High performance tires BridgestonevsMichelin your choice

I'm thinking about using my OEM wheels and Bridgestones for tracking and go with Michelins for the road, due to their somewhat-better water-shedding. But one Ferrari dealer told me that they'd had a number of Michelins fall apart on 550's and they dont' order them any more! I have to wonder if the tires in question were under-inflated and blew up from over heating. Anybody care to share their expereinces with Michelins and Bridgestones (the latter seem fine with me-- except in light rain and puddling... ouch!

never heard of this, but I'll ask around!!

Bridgestones won Indy , so they must be good right??

Today, when I was getting my new Stebro center pipes from Canada installed (they're incredibly quiet and generate BIG improvement in the 550's performance: acceleration, shifting, etc. The car drives like I'm 2000 feet lower in Denver!) we discovered enough tire wear on the Bridgestone ZR's that FoScottsdale installed last year-- to need immediate replacement.

So, I order two complete sets of Michelin PS2 tires (track and street) after reading data at
http://www.tirerack.com

Heads up on ordering direct from Tirerack: Local tire dealers probably wont mount the tires (or they'll charge you an arm and a leg because if they screw up, they're eating the cost of a top-cost replacement tire.
My two sets cost $3,100

I ordered the Michelins (YR rated) through Plains Tire (HQ Logan UT, local in Laramie). Plains wont be doing my allignment however. Their allignment guy turned out to be a (probably jealous) smart ass who told me today, as I was ordering 3-grand of tires, that Ferraris are for boulevard cruisers. Instead of telling him what an ass he was today, I'll tell his boss (when the tires come in) why they're missing more business with me. No punk like that is going to TOUCH my car-- let alone do an allignment on it when I'm regularly pulling 110-140 mph on corners! I'm now planning to need $1,500 in tires every year. I seem to be regularly driving my 550 1,000 miles a month.

Two and a half years ago, Bridgestone came out with the S03s as a replacement for the venerable S02PPs. For the two and a half follwoing years, these were the tires to have on your car.

Now, the Michelin PS2s have eclipsed the S03s in most of the parameters we desire for track rated tires.

For street driving, there is little to differentiate between these, the S03s having slightly better water performance, the PS2s with a triffling better cornering.

On my last set of S03s, I got 3,000 track miles and 15,000 total miles.

As to obtaining, mounting, and balancing tires: I use Tire Rack and drop ship to my local mechanic, and then have my local mechanic sub out the work.

Thanks Mitch for your interesting history. Today, someone told me that Michelins had failed at Indy some time recently (in terms of sidewall strength in cornering); And that teams which had gone into Indy with Michelin had to stick with them because of rules. I don't know if that's true. And besides, it's a big leap of technology to go from Indy tires to Y-rated road designs.

In the database at TireRack.com, Michelin PS2's marginally out-rated the Bridgestones in all respects. It turned out that my Bridgestones (which lasted 8,000 miles of road and track in my first driving season) were ZR rated. I liked them very much in high speed cornering especially. It'll be interesting to see how the Michelins perform.
Cheers, John

The Michelin debacle at Indy is informative as to how close to the edge a tire designed to run 1 race plus 3 qualifying laps have become. In effect, Michelin F1 tires did not have enough sidewall strength to put up with the 9 degree banking at T13 Indy. It seems that Michelin was assuming that the 2 race/engine rule and the 2005 aerodynamic rules would slow the cars down. Well, scratch that theory.