Michelin PSS vs Michelin Pilot Sports A/S 3+
01-23-2017, 07:38 AM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
Michelin PSS vs Michelin Pilot Sports A/S 3+
This is a comparison between the two tires for anyone who would like to know the difference in case they have a vehicle for which they would consider all season tires. I agonized over which ones to get (the difference in tread life being a major issue under consideration) and I wished that I could have seen a review/comparison between the two, but since they are different categories, information was scarce.
I have had both on my Camaro. I first became a Michelin convert after the Goodyears that came with my (used) Camaro ran out of useable tread. Throughout the ownership period up to that point, the Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3s (the hailed champion of performance tires at the time) did not hook very well (stock-ish LS1 power). They were dreadful in the wet. It should be noted that the car was daily driven in WA, where roads are almost always wet, but even in the dry, they just sucked.
Not knowing much about tires at the time, I bought the Michelin Pilot Sports A/S Plus (the precursor to the A/S 3, and subsequent A/S 3+). The difference was night and day.
The old A/S Plus tires not only hooked with no drama at all, but there was no discernible difference in normal driving between wet and dry roads. The car felt planted 100% of the time (sharp throttle application would still break the tires loose on wet ground, though).
Fast forward a few sets of tires later, to the new Pilot Super Sports. Before getting the Pilot Super Sports, my Camaro was "benched" because of an engine failure which took me nearly a year to save up the money to address. The solution yielded a new (to me) LS1 with heads and cam. It makes ~360 whp/360 wtq, which is about 85 more horses at the wheels than I had before.
After not driving my car for nearly a year, I got back in it on the new Pilot Super Sports. These tires handled the meager 360 horsepower like it wasn't even there (as should be expected for tires that are standard on 500+ hp cars)--a feat that I was not sure whether the old A/S Plus tires could have matched.
The confidence they inspire is real: when I drive other cars, I immediately notice the difference in the communication that is transmitted through the shoes. The sidewall is stiff and the steering response is sharp. Traction is not a concern in wet or dry conditions. The tires easily outperform the brakes on my car. All in all, I'd say that the PSS tires are "pure" performance street tires. They are aggressive and give the car a very surefooted feel.
However, their short life expectancy is a tradeoff. I drove about ~25000 miles this year, and thus have used up all of their tread. Since the Camaro is my daily, I opted to try the A/S3+ because those tires seem to be to the All Season category what the PSS is to the Summer Tire category, and they are rated for 50% more tread life than their sportier siblings.
Immediately after installation, as soon as I pulled out onto the street, I noticed a much smoother ride. I get the impression that the sidewall is more flexible than on the PSSs. The ride is also a bit quieter.
The little bumps and cracks in the road are still communicated, but with much more "compliance." I would liken the difference to that between a soft rubber bushing and a Haim joint (for example). Also, these tires seem to mask certain imperfections in the suspension (my rear shocks are reaching the end of their service life), or the PSSs amplify those imperfections (take your pick).
Communication on the A/S 3+ tires is certainly not as crisp or detailed. If compared to sound, I'd say its like the difference between listening to something in high definition versus listening to something through the wall in another room, but you can still correctly hear and identify all the words and noises (none of the critical information is lost, just the finest details). It's "muffled" by comparison.
I have attempted two 1st gear pulls from ~10mph and the tires have no issues at all hooking up (I never launch from a dig... just not into beating on my 10-bolt).
The A/S 3+ tires are still new as of yet, but they do inspire confidence. So far, I do not feel any less sure of their capability than the PSSs, though I have not yet accumulated the mileage on them to make that claim with real authority. In any case, they are certainly sporty tires and get the job done where performance is concerned for a somewhat powerful car that is used to commute.
All in all, given the difference in tread life expectancy, even though I am a performance nut, I'll probably stick with the A/S 3+s moving forward since the Camaro is my daily driver: they provide a more comfortable ride (which translates into more overall enjoyment) while still being more than enough for the weight and power of my car.
I have had both on my Camaro. I first became a Michelin convert after the Goodyears that came with my (used) Camaro ran out of useable tread. Throughout the ownership period up to that point, the Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3s (the hailed champion of performance tires at the time) did not hook very well (stock-ish LS1 power). They were dreadful in the wet. It should be noted that the car was daily driven in WA, where roads are almost always wet, but even in the dry, they just sucked.
Not knowing much about tires at the time, I bought the Michelin Pilot Sports A/S Plus (the precursor to the A/S 3, and subsequent A/S 3+). The difference was night and day.
The old A/S Plus tires not only hooked with no drama at all, but there was no discernible difference in normal driving between wet and dry roads. The car felt planted 100% of the time (sharp throttle application would still break the tires loose on wet ground, though).
Fast forward a few sets of tires later, to the new Pilot Super Sports. Before getting the Pilot Super Sports, my Camaro was "benched" because of an engine failure which took me nearly a year to save up the money to address. The solution yielded a new (to me) LS1 with heads and cam. It makes ~360 whp/360 wtq, which is about 85 more horses at the wheels than I had before.
After not driving my car for nearly a year, I got back in it on the new Pilot Super Sports. These tires handled the meager 360 horsepower like it wasn't even there (as should be expected for tires that are standard on 500+ hp cars)--a feat that I was not sure whether the old A/S Plus tires could have matched.
The confidence they inspire is real: when I drive other cars, I immediately notice the difference in the communication that is transmitted through the shoes. The sidewall is stiff and the steering response is sharp. Traction is not a concern in wet or dry conditions. The tires easily outperform the brakes on my car. All in all, I'd say that the PSS tires are "pure" performance street tires. They are aggressive and give the car a very surefooted feel.
