Just got the new set of Michelin Super Sports on my 355. OEM sizes all round....225/40 and 265/40. Is 1.9 bar front and 2.1 bar rear the best pressures to go for for normal street use or do you guys run different pressures? The tyre shop felt that these pressures were on the low side and could make the sidewalls flex...the manual for my 355 says these pressures are good for Michelins however.
I agree that the Michelins have soft sidewalls and don't handle very well at the pressures recommended for the original tires. I've got PS2's not Super Sports, but I tend to run them at about 10% over the pressures recommended by the owner's manual.
Interesting. That must be a newer manual, since it mentions Michelin Pilots. Interesting thing is I've always seem higher pressures listed for the front and lower for the rear. This is the first time I've seen a lower pressure called for on the front and higher on the rear, for the 355.
You can adjust your suspension so that you can run 32PSI front and rear with almost any brand of tires that fit the wheels (mostly by ride height adjustments.) Now, given that tire technology has come a long way in 20 years since these cars were manufactured, at best, the manual will only get you into a "non stupid" area of tire pressure. The image shown illustrates how sensitive these cars are to tire pressure in general and indirectly to suspension settings.
My car is a 1998. I don't think they revise the manuals do they? They certainly did not revise the sticker on the inside door jam. I'm also pretty sure my car came with Pilot sports because I recall seeing them on the window sticker.
That is interesting. For all tyres except the Michelins it's showing higher pressure on the front than rear.
The lowered front pressures indicate that they (F) are trying to reduce traction at the front and thus induce understeer inorder to neutralize some handling characteristic of the tire.
When I talked to Michelin, they recommending 36/36 for the F355. This is what I am running on mine. One cannot rely on the door jamb sticker since current tires use different and higher tech compounds and can handle higher pressures than those of 1995 - 1999.
