Whatever anyone gets, that is at all new-ish, I’d advise to leave the traction control fully on. All of my driving on the track with both the gray S and the block JCW is with the traction control fully on. If I am driving correctly, it does not come on; it does not interfere. I can attest to the fact that it will react faster to an oops in driving than any driver can.

As for putting 4 tires in a car… I have seen it done with an M2, if that helps.

 

 

The previous owner said he couldn't fit all four. He had a second set of wheels with winter tires. He said he couldn't so I had him take off the tires before I went to see the car. (At that point I was 90% sure I was going to take it). I took the wheels and left the tires behind. Sometime in the next few weeks I will try myself and let you know.

Something I didn't realize when I decided on the ATS-V — there don't appear to be any 200TW tires available in the OEM size the car takes (255/35ZR18 Front and 275/35ZR18 Rear). That's probably not the case with the Mustang. This year, I'll be using the OEM Michelin Pilot Super Sports; then I'll see where I go from there. I am also getting long in the tooth and don't know how many more seasons I'll be tracking. And I don't expect to be pushing as hard as I did with the MINI although that could change once I get comfortable behind the wheel. I've been reading quite a bit lately on how to control oversteer.

 

Did you look at TR? They have the 200 TW ‘Stones RE71RS and the Falken 660 in those sizes, plus others. Or did I get the sizes wrong?

 

Those prices serve to remind me one of the reasons I've stuck with Minis all these years, those tires are twice the cost of mine (and probably close to twice the weight to horse onto the car)
Gkp, I hope your track alignment has some serious camber (like as much as possible) to save those round black diamonds

 

Good to know, I have actually gone and looked at the M2s at the dealer but, as much I as like BMWs, at 3800+ lbs I could get the Mustang which is actually about 200# lighter with similar power and torque and save about $25k. And probably wouldn't worry about it as much.....

 

Don’t know about the Mustang, but the M2 has a staggered tire arrangement. This limits tire options and tire rotation options. Also, like MINIs, the M2 (2016, don’t know about current M2) didn’t come with much camber. My cousin added camberplates to his M2 to improve tire wear and because of the staggered sizes doesn’t bother with bring extra tires when he goes to WGI. Camber adjustability is something to consider when looking at BMWs.

BTW - You know Mustang comes in both a GT4 AND GT3 versions if you have the $$$$….

 

I think you could probably go with a square tire setup as with the older M3s for the track, not positive though.....the BMWs are strut front suspension just like the Minis, always going to need camber. Hello Vorshlag!

Re Mustang, I'll take this one. If I ever win Powerball
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a4...-gtd-revealed/

 

Damn! When I did a search, these didn't come up. I just searched again (by vehicle) and they weren't in the results. They show up when I search by size. Thanks! In any case, I'll be running on the OEM tires until they are done.

UPDATE: According to TR, the 200TW tires don't appear when I search by vehicle because "the rear does not have the XL load rating the car calls for." However, they say they have "enough" and can be used. I'll need to dig deeper on that one.

gbuff: I agree on the elevated cost of tires, brake pads and rotors over the MINI. That's a big reason I will be doing only a few days a year.

 

Ya, I did the same thing, only backwards. I searched sizes first and wondered if I got it right. Then I did the car search and got what you did; nothing. That is very strange. I wonder why TR thinks those tires don’t belong on your car….

As for square vs staggered tire setups, on the M2 the staggered setup is to help tame the tendency to oversteer. My cousin says that even with the staggered setup, oversteer is still something to watch out for in the M2.

Also, my cousin only runs the OEM Michelins on his M2 and really likes them. You’ll be fine with them.

 

Ever since TR changed hands a few years ago I've had on/off problems with their website, stuff like what's happening to you right now and payment issues where I have to manually enter my shipping address when placing an order (though it's the same as my billing address), but not every time It's maddening at times, never used to be like that. Maybe it's just me but I doubt it.

 

I don't know if you saw my updated post. According to TR, the 200TW tires don't appear when I search by vehicle because "the rear does not have the XL load rating the car calls for." However, they say they have "enough" and can be used. I'll need to dig deeper on that one.

 

”XL” only means that the tire can take more pressure than a standard street tire, thus with it being at a higher pressure it can handle more load. However, at 33 psi it will have the same load rating as any other tire. So, this makes no sense, unless they are running the tire at 50 or 60 psi, which would be doubtful. So the TR statement is meaningless. It is not for load rating.

Typically you see XL on truck tires and some off road tires like the BFG KO2s and the like. They do tend to have stiffer sidewalls. So, maybe the caddy is taking advantage of the stiffer sidewalls? That would be an odd way to get that feature, though.

Do your rear tires say XL on them? Does Michelin even have a XL street tire. If they are OEM and they don’t have XL on them, then I would say the TR info is bogus…

Update: I did look up the Michelin Pilot Super Sport tire on TR and they list it by OEM applications and I found one size that was both an XL and SL, and the XL had a higher load rating at a lower pressure than the SL. Not sure how they do that. So, maybe I’m wrong? That could never happen…

But I found no listing on TR for the ATS-V. Again, did I miss something there? The only thing I found was this: https://michelinmedia.com/michelin-u...adillac-ats-v/

 

Now that I looked around, I don't get it. The spec tires are XL as are most other available tires. Beats me.