Pilot Exalto - Lukewarm Performance (Michelin)

Member Name: LegendaryMrDude

Product:	Michelin
Date:	24/08/04 (13520 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent water-shedding design, Rubber compound good in the wet, Asymmetrical design allows for swapping of tyres

Disadvantages: Lack of grip, Cost

When my OEM-fit Bridgeston Potenza RE040s finally made it down to the tread-wear indicator I had them replaced with a pair of the new Michelin Pilot Exaltos.

In a 205-45/17 fitting these are fairly intimidating beasties and at £140 per tyre, so they should be! None of your swoopy curves and slashes that look all sexy. Oh no. These purposeful hunks of rubber have three MASSIVE channels running around the tyre combined with some fairly agressive lugs (sipes?) around the outside edge.

The mention of an outside edge indicates that these are directional tyres but maybe not in the strictest sense. The Bridgestones had an arrow indicating the direction of rotation the tyres should be mounted in, which ultimately meant that you could only swap the tyres along the same side of the car. The Pilot Exaltos, on the other hand, have an outside and an inside edge. Obviously you will always fit the outside edge to the outside of the wheel, so it is possible (in theory at least), to swap the left and right fronts without problem.

This asymmetrical tread design has some rather neat features. First off, the three central channels provide a HUGE capacity for evacuating water. Performance in the wet has so far (2,000 miles) been exceptional. They seem to cut through surface water and the compund is surprisingly grippy when wet, which is a bonus. Certainly in the torrential conditions we've experienced recently they have proven sure-footed. Better perhaps than the Bridgestones, but my memory may have been tainted by the minimal amount of tread I had been driving with towards the end. The other feature of the asymmetrical pattern is the aforementioned "outside" edge. this is an agressive pattern of lugs that is supposed to move closer together when cornering, allegedly giving a constant sized "contact patch" and maximum grip around bends. With the sole purpose of testing the tyre for fellow DooYooers, I've been putting this aspect t
o the test around some sharp bends in warm weather and an pleased to report that they do actually work rather well when cornering at speed.

All this is well and good, but have I noticed any real difference between the Michelins & the Bridgestones? Yes is the simple answer. In a straight line, from a standing start the Michelins offer considerably less grip. It may be that the water-shedding design sees less rubber on contact with the ground. It could be that the silicone-rich compound that's so good in the wet is just less sticky in the dry. Whatever the cause, the bottom line is that my Civic Type-R looses traction far more easily with the Michelins than it ever did with the Bridgestones. And it's not your squealing, burning rubber type of wheelspin caused by youthful show-boating, it's the soundless scrabbling for traction as wheels spin helplessly and apparently without friction. Related to this is the tyres amazing ability to stay cool under stressful conditions. Even after a frantic, wheel-spinning scramble away from a junction the tyres either won't get hot or won't retain the heat, which could well be partly to blame for the lack of grip. Whereas the Bridgestones were so grippy they used to pick up paint from the road and get almost uncomfortably hot to the touch, the Michelins just pick up dust and barely get warm enough to resemble a badly made cup of tea. On a cold, damp morning they are bordering on troublesome to drive, with wheelspin being possible all the way up to 3rd gear. I've not had to put their stopping power to test for real but have tried a few emergency stops so that I could know what to expect and each time I am pleased to say that they have behaved well, with the ABS coming in to play only once.

So that's the general stickiness/wet performance stuff out of the way, is there anything else you might want to know? In terms of noise, they're slightly quieter than the Bridgestones producing just
a dull roar as opposed to a deafening one. They are also a lot better behaved in a straight line across bumpy/rutted roads. Whereas the Bridgestones used to wander where the road wanted them to go, the Michelins stay pointed in the direction I want them to. General coenering is excellent, steering response is easily on a par with the Brodgestones. Kerb-protection is also pretty good for a low-profile tyre, but I still wouldn't want to bump up a kerb higher than 2 inches and certainly at no more than a crawl.

Overall then, it's a fine tyre for a middle of the road family hatchback. Stick them on your Focus (assuming it's not a Focus RS) and you should be more than happy. They perform well in the wet and corner with ease. For a car with a little more "oomph" they are not ideal. For all their excellent design and high-tech rubber compound, they are somewhat lacking in the plain, old-fashioned grip department. Consequently it's hard to give a single rating so I've split it into two:

If you have a "regular" family car, consider the score to be 5 stars.
If you have a performance car, consider the score to be 2 stars.

The average is somewhere between to I've given an overall of 3.


If only I could have another set of Bridgestones for the summer and these for the winter, maybe I'd be alright...

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