Good Rubber Keeps You Safe
This Article is based on a blog post from the original Redpants website. It was first posted on August 14, 2017.
Some of the embedded links in this Article will direct you to Tire Rack. I’ve made custom links for these as each will direct you to the tires and tire sizes that I’m referencing to make things easier for you. For example, that means an embedded link to Micheline Pilot Sport 4S tires spec’d for 19” Redpants fitment wheels will be different than an embedded link for the same tires spec’d for 19” Widepants fitment wheels. These are affiliate links so I’ll get a small commission if you click my link and then buy the tires I send you to on Tire Rack. If anything seems off or if the links are broken, please let me know!
Some of the tires I mention in this Article are either no longer available or are no longer available in the sizes I mention.
Putting on quality rubber doesn't just keep you safe in the sack, it also keeps you safe at the track.
...It took me far longer to come up with that catchy introductory innuendo (introendo?) than I care to admit. But I came up with introendo pretty much immediately. At least I’m clever sometimes. Anyway, moving on.
Tires are an integral part of your car's performance - not just for lap times. I talk about brake pads fairly often on Redpants and in my videos. They're a routine maintenance item, plus people often ask for options to replace the OEM pads they're eager to be rid of. I also field a lot of questions about tires, but haven't said much about it in blog posts until now. Tires are a complex thing to choose. First and foremost, you need to decide what kind of tires you want. For the vast majority of Aston Martin owners, we'll be looking at maximum or extreme summer performance tires so that's the kind of tire I'm typically referring to unless I specifically say otherwise.
Much like brake pads, tire selection is a function of compromise. The stickier a tire is when hot, the less traction it will typically have when it's cold. Likewise, a tire made with maximum grip in mind often sacrifices tread life. To make sure we're all on the same page through the rest of this, let's go over some basics and whatnot.
Some Basics and Other Whatnottery
I'm not going to get too specific here. Rather, I'm going to keep this basic so you can easily get an understanding of the various details of tire selection. That means I'll be talking in generalities, saying things like "width" rather than "section width" or "tread width" and so on. We're going to keep this simple so I don't get bored of typing (I only have so much wine) and you don't get bored of reading (I have no idea how much wine you have, but you're welcome to share).
Tire Sizes
Tire sizes are a major restriction for choosing a set of tires because not all tires are made in all sizes. When shopping for tires, you'll see sizes typically listed like this:
285 / 40 Z R 19 (Note: I've added spaces to make it easier to read.)
The first three digits "285" are the width of the tire in millimeters. The larger this number, the wider the tire is.
The next two digits "40" are the aspect ratio of the tire's height to its width. The larger this number, the taller the sidewall is compared to other tires with the same width.
The first letter "Z" is for the speed rating. This is very often not listed, so don't be surprised if it isn't there (instead you'd see, "285/40R19"). The letter corresponds to a maximum rated speed.
The second letter "R" stands for "radial" which refers to the construction of the tire, and pretty much all of the tires you look at will have this. If the speed rating isn’t listed, then the R would be the first (and only) letter. It can also be omitted (ex: a 285/40R19 tire could be listed as 285/40-19).
The last two digits “19” are the diameter of the wheels that the tires fit. In this example, the tires are made for 19-inch wheels.
To choose tires correctly sized for your car and wheels, you'll need to compare the widths and overall diameters of various tires that fit your wheels. Wheels can be changed out to accommodate different tires at the same time, of course, so you can go with a much wider set of tires by also getting a wider set of wheels.
Tread Wear and Traction
Tread wear is a rating that gives an estimate of how long a tire will last. Right up front I'm going to tell you to take these ratings with a grain of salt. These can be flubbed a bit and, for performance tires like we're interested in, the numbers can be purposely misleading. Long story short, a baseline test tire has a rating of 100. If a tire lasts twice as long, it has a rating of 200. If it last three times as long, it gets a rating of 300. If it lasts half as long, it gets a rating of 50. Pretty simple. But the problem for us is that a low tread wear rating implies better traction and grip. If two tire manufactures each have a high-performance tire that directly competes with the other, a lower tread wear might imply a tire with better performance - even if that isn't the case. I honestly can't remember the last time I looked at tread wear ratings as a solid indicator of performance. There are better factors to use for your tire selection, so don't put too much stock in this detail. Here's more information at Tire Rack if you want some further reading.
