I dug out the issue of Pano and I was mistaken. They tested it on an
autocross course, rather than on the track. It was tested at Raod Atlanta,
but they setup an autocross course.
Here is the summary.
Car used: Stock Porsche 968 and Porsche 944S2 with M030 option setup for
competition driving. They did not specify what the setup was
Tire sizes: 225/40/18 and 285/30/18
Tires used: Michelin sport cup full tread, Michelin sport cup heat cycled,
Michelin sport cup saved and heat cycled, BFG R1A full tread, Pirelli P-zero
C full tread.
Testing notes: They tried their best to keep the variables under control.
They do five runs, pull in and check pressures and temp, log notes, then
change driver and do it again.
Here is the test results
Michelin full tread
laps run: 156
starting tread depth: 6/32
ending tread depth: 2.75/32
highest temp: 198
fast time: 38.03
Michelin full tread heat cycled
laps run: 35
starting tread depth: 6/32
ending tread depth: 5/32
highest temp: 212
fast time: 38.09
Michelin shaved and heat cycled
laps run: 38
starting tread depth: 3.5/32
ending tread depth: 3/32
highest temp: 186
fast time: 37.46
BFG G-force R1A
laps run: 38
starting tread depth: 3/32
ending tread depth: .5/32
highest temp: 209
fast time: 38.39
Pirelli P-zero C
laps run: 126
starting tread depth: 8/32
ending tread depth: 1.5/32
highest temp: 215
fast time: 39.43
Since they did not test against the current common autocross tires such as
Hoosiers or Kumho's, its hard to extrapolate relevant results from this
test. However, my understanding was that the BFG G-force R1A was atleast as
fast a the old Kumho's on most cars and maybe faster on some FWD cars. So,
if the Michelin's are .9 second faster on about a 40 second course, they
would be about 1.35 second faster on a 60 second course than the BFG R1A. A
tire that is more than a second faster than the old BFG R1A could be a very
fast tire. It also appears to wear well, but we don't know how bad the
tires heat cycle. The subjective comments on the Michelins were very
favorable compared to the other tires.
Anyone want to try a set and report back? :-)
Bill Kim
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