Home Depot and sustained (65+) high speed highway speeds, will not allow an accurate comparison.
I wanted to post this now so that if you need tires, please start planning now. As with all of the SVO’s consumables (tires, fans belts, lighting, hoses, fluids, electrical systems etc) , the availability of performance products are slowly disappearing. The Michelin tire catalog now only goes back to 1983. And Continental does not make their top high performance tire in our size.

9. The Michelins cost more, even with Costco pricing.

10. Overall the street the Michelins are just fine.

02 Michelin Tire Des.jpg
03 Continental Extreme Contact Sport 02.jpg


01 Costco Michelin Tires Receipt.jpg

[svono50]

I wonder if the Michelin's additional siping on the tread causes the 'singing' you are talking about vs the more solid tread block Conti's? I know the Mini guys just love those Michelin's and always rave about them. Thanx for the write up!

[EVO SVO]

SVONO50,
Conti’s ! Yes ! Another racer. Just wanted to use Continental so that everyone would know what I was talking about.

Good point about the Conti’s. And that makes the Michelins symmetrical linear treads the main suspect in a cause /effect of them “singing” to me. Hope the Michelin Co. is not reading this post HaHa. And since the Michelins track more with grooved highways, it could be a reason the Michelins seem (I am talking micro feeling) to have a faster initial turn in than the Conti’s blocker design. Again, these are all just an opinion based on seat and steering wheel grip pressure. No track time to do a true A to B comparison of these two make of tires. So take all of these comment as just babbling from an old bench racer. I have left the Michelins at the front and back at Costco installed 28PSI. After I get some true wet weather driving, I may adjust them to my usual 2 PSI differential between front and rear.

As the CA state makes approvals and meeting environmental regulations for motorsport activities impossible to obtain, race tracks continue to close and track time now involves long travel times (2+ hours) and expensive guess passes to join other clubs hosting track events.

Not seeing any forum interest in separate postings on track or show events, I thought you might like to see an example here of “It is more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow” with a stock 1965 Ranchero equipped with a 289 2 bbl, drum brakes and a C4 automatic entered at the Shelby Clubs national convention’s track days held in California decades ago. The short version of a long day with many twist and highlights – like trying to follow Bob Bondurant in his old 1965 LeMans Ford GT (DNF) and having $2.5M worth of vintage race and track cars mistakenly follow me into the pits. To say that coming off the front banked straightaway - into a flat left 180 for the road course portion with the major understeer, drum brakes smoking and the gas pedal to floor the rest of time, - was fun , would not do justice to my gearhead buddy and I laughing the entire track time. Now as a sidebar, when it became evident that the Ranchero was running way beyond its capabilities and to eliminate it being an impediment to all the other members safety and having a great time, I pulled it off the track and into the pits. Even with lots of thumbs up from the track staff as we circled the track.

Since California Speedway has been torn down, I like to think that I am the only one to have driven a 1965 Ford Ranchero at speed around the super speedway.

Lined up ready to run the speedway behind Bob Bondurant driving his 1965 LeMans Ford GT. The exhaust being revved into our car were so full of unburnt hydrocarbons, we literally could not breathe and could not see through watering eyes. But it was all part of a memorable day.
1 Starting Line up.jpg

2 High Bank.jpg

Ever seen a 1965 Daytona Coup waiting for a 1965 Ranchero to clear the straightaway wink.jpg 3 RT and Coup.jpg

Leading in $2.5 million of race and high performance cars – by mistake. All the track cars assumed that I was some sort of “official track session pace car” because of the starter and pit entry and exit staff giving us the thumps up every time the Ranchero creep by the front straight start/finish line.
To say they were upset at me when they found out that there was over 15 minutes of track session time remaining as we pulled in - would an understatement. Again, my buddy and I gave the "GO Around the car" as we turned off into the pit lane.

4 RT leading.jpg



While the Shelby club never came back again to allow a rerun the Ranchero with specific track suspensions modifications. I would like to say, thanks to Open Tracker Racing to hiding their specific race mods in the stock looking production pieces for me. Like to keep it a sleeper.
5 Suspension V1.jpg