Thank you all for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the article.
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Originally Posted by dparm
Damn, and I was just about to order a set of Conti ECS tires instead of the Michelin PSS ZPs (which are a specific design to Corvette, aka TPC-spec). Thanks for sharing, this is the kind of content I like to see.
Billj747 -- in your experience, can this work the other way? Are there some OEM versions of the tire that might be inferior to the generic?
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The ECS is also a great tire.
That would kind of defeat the purpose of building and optimizing a tire for a specific car, now wouldn't it? If a tire is designed for a given car, you're not going to get a more well-rounded and better tire for that car.
However, on that note, and to answer your question, you could consider that a manufacturer may want to call a tire a "265" for marketing reasons when it's actually dimensionally a 245 in width. In this case, if said hypothetical tire's compound wasn't notably more aggressive than an Off-The-Shelf (OTS) tire, then going to an OTS 265 width, that's actually a 265, COULD result in more grip, even though the longevity, steering response, load distribution, etc... wasn't as optimal. If there is a case like this, it would be very rare, and often the construction benefits to dial in the bespoke tire for a particular car (as well as all of the other aspects) could overcome a small width difference.
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Originally Posted by aus
Great article.
How did you end up in an old M3? You have access to one of the few cars I'd consider changing to in the GT350/GT350R. Love the sound of that motor.
Would really appreciate your insight on that car vs. the E92 M3.
Again, thats for a great article.
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I was a BMW guy at the start of my career, racing Formula BMW as a factory Junior driver (driving for PTG) to racing them in the Grand-Am Cup series before going to Mustangs. I had an E36 & E90 M3. The GT350's engine is pretty awesome and has a similar ethos to the S65 in terms of high-revving fun, but in its own special and unique way.
It was a bit eye-opening for a stock base 2016 Mustang GT to be a second faster than my modified DCT E90 M3 -on the same Continental DW tire. Then again the old stick-axle Boss 302 also turned laps faster than E9X M3s, and the new IRS-equipped S550 chassis is quite a bit better and faster.
https://motoiq.com/project-e90-m3-he...16-mustang-gt/
Needless to say, the GT350 is VERY fast on track and punches well above its weight. Heck, the new 2019 base GT350 is faster than the C8 Z51 Vette (with the track alignment) on track.