Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 Tire Review
Michelin’s latest high-performance offering showcases a steady evolution of the all-season tire.
The Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 tire is the latest in a long line of popular ultra high-performance all weather tires from one of the most prominent and storied tire manufacturers in the world. Michelin claims that compared to the previous A/S 3+ model, the new AS4 features a 10% improvement in snow traction, 5% better wet braking and 4% better dry braking, and goes even further, claiming them to be the “ultimate everyday tire” for drivers who experience all four seasons.
Impressive claims, but can Michelin really win over a hardcore track day, drift junkie and tire nerd like yours truly?
Mounting and balancing the Michelins was uneventful, with them requiring minimal balancing weight. Sized 235/45R17, the AS4 fit squarely on my 8.5” wide test subject wheels, without a hint of sidewall stretch.
Interestingly, Michelin has infused this latest tire compound with high levels of silica, an ideology used in track tires, which can impact the way a tire grips into rougher pavement. This is immediately apparent when touching the tread, as it will catch your palm and stick to your hand — a fun little indicator of its on-road adhesion.
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Just like a fresh pair of shoes, brand new tires need a few miles, or heat cycles, put on them before they break in, so the following few days were spent getting a feel for the Michelins as they loosened up. Some hard charging through Los Angeles’ myriad winding mountain roads helped accelerate this process.
Initial impressions proved to be positive, with the AS4 being a very quiet tire on the open road. Behind the wheel of my modified BMW 135i the only perceptible road noise comes from freeway expansion joints, otherwise, now, the only thing heard is twin-turbo straight-six goodness.
The Michelin’s refinement also comes with a slight reduction in NVH — noise, vibration and harshness — that can often cause automotive engineers to pull their hair out. Better able to iron out some of LA’s more harsh roadways, it felt as if the tires had added some fresh life into the BMW’s shock absorbers.
However, this is Drive Break Fix Repeat, and knowing very clearly what this audience cares about, canyon time was imperative with the Pilot Sport All Season 4.
Here, it’s worth noting a very fun fact about the AS4: these are the standard tire equipped on the C8 Corvette. Yes, really, if you skip the optional Z51 pack, your shiny, new mid-engine supercar killer will sport a set of AS4s on it. That means the Corvette team developed the C8 around these tires, which is promising in and of itself.
Michelin also benchmarked key competitors like the Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS, and Pirelli P Zero All-Season Plus amongst other tires often found as the OEM choice for higher-end and luxury car brands.
All of this explains the solid on-road performance of the 540-treadwear All Season 4 tires. Some initial sidewall squirm was noted as the tire loaded up in the corners, so tire pressures were adjusted to 38 psi cold up front and 36 psi rear and then they were ready to party. There is still a bit of squish felt through the steering, a compromise of the asymmetrical tread design, with the inner half of the tire really focused on wet weather performance and being able to evacuate water from the tread, but the overall lateral grip is impressive.
Similarly, despite the conservative tire sizing on the 135i, designed to keep the car loose and able to do fun low speed slides, the Michelins can withstand full throttle in first and second gear without breaking traction unless requested via clutch kick. Handling 400+ horsepower through a short wheelbase and an admittedly undersized tire is an impressive feat.
Michelin claims to have produced the ultimate everyday tire with its new Pilot Sport All Season 4, and it would seem that for many drivers they have hit the mark. Quiet, refined and sufficiently grippy when the going gets twisty, the AS4 has impressed this skeptic.
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