A slightly better way to judge a tire is by looking at its performance type and by comparing it to its peers. As I said earlier, we're interested in maximum or extreme performance summer tires for our Astons. These tires are made for spirited driving on dry pavement. Traction will be best when they're warm, so you might want to take it easy when they're cold. Unlike competition tires, these are just fine on the street and, with some diligence, in cold weather. But if you get too feisty on a cold, wet day, they can prove a bit slippery.... which is what happened to me when I wrecked my grey V8 Vantage at Summit Point a while back.
Keep in mind that there is a variance in performance in all scenarios - cold, hot, dry, wet, etc - within a tire category. So don't assume that all extreme summer performance tires are uncontrollable on a wet road.
My Used Rubbers
My grey car was fitted with Hankook Ventus Evo V12 tires in factory sizing when I bought it. They were a fun, cheap tire. They weren't great in the rain, and the traction wasn't the best, but being able to overpower the tires in a turn made it really easy to control the car with throttle steering. While fun in certain situations, the tire's lack of composure in the wet kept it from being a usable year-round tire and the lack of ultimate grip on track kept it from being an out-right performer. So, once the Hankooks had expended themselves, I switched over to Michelin.
My next set of tires was the Michelin Pilot Super Sport (often shortened to MPSS, PSS, or Super Sport) in V8 Vantage S sizing, which is slightly wider than the tires spec’d for the early V8 Vantage. These were a great tire and a huge step up from the Hankooks they replaced. While not stellar when cold, they're still quite usable and stable so they can be used throughout the year. While that isn't an endorsement for using them on ice or in the snow, I will say that I was caught in an ice storm at one point, and was able to drive the car over two hours through it to get home. There were literal icicles hanging from my car when I finished the drive!
I've used the Super Sports in a wide variety of situations through the last few years: that crazy ice storm, several track days, commuting in DC metro area traffic, even some accidental mud-roading (oh, the lengths I will go to for some wine!), and they've been a fantastic all-around tire that can handle just about anything. They weren't perfect, but no tire is - tire design is heavily based on functions of compromise. But technology advances, and with that comes a replacement for the Pilot Super Sport: The Pilot Sport 4S (often shortened to MPS4S, PS4S, 4S, etc etc).
The Pilot Sport 4S is a better tire than its predecessor in every way. Performance when warm and dry is very slightly improved - no surprise there because it was already stellar in that area. The biggest improvement is in cold and rainy situations. It's far better handling in inclement weather than the Super Sport, which is where improvement was needed most. As with many tires, the Pilot Sport 4S may not be available in all parts of the world. This comes up fairly often in England (at least, at the time of this writing anyway), but the more comfort-oriented variant of this tire called the Pilot Sport 4 is often available when the 4S isn’t. Keep in mind the 4 and 4S are different tires. Both are great, but the 4S is more performance oriented.
Pick a Size, Any Size
Next, let’s go over sizing. For my V8 Vantages in particular:
- I had OEM-sized Hankook Ventus V12 Evo on my grey car at first: 235/40R19 in front and 275/35R19 in rear. These were mounted to the OEM 7-spoke wheels.
- When I switched to the Michelin Pilot Super Sport (MPSS), I upped the size very slightly to those found on the V8 Vantage S: 245/40R19 in front and 285/35R19 in rear. This gave me a slightly wider and slightly taller tire. These were first mounted on the OEM 7-spoke wheels, then later on a set of BC Forged RT50 wheels in 19” Redpants fitment.
- When I swapped out the RT50 wheels for a set of BC Forged RZ05 wheels in 19” Widepants fitment, I also changed over much wider 265/35R19 (front) and 305/30R19 (rear) Michelin Pilot Sport 4S (MPS4S) tires. Although much wider, these actually reduced the overall height of the tires slightly compared to the factory sizing.
I'm a big advocate for using the V8 Vantage S tire sizing on all V8 Vantages if you're sticking with the standard wheels, or aftermarket wheels with the same width and diameter like my 19" Redpants fitment sizing. You get a slightly wider tire, which increases the contact patch of the tires on the pavement. You also get a slightly taller tire, which gives you what amounts to a slightly taller final drive ratio (very slight) as well as a slightly taller ride height. This is a nice bonus for people that want that tiny bit of extra clearance so they don't scrape as easily in driveways or speed bumps (sleeping policemen for the Brits). These changes are very small but they are a nice little improvement, and there are no ill effects. So, in my humble opinion, there's no reason not to go with the larger size if you need new tires anyway.