However, their short life expectancy is a tradeoff. I drove about ~25000 miles this year, and thus have used up all of their tread. Since the Camaro is my daily, I opted to try the A/S3+ because those tires seem to be to the All Season category what the PSS is to the Summer Tire category, and they are rated for 50% more tread life than their sportier siblings.
Immediately after installation, as soon as I pulled out onto the street, I noticed a much smoother ride. I get the impression that the sidewall is more flexible than on the PSSs. The ride is also a bit quieter.
The little bumps and cracks in the road are still communicated, but with much more "compliance." I would liken the difference to that between a soft rubber bushing and a Haim joint (for example). Also, these tires seem to mask certain imperfections in the suspension (my rear shocks are reaching the end of their service life), or the PSSs amplify those imperfections (take your pick).
Communication on the A/S 3+ tires is certainly not as crisp or detailed. If compared to sound, I'd say its like the difference between listening to something in high definition versus listening to something through the wall in another room, but you can still correctly hear and identify all the words and noises (none of the critical information is lost, just the finest details). It's "muffled" by comparison.
I have attempted two 1st gear pulls from ~10mph and the tires have no issues at all hooking up (I never launch from a dig... just not into beating on my 10-bolt).
The A/S 3+ tires are still new as of yet, but they do inspire confidence. So far, I do not feel any less sure of their capability than the PSSs, though I have not yet accumulated the mileage on them to make that claim with real authority. In any case, they are certainly sporty tires and get the job done where performance is concerned for a somewhat powerful car that is used to commute.
All in all, given the difference in tread life expectancy, even though I am a performance nut, I'll probably stick with the A/S 3+s moving forward since the Camaro is my daily driver: they provide a more comfortable ride (which translates into more overall enjoyment) while still being more than enough for the weight and power of my car.
01-26-2017, 08:43 PM
#2
Very nice and detailed review, Naaman. It was very informative to me, as I'm debating between the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ and the upcoming Michelin Pilot Sport 4S.
My C7 is not a daily driver and I'm not a track junkie. However, I do enjoy spirited drives in the country with a few car clubs. It's not uncommon to take curves at some aggressive speeds that I feel comfortable navigating in the stock Pilot Super Sport run-flats I have on there now.
I'm very attracted to the softer, quieter ride of the A/S, and the price savings is also appealing. However, I don't want to lose too much handling and responsiveness from a UHP summer tire. I will be putting these new tires on a second set of Z51 wheels that will become my primary set, and keeping the original 18"/19" set for track days or very spirited driving.
I'm a month or so away from buying these additional set of wheels and tires, and I'll be very interested to get your on-going opinions and perceptions of these A/S 3+'s.
My C7 is not a daily driver and I'm not a track junkie. However, I do enjoy spirited drives in the country with a few car clubs. It's not uncommon to take curves at some aggressive speeds that I feel comfortable navigating in the stock Pilot Super Sport run-flats I have on there now.
I'm very attracted to the softer, quieter ride of the A/S, and the price savings is also appealing. However, I don't want to lose too much handling and responsiveness from a UHP summer tire. I will be putting these new tires on a second set of Z51 wheels that will become my primary set, and keeping the original 18"/19" set for track days or very spirited driving.
I'm a month or so away from buying these additional set of wheels and tires, and I'll be very interested to get your on-going opinions and perceptions of these A/S 3+'s.
01-27-2017, 04:17 AM
#3
Racer
Thread Starter
I'm glad the write up was helpful to someone. I've suspected that most would never entertain the though of putting all-seasons on something like a Corvette, however, Michelin seems to have found a very good formula that, when plugged in with the summer tire variables, makes one hell of a tire. The all-seasons, in my opinion, are somewhat of an anomaly.
I was recently watching a Tire Rack video comparing the Michelins to some new Pirellis and in their opinion, the Pirellis edged out the Michelins by just a skosh in the UHP All Season category, however, they noted that the Michelins did have superior dry grip than the Pirellis.
As for the wet grip, I did drive to work in the rain (and it was a good bit of rain, too) the morning after I posted this. Grip (in normal, responsible driving) was indistinguishable from the PSSs.
I generally drive in such a way as to avoid sudden, sharp braking (don't we all?
), but I have had to jam on the brakes on rare occasion with the PSSs. Having only made 3 commutes with the new tires, this has not been tested yet, but I have no doubt that they will hold up as expected (better than the original A/S Plus tires).
I was recently watching a Tire Rack video comparing the Michelins to some new Pirellis and in their opinion, the Pirellis edged out the Michelins by just a skosh in the UHP All Season category, however, they noted that the Michelins did have superior dry grip than the Pirellis.
As for the wet grip, I did drive to work in the rain (and it was a good bit of rain, too) the morning after I posted this. Grip (in normal, responsible driving) was indistinguishable from the PSSs.
I generally drive in such a way as to avoid sudden, sharp braking (don't we all?
), but I have had to jam on the brakes on rare occasion with the PSSs. Having only made 3 commutes with the new tires, this has not been tested yet, but I have no doubt that they will hold up as expected (better than the original A/S Plus tires).
02-24-2017, 07:33 AM
#8
Racer
Thread Starter
Thumbs up on the Costco... I had been using discount tire because Costco doesn't often stock the tires I want (neither does Discount, as it turned out). I had forgotten all about Costco until my wife turned me on to them last month when both our cars needed new shoes.Saved $200 on each car buying them from Costco.