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Michelin Premier A-S All-Season Tyre
Michelin Premier A-S All-Season Tyre
Michelin Premier A-S uses new materials
Like many other major tyre companies, Michelin is experimenting with different materials to use in the tyres compound. This is to try and reduce the amount of petro-chemicals that are used in the manufacture of tyres.
Michelin has used a combination of sunflower oil and silica.
The siliThe majority of tyre companies use silica, especially in their winter tyre lines. Silica helps the tyre in wet weather by providing more strength and stability to the tyres
performance, whist the sunflower oil helps the tyre perform well in lower temperature, a mix that goes well in an all-season tyre, helping it to perform in both summer and winter, hence the name all-season.
Most tyres have incorporated sipes and grooves into the tyres tread.
This dissipates the water from the tyre in inclement weather.
As the tyre wears with use, these grooves start to disappear in many makes of tyres; in fact, some tyres, particularly Continental, look like racing slick with 3mm of tread left and would be useless in the wet.
The new Michelin however, has grooves that are spread around the outside of the tread, which become wider as the tyre tread wears out.
This means that the tyre will maintain its grip as it wears down and dissipates water, whereas normally the opposite happens: the tyre loses grip when it wears down.
As the tyre wears, more grooves that have been placed deeper in the tread will start to appear; in fact, there are about 150 extra hidden grooves placed in the central area of the tyre, only showing when the tyre wears down.
This also gives extra grip in wet weather. When the tyre increase its mileage, it gives more stable traction on the road surface.
The Michelin Premier A/S will replace the MXV4 all-season tyre.
All the new developments in this Michelin Premier tyre are known collectively as Ever-Grip technology and it is said that Michelin have been working on the Ever Grip system for many years. The new tyre has been tested against its predecessor and other makes.
The disappointing aspect of the new tyre was the performance in “dry braking”. This was measured as only average when compared to other makes of tyres and actually worse that the MXV4. When a worn tyre was tested the dry stopping distance was even worse, about 10 foot different.
The new Michelin shone out in a wet weather test when water was added to the test track.
The new tyre stopped almost exactly the same in wet weather as it did in dry weather, both with a new tread and a worn tread.
The tests showed that the Premier was miles ahead of its predecessor, the MXV4, all season.
The Premier A/S delivered a safe, predictable stopping performance on dry and wet roads and is largely immune to the effects of tread loss, the tyre performs almost perfectly with a good tread and when the tyre is nearing the end of its treads life.
The new tyre’s rolling resistance was found to be very good, making it a good tyre when it comes to fuel economy. The tyre also performed well when handling ice and snow, and it also did well for hydroplaning resistance.
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This tyre is now discontinued.