The French tire manufacturer went through 25 different compounds before finally settling on the final product.
Without tires there is no driving, and in the case of sports cars, without adequate characteristics of the tires, there is no fast passage through curves and the desired controllability.
Automakers are increasingly teaming up with tire companies to develop tires that best match mechanical components such as suspension, steering and braking systems. As simple as it may seem at first glance, it takes a lot of work and time to develop.
The Tire Reviews YouTube channel visited the Michelin test center in Ladu, to find out what the engineers needed to develop the Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 tire, whose services are used by the new Mercedes-AMG GT. Although it bears the same name as the serial Sport S 5, the AMG version uses a completely different setup in terms of the tires themselves.
Namely, the tires use three different compounds, which make up three different sections of the tread. The inner part of the front tread is mainly tuned for wet grip, while the middle one is in charge of dry performance. The outer side is made of high-durability rubber, suitable for use on the race track. When it comes to the rear tires, there are two sections for wet grip and a middle section for high performance in the dry. The outer also features a dry, performance-oriented compound.
Michelin spent three years developing these tires, testing 25 different compounds for the front and 20 for the rear, before finally settling on the final combination. And all that for just one car model!
Pierre-Antoine Grégoire, the project’s lead development driver, said he spent most of his time perfecting the “soft handling” of the tires. That means focusing on the little things you might not think about, like how the car moves in a straight line, how much “dead zone” there is through the steering wheel, how much weight the tires put on the steering wheel when cornering, and how the sidewall reacts to quick transitions.
Gregoire says the hardest part about creating this tire was finding the right balance between wet and dry handling. Mercedes required the tire to perform well in both scenarios, which is always the most difficult thing to achieve in car tires, so the Michelin team decided to mix and match compounds, all the while trying to match the development cycle of the AMG GT, which played at the same time.
Source: Automotoshow.rs
Source: autoblog.rs
