Traction through winter and tyre choice
Discussion
I couldn't see a thread on this in this sub-forum, although I appreciate it's a tyresome topic...
My wife got a 2016 convertible V8 auto earlier this year. Traction in the wet/cold-ish is terrible, like lighting up the tyres just trying to join a roundabout in a mild hurry terrible. It's on Michelin Pilot Sports with a 2020 date code, plenty of tread. My perception is perhaps exaggerated by having a BMW EV as the other car (i5, RWD) that's on brand new tyres. EVs traction control systems are next level and I cannot unstick it even launching hard in bad conditions. I know the Michelin's come well reviewed, but I didn't experience them from new and perhaps the rubber is going off a bit.
Does my experience of the traction of the Mustang line up with everyone else's experience, or does it sound particularly bad and therefore a change to new summer tyres should yield a significant improvement? It's a daily driver for my wife, on fast North Yorkshire single carriageways. She tells me she's never lost traction, but it definitely means I struggle to enjoy the car when I can wrestle the keys off her. I'm not worried about performance in the snow, but through the winter in cold/rain I'd really like to improve things.
I'm weighing up: they all do that sir (keep these tyres until they wear out and accept that if I wanted better handling we should have bought something else), that sounds wrong but traction is still fairly limited in the wet/cold-ish (replace tyres with Michelin Cross Climate Sport at ~£900 with possible low tyre life and wooly handling in the summer) or that sounds wrong and traction is pretty good in cold/wet (replace with a performance summer tyre from Michelin/Goodyear/Hankook at ~£900 with the risk it doesn't give the improvement I'm after in the winter). It would be great to hear from fellow S550 GT owners on how you find the traction through the winter so I can line that up with my experience
My wife got a 2016 convertible V8 auto earlier this year. Traction in the wet/cold-ish is terrible, like lighting up the tyres just trying to join a roundabout in a mild hurry terrible. It's on Michelin Pilot Sports with a 2020 date code, plenty of tread. My perception is perhaps exaggerated by having a BMW EV as the other car (i5, RWD) that's on brand new tyres. EVs traction control systems are next level and I cannot unstick it even launching hard in bad conditions. I know the Michelin's come well reviewed, but I didn't experience them from new and perhaps the rubber is going off a bit.
Does my experience of the traction of the Mustang line up with everyone else's experience, or does it sound particularly bad and therefore a change to new summer tyres should yield a significant improvement? It's a daily driver for my wife, on fast North Yorkshire single carriageways. She tells me she's never lost traction, but it definitely means I struggle to enjoy the car when I can wrestle the keys off her. I'm not worried about performance in the snow, but through the winter in cold/rain I'd really like to improve things.
I'm weighing up: they all do that sir (keep these tyres until they wear out and accept that if I wanted better handling we should have bought something else), that sounds wrong but traction is still fairly limited in the wet/cold-ish (replace tyres with Michelin Cross Climate Sport at ~£900 with possible low tyre life and wooly handling in the summer) or that sounds wrong and traction is pretty good in cold/wet (replace with a performance summer tyre from Michelin/Goodyear/Hankook at ~£900 with the risk it doesn't give the improvement I'm after in the winter). It would be great to hear from fellow S550 GT owners on how you find the traction through the winter so I can line that up with my experience
I had an S550 from new in 2017 til 12 months ago.
It came with Pirelli P Zeroes which were at least as bad as your description of the PS. After that I had Vredenstein Ultracs followed by a mid price Kumho both of which were way better in the cold and wet than the P Zeroes. And cheaper.
I now have an S650, and guess what, it came with P Zeroes again. Not as bad as the old ones, but back to being very cautious at T junctions.
I have never tried Pilot Sports but I have seen other people complaining about their grip in the cold and wet, on other cars. Mate had them on an M2 Competition and thought they were hopeless (from new). He drives like a nutter though! Still I would be confident that you could do better for less and have never been tempted by them.
Sorry that was probably not much help! I suppose my experience suggests that mid price tyres have been better than either the P Zeroes or (probably) the PS.
Both of mine have been manuals. And they are/were driven in all conditions in North Wales, so similar use to you.
It came with Pirelli P Zeroes which were at least as bad as your description of the PS. After that I had Vredenstein Ultracs followed by a mid price Kumho both of which were way better in the cold and wet than the P Zeroes. And cheaper.
I now have an S650, and guess what, it came with P Zeroes again. Not as bad as the old ones, but back to being very cautious at T junctions.
I have never tried Pilot Sports but I have seen other people complaining about their grip in the cold and wet, on other cars. Mate had them on an M2 Competition and thought they were hopeless (from new). He drives like a nutter though! Still I would be confident that you could do better for less and have never been tempted by them.
Sorry that was probably not much help! I suppose my experience suggests that mid price tyres have been better than either the P Zeroes or (probably) the PS.
Both of mine have been manuals. And they are/were driven in all conditions in North Wales, so similar use to you.
That's super helpful!
Annoyingly the choice of tyres for the 275 width rears is fairly limited, but it sounds like avoiding anything too sports oriented might actually fit my use case better. Makes sense once you consider that ability to stand up to heavy cornering probably means a compound that can deal with higher temperatures and might need to be a bit harder
Thanks
Annoyingly the choice of tyres for the 275 width rears is fairly limited, but it sounds like avoiding anything too sports oriented might actually fit my use case better. Makes sense once you consider that ability to stand up to heavy cornering probably means a compound that can deal with higher temperatures and might need to be a bit harder
Thanks
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