December 12, 2012
In today’s harried world, it’s all too easy to go about our day simply commuting from place to place as we struggle to keep up demanding schedules. Get to work, pick up the kids, go to the store, slog through wet and wintery weather — all can mean driving drudgery.
But for some, driving is about more than just getting from point A to B. They enjoy their time behind the wheel, and
don’t have to be a racecar driver to recognize that tires have a major influence on how their car feels. For those
who love the drive, Michelin has recently launched the Pilot Sport A/S 3 (3rd generation) Ultra High Performance
All-Season tire. Building on the capability of its predecessors, the all-new design of the Pilot Sport A/S 3
combines several Michelin technologies aimed at providing an excellent driving experience in all seasons.
The Pilot Sport A/S 3 is tuned to deliver a solid footing during dry road handling by combining an asymmetric tread design (inspired by the very capable Pilot Super Sport Max Performance Summer tire) supported by an internal structure that maximizes the contact patch pressure for a very high level of dry grip. Its tread pattern is rather simple looking, but also highly effective, as wide circumferential grooves combine with very high levels of silica in the tread compound to deliver superior resistance to hydroplaning and wet traction. Finally, Michelin’s unique Helio tread compound aids cold weather flexibility while variable thickness sipes and other tread design elements help provide the biting edges needed to handle freezing temperatures and light snow.
Several members of the Tire Rack team were invited to the New Orleans NOLA Motorsports Park, one of the country’s newest purpose-built driving facilities, to spend some time behind the wheel driving on production-spec Pilot Sport A/S 3 tires. Michelin put together a variety of dry and wet-weather exercises to showcase the performance of the Pilot Sport A/S 3.
Using a portion of the NOLA Motorsports Park winding road course, we drove Cadillac CTS sedans around a twisting,
five-turn course with additional offset pylon gates placed in the longer straights.
This exercise showcases two strengths of the Pilot Sport A/S 3: responsiveness and overall dry cornering traction. The Pilot Sport A/S 3 responded with immediacy and authority, allowing the otherwise sedate CTS to jink its way through the offsets with minimal effort.
Several of the natural turns on the course were sweeping 180s that allowed our drivers to experience the ultimate cornering power of each tire. Here the Pilot Sport A/S 3 showed a rather high level of ultimate cornering traction. It also felt composed during trail braking or when accelerating away from the corner.
Altogether the Pilot Sport A/S 3 certainly brightened up the personality of the Cadillac CTS test cars, feeling nimble and stable during cornering and transitions.
Designed to showcase another strong suit of the Pilot Sport A/S 3, an autocross-style course was laid out with
plenty of slalom cones and offset gates to challenge the transitional response of the tires. Coping with the body
roll and turbo boost of the WRX STi cars, the nimble Pilot Sport A/S 3 held up its end of the bargain, delivering
steering response that approached that of dedicated summer tires.
This tire communicates well as it approaches the limit, allowing the driver to recognize where peak traction is and hold it there. And if we did ask too much, the Pilot Sport A/S 3 was quick to recover.
Nearly every tire can perform acceptably well when roads are dry. But what about when they’re wet? Our testing has
shown the wet to often be a big separator, with the best tires handling water with ease, while lesser tires are
left slipping and sliding.
This demo used a water truck to wet the pavement of an autocross course that snaked its way over the subtly undulating pavement on one of NOLA’s expansive paddock lots. Water depth and vehicle speed never combined to challenge the hydroplaning capability of the tire, but the asphalt was wet enough to simulate what drivers find during or immediately after a moderate rain shower. Under these conditions, the Pilot Sport A/S 3 was able to make the most of the Audi’s all-wheel drive system, making its way around the course with relative ease. Cornering traction was very good, as was braking and acceleration.
Michelin set up a variety of handling challenges for the Pilot Sport A/S 3. Mother Nature didn’t provide any snow
during our drive, but what Michelin set up in both dry and wet conditions showcased the broad handling and
traction capabilities of the Pilot Sport A/S 3. Unfortunately we didn’t get to sample this tire’s road manners
during everyday driving, so we’re looking forward to production tires becoming available so we can put it through
a full comparison test on the road and track back at Tire Rack headquarters. Stay tuned for that test report
coming soon.
Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 W- or Y-Speed Rated (Ultra High Performance All-Season): The Pilot Sport A/S 3 is the High and Ultra High Performance All-Season tire member of Michelin’s Pilot family of low profile, high-speed tires developed for the drivers of high-end sports cars, sporty coupes and sedans looking for total performance regardless of the season. The Pilot Sport A/S 3 tire is designed to provide Michelin’s highest level of all-season performance by combining dry road handling, wet road grip and year-round traction, even in light snow. Read more.
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