If you're installing a much wider set of wheels, like I did on my grey V8 Vantage with the BC Forged RZ05 wheels in 19" Widepants fitment, you can fit a much wider tire as well.
But this is also where things get a little tricky. There are a few things to consider when picking out non-OEM sizes for tires. Here's the basic way I narrow down the search. All of this assumes you're picking a tire that actually fits inside the wheel well and doesn't rub or scrape on the fender, fender liner, suspension, etc.
1) Wheel diameter. Style is subjective for picking out wheel sizes, and that I'm a big fan of 19" wheels on the Vantage because, to me, it's the right combination of wheel diameter and tire sidewall (read: tire meatiness). Not only that, it's also historically been very difficult to find higher-performance tires in larger diameters. I added “historically” to that last statement when editing and updating this Article for my new website because more and more performance tires are being offered in larger sizes, so finding larger-diameter performance tires may not be too difficult anymore.
2) Wheel width. This is going to determine how wide of a tire you can fit onto the wheel. If the tire is too narrow, it’ll need to be stretched to fit. If it’s too wide, it’ll "balloon” out. A tire that’s too wide or too narrow for a wheel can cause performance or safety issues.
3) Tire diameter (AKA Overall Diameter). Tire diameter is a function of its width and aspect ratio. That is, two tires can have different overall diameters despite having the same aspect ratio if the two tires have different widths. For example, the 265/70R17 tires on my Toyota 4Runner and the 265/35R19 tires I have on the front of my grey V8 Vantage are the same width. However, the tires on my 4Runner are 31.6" tall, while the tires on my Vantage are 26.3" tall - that's a huge difference. So, when picking out tires you'll want to make sure that the tires are similar overall diameter and that the overall diameters for the new tires are similar to the OEM tires fitted by Aston Martin.
4) Intended use. If you're looking for a track-only tire, a streetable competition tire would be great. But don't expect it to last long or be brilliant in the rain. Likewise, an all-season tire is going to severely compromise your track performance for the sake of tread life and usability in crap weather. Let's be frank at this point and say that most Aston owners take a different car when it's pouring down rain. Crap weather isn't high up on our priorities when it comes to tire selection. For the vast majority of us, we're interested in maximum/extreme-performance summer tires. But you’ll also not want to over-spec tires, either. A set of R-compounds will be expensive and not last terribly long, and it’d be very rare (and highly illegal) to get their performance benefits in street use.
5) Tread life. As I said earlier, this isn't something I use, nor is it too applicable for most of us. Frankly, again, many of us are used to hemorrhaging cash for our cars when it comes to certain things. Tire tread life isn't a place to scrape a few saved pennies.
And with that point about saving money, I'm going to end the list of criteria with a note of what isn't mentioned: cost. Plain and simple, do not skimp on tires.
This is not the place to save money. Your tires are all that keep you and your car connected to the road. The contact patch of a tire is incredibly small, and you've only got four of them under ideal circumstances. In hairier situations, you may have fewer. Or none. But let's not go there, you're in trouble regardless at that point. Anyway, back on track. Tires are one place where cost should not be a determining factor.
One Last Important Note
Tires do have a shelf life! Let me state that in another way: Tires go bad with age. Remaining tire tread is one measure, age is another. Both are valid and both apply.
Just as warranties, service intervals, and other things are measured in "x number of miles, or x number of years, whichever comes first," so too are tires. Tires are made of rubber, and that rubber does dry out over time. It doesn't matter how much tread life a tire has left if it's falling apart due to age.
To help illustrate this, here's what the tires looked like on my red V8 Vantage project car when I first bought it. You can see the tire actually coming apart on this one!
I'm willing to bet this was the original Bridgestone RE050 that was on the car when it was first built. This is what ten years can do to a tire, even if it hasn't been driven through its tread. If you rarely drive your car, keep in mind that time does matter just as much as miles for service intervals. I've yet to have a set of tires last more than a few years, even on my daily driver vehicles, but typically a tire should be replaced after 5 years to ensure you don't come across a situation like this! Just imagine if the tire had separated at highway speeds - again, tires are a matter of safety as much as they are for performance!