Safe When Wet: Michelin’s New Slicks Make Rain Your New Friend
Gathering together on a brisk spring day, the group of Mommy bloggers and female auto journalists listened intently as the folks at Michelin outlined the day’s agenda.
Step 1 – Safety Testing on Wet Roads with Mom Bloggers
Step 2 -Blank (well, actually, hot laps in a Boss Mustang)
Step 3 – Profit
No, not really, although I expect that the new Michelin Premier A/S tires will produce a fair amount of profit for the century old company. They’re plenty impressive, and Michelin gave us the tools to make that decision on our own by having us run through the same safety tests they put their dealers (and their tires) through. We drove too fast on a wet oval with bad rear tires and discovered the heart-thumping exhilaration of the bad-weather spin out. We did a comparo between a big Toyota Sienna with OEM Michelin’s vs. the ultimate driving machine (a BMW 3-series) with crappy tires on a slick, twisty road course, and ultimately, we did extensive stopping on a wet patch of ground with the new Premier A/S tires at half their wear-life against competitors at full capacity. And yes, the big Cadillac ATS we were driving did stop sooner in the half-used Premiers. At 5/32” of tread, the tire stops faster than its competitors – 119 ft to 133 ft on the other tire. New, at 50 MPH to 9, the tire stops in 106 ft in wet conditions. (These are Michelin’s numbers, but the tests we did were comparable).
The new tech that goes into the Premier is pretty snazzy – in addition to the ever widening rain grooves that appear, and the hidden grooves that allow drainage as the tire wears, a new process also allows the tire to be pulled from the mold with these finer grooves, and that alone will likely revolutionize the industry. In addition, more silica and the addition of sunflower oil in the tire component provides better grip. It was a heady demonstration for a tire test, and a good audience to showcase the technology to – half throw-caution to the winds car fans, half full-time safety reviewers who literally have their kids riding on their tires.
And while the assembled group may have skewed more towards safety patrol and further from speed racer, the tires are a smart, and safe, new innovation from a company that stands behind their slogans. “Safe When New, Safe When Worn” is a pretty good slogan to believe in.
