This seems to be turning into a series, these are the 4th tires I've got to try out recently. I compared Goodyear Eagle F1 DS-G3s and Yokohama S.drives, and then added Dunlop Direzza Z1 Sport Star spec, and finished up that review by saying I was going to try Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2s next. I eventually tracked down some PE2s from TireRack and I've been running them on Shawn for a couple of weeks. I have them in 205/50-16 size.

I was interested in the PE2s as by all accounts I could find they performed very well, particularly in the wet, and were very quiet and comfortable. In a sign I'm getting old I started looking at a blend of comfort and performance in my tires rather than just performance like I'd worried about before. Interestingly I found I'd looked into the PE2s before, I found an email from 05 where I'd sent a question to Michelin about PE2s when I was contemplating tire options for Quentin. Back then the PE2s seemed to be too new, so I never did follow up on that.

The upshot is that the tires live up to their billing. They're the most comfortable, almost the quietest, and almost the best performing tire I've tried. There hasn't been any rain here (as is normal) so I can't say about their wet performance yet.

Performance wise the PE2s work great, almost as good as the Direzzas (which are pretty amazing), they don't feel quite as planted as the Direzzas, I might prefer the feel of the F1s, but they feel much better than the S.drives (which just never inspired confidence). They just seem to get on with the job without drama. Of course I took measurements, of the gs the tires could produce. The PE2s fall between the F1/S.drive and the Direzzas, producing more gs than the F1/S.drives, but not quite as much as the Direzzas. With the Direzzas I noticed I could put more power down while cornering (generate more forward acceleration, while peaking the lateral gs), the PE2s also allowed me to get more power down.

One surprise was the braking. On level ground the PE2s outperformed the Direzzas which had significantly outperformed the other tires. I'm seeing upto 1g of braking, where I only managed 0.97g out of the Direzzas. I'm not sure how significant that difference is, or if its just measurement error, but the PE2s certainly produce prodigious braking efforts.

I haven't taken the PE2s to the track, I may never now I have the Direzzas for that. I might take them with me one of these days for contrast. The problem I had with the F1s on the track was the shoulder of the tire got worn excessively, so I've been eyeing the shoulder of the PE2 and wondering how they'd stand up to a track session. You can't really say from just looking, but the PE2s shoulder is quite chunky and subtly contoured, were the F1s had square shoulders which got worn off, the PE2s are quite rounded.

My next major concern is how quiet the tires are. By most accounts the PE2s are very quiet, but its always difficult to tell from sch accounts as people's perceptions vary. There are lots of comments on how quiet the Direzzas are, but I find them noisy. Compared to stock runflats the Direzzas are quiet, but compared to the S.drives (which have spoilt me) they're rather noisy. What was quite worrying was that consumer reports rated then quite average for noise, worse than the F1s which I find rather too noisy. I was expecting the old farts at CR to be able to judge comfort at least, if their judgements on performance are suspect.

The PE2s did live up to their reputation, not to CR's findings, they are indeed very quiet. Much quieter than the F1s and Direzzas, about as quiet as the S.drives, I've been very impressed by the quietness of the S.drives. According to my sound meter (on a standard piece of noisy freeway) the PE2s are only 1db or so louder than the S.drives. I'm not sure the difference is significant, is measurement error or due to being mounted on different MINIs (MC vs MCS). After redoing the sound measurements in Tristan on the S.drives, I find the noise difference has dissapeared. This might be because the S.drives have got louder over the last few thousand miles, or because I have slightly higher tire pressures than before, or maybe because its warmer today. Its difficult to tell.

As for the ride, the PE2s are very comfortable. I find ride comfort is quite difficult to quantify, I usually only notice when it goes away. I was happy with the F1s until I got the S.drives, then I only noticed the difference when I rode on the F1s again and it felt like the wheels were square. Riding on the PE2s, I haven't noticed any discomfort, which I take to means they're comfortable. After driving Tristan again on the S.drives, I might feel a few more bumps with the S.drives, or it could just be my imagination. In any case, the PE2s are a very comfortable tire to drive on.

In my attempt to quantify the ride quality, I've taken vibration measurements with the iPhone. The results from that seem to line up with subjective feel for ride quality. Using this (very dodgy science) the PE2s do indeed look to have a startlingly good ride quality. The measured vibration is significantly less at most frequencies, especially the ones the human body is most sensitive to (in the 4-16Hz range).

This is the graph of measured vibration vs frequency:



And this one compares the data to the S.drives:



My conclusion currently is the PE2s look like the right tire. They may give up a very slight performance edge to the Direzzas, but its only a very slight edge, and if you're not going to the track you'd probably never notice the difference. In theory the Direzzas are a "Max performance" where the PE2s are "only" "Ultra high performance". They may be ever so slightly noisier than the S.drives, but in all other respects the PE2s outperform all the other tires I've tried in every way. Quite impressive.

The PE2s look like they're going to be my standard tire from now on.

 

Thanks for the interesting comparative information.

I had the PE2's on my short list when buying a new set of shoes for my new MCS to supplant the stock S-Winders which I will use as winter wheels. In the end I went with the closeout pricing on the RE-01R in the 205/45R17 size.

Will definitely consider the PE2's down the road however. Agree that quietness is difficult to quantify - I find the RE-01R's to be noisier than the Toyo T1R's I have on an R50 Cooper, but then I am comparing different chassis...

 

Thanks for the review. I've been running PE2 205/45-17 on one set of wheels and Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S 205/55-16 on another set. The Pirelli are quieter than the PE2, but give up a lot of performance for that benefit.

What app did you use for the vibration test on the iPhone?

 

Stangly enough its called "Vibration", it costs $5.