Shortly after I got the 2006, Chuck
Mallett donated a set of his beautiful wheels,
complete with Michelin PS2 tires. What a delight they were, especially in
contrast to the
Goodyear SuperCar tires that the car came with! The Goodyears
had a wicked tendency to follow
worn ruts on highway road surfaces, and were a
real handful if the ruts were pronounced.
With the Michelins, you couldn't even feel the ruts!
Plus, they ride better, are much quieter and better in the rain!
The fact that the PS2s were not run-flats had
me really concerned at first, considering the load I carry and
how many miles I
put on the car. As a precaution I filled up the left well in the trunk with a
foot pump, a plug kit
and (for the worst possible case scenario) a can of
Fix-A-Flat.
I only had them on the car for 2 weeks when a
friend who was seeing them for the first time at a club outing
noticed a nail in
the left rear tire. Oh great! I kept one eye on the tire pressure readout for
the 150 mile
drive home, and the pressure didn't change. The next day I gingerly
tried pulling the nail out. It was about an inch
in from the sidewall and
perpendicular to the tread. It was a shiny new ring nail (used for flooring;
they have ribs
on the shank to prevent them from working loose). I had it pulled
out about 1.5 inches and could still feel the ribs
ripping through the steel
belt. At that point I just gently pushed it back in where it came from! I
monitored the
pressure frequently and just just drove it.
The tire lost at most 1 lb a month (and the nail
survived 160 mph...). My concerns about not having
run-flats gradually faded.
35,000 miles and 16 months later they were ready for
replacement!
Enter Amy Batt.
I figured the guys at Corvette
Racing could give me a contact at Michelin since the C6-R was now racing on
them.
Sure enough, they put me in touch with Amy at Michelin North America. She
caused a new set of PS2s to
magically appear on my front porch on October 29,
2007.
Here's Amy Batt when I met her at the C5/C6
Bash in April of '08.
She was there because the new Corvette ZR1 is fitted with Michelins from the
factory!
We are now (end of 2011) on our 3rd set of PS2s provided by Michelin.
The last set were replaced a year ago at 40,000 miles.
The backs were still legal, but were approaching the wear indicator bars.
The fronts looked only half worn; I saved them!
40k miles on ultra high performance tires
- that's incredible!
Now we have the decals to go with the tires...
Thank you Amy and Michelin North America for
helping
Corvettes (on Michelins!) Conquer Cancer!
