I tried to search the forum but didn't find anything so I apologize if this has been covered.

I've got a '23 Z51 and have two sets of wheels.

My plan is to have the my daily wheels with all season type tires and less than favorable wheels have tires that I track a few times per year.

I'm at the point of considering buying both sets and just curious if anyone had experience with anything other than the Pilot Sport 4S (I plan for the track use) and the standard Pilot Sport 4 (for my daily use). I've liked both but 3500 in tires is not super exciting. 😁

 

Very little experience with tires on the C8 but I have a garage full of Apex wheels and tires, Vorsteiner wheels and tires, BBS wheels and tires all for various BMW fitments from days gone by.

I have never found a better tire than the Michelin for whatever category you’re looking at. All season, summer only, whatever… Michelins have always been the best but… the difference between “the best” and very good is pretty small these days. I have had Bridgestones, Continental, Pirelli, Dunlop…. All were good but non were “tested” with the driving I was doing at the time…. My son bought a set of Generals that is a bargain brand that the M3 community kind of adopted years ago. Two years on them and they feel great….

The Michelins best feature to me has always been ride quality along with summer performance or all season performance…. I was once told what tire you buy only matters at trade in time because dealers mark the value down for “off brand” tires. But who knows 🤷‍♂️…

Tire Rack is still the best source in tire analysis and ratings…. And prices…. Only buy from tire rack. I always use them for all things tires.

 

No personal experience but search for Conti Extreme Contact DWS06 and you'll find some opinions.

 

FYA, Discount Tire owns Tire Rack, so if you have a local DT, I can assure you that no one offers better service and advice

 

are the pilot sports that come on the z51 and the AS4s that come on the base SR the exact same size? I am going to swap out at some point this year before it gets cold so would be great to get from someone that has the base SR and wants to swap the tires for a summer tire.

 

The Z51 comes with the Pilot Sport 4S ZP and the non-Z51 is the Pilot Sport 4. They are the same size. I currently have both as I found someone on this forum that sold me their takeoff wheels and Pilot Sport 4 (All Season) that I use for daily driving and then I use the 4S for track use now.

 

Thanks, to be clear - are the Pilot Sport 4 the same as the AS4's (maybe i have the acronym wrong)?

I live in the NC/SC area so will need to swap to an all season by October...would rather find someone with the base that is selling them cheap here vs buying brand new from Discount tire!

 

If you are going to run a dedicated set of track tires, why not go with the Sport Cup 2R or Supercup 3R? I have heard good things about the Proxes R888R and the Nankang tires, but not sure they come in the correct sizes. Conti and Nitto have their fans too, but I have never used them.

That being said, the Sport 4S is a pretty spectacular tire, it will last a lot longer than any of those and give you about 80% of the performance. Unless you are very highly skilled, you are not likely to outdrive the 4S on a C8. I have the AS4 on mine now, and I am probably going to go with the 4S whenever I replace them, but I only plan to have one set of wheels. The AS4 is also a pretty spectacular tire for street use, the difference between the 4S and AS4 is not nearly as massive as some people would like you to believe. If I lived where it got cold, I would just keep using the AS4. I am in Florida, low temps are extremely rare so my main concern is performance in the rain. I thought the AS4 would be "better" in the wet, but in reality I don't think its much of a difference. I am still on the fence... maybe I will stick with the AS4 after seeing how long they last for me!

For your scenario, since you plan to run dedicated track tires, may as well go for the best track option. Then it makes the most sense to run the AS4 on your "daily" wheels. But if you wanted one set to do it all, as long as it doesnt get too cold (under 40) where you live, then the 4S would be a good do-it-all option.

 

I remember when this was announced in 2021… hopefully it’s a good thing as I am generally not a fan when a family owned independent company that has treated me well and put a lot of effort (and money) into testing and R&D…. Gets acquired…. Everything always starts out well but the first time quarterly earnings aren’t what was expected… leadership starts looking to cut costs and what Tire Rack brought to car communities has been a huge resource to me… and significant expense to TireRack…. Just my experience. I went through a couple acquisitions through the years and it always ended up bad for everyone except the few people at the top who voted massive stock awards and options for each other…. Everyone else’s life got worse….

 

If you plan to eventually get into any sort of time attack competition, most stock/light prepped classes will have a 200tw limit. in that instance for my self i would get myself the nankang CRS or the michelin pilot sport cup 2 with 240tw rating. even if you are not competing, i would suggest starting with something in that range for a low-mid intermediate driver.

Me personally if you can get a takeoff set with the pilot sport 4s, burn through those tires, then figure out where you want to go from there depending on how the tires feel for you.

 

My daily driver tires are the all season Michelins mounted on after market wheels. My stock 5 spoke are used for track and autocross running the Nankang CRS v2 with great results.

 

This is what I'm trying to get to. Unfortunately, my all seasons are on a set of 5 spoke which I'm not a fan of and my summer are on my wheels I want to daily. It was going to cost me like $400 to have a shop swap them so I'm trying to get to the point of needing all new at the same time even though it's going to hurt the checkbook.