Tyres for 2009 V8 Vantage what happened to potenza?

[steveatesh]

My Vantage needs four new tyres and due to low mileage it's been a long time since I bought them! So out of touch. The original were Bridgestone Potenza, but a quick look at Black Circle shows they dont come up anymore.

I see Bridgestone PS and other makes too.

Are the Bridgestone PS the replacement for Potenza or is there a better type to consider in the premium tyre brands for my car?

[Calinours]

Absolutely. There have been available far better tyres than the OE things for a very long time. If yours are old, worn, and started as the awful hard OE Bridgestones then get ready for a revelation when you fit new decent tyres.

Most on the forum will point you straight to Michelin Pilot Sport 4, as would a certain well known bald headed you tubing VH Aston specialist. A few owners are now reporting that the latest Contis are the equal of the still excellent but now aging PS4/S range.

I fitted PS4S to mine and couldn’t believe the difference they made to levels of mid corner grip, turn in, driver confidence and overall car feel. Highly recommended.

Edited by Calinours on Saturday 2nd December 10:09

[Nbgring]

You need to look for Bridgestone Potenza Sport which is their new and excellent tyre.
If you search for the right sizes you will obtain a full list of tyres. Just scroll down to the expensive ones until you find them

https://www.bridgestone.co.uk/car-tyres/summer-tyr...
https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/bridgestone/potenza-sport/285/35/R19/Y/103/f?tyre=42633997
https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/bridgestone/potenza-sport/245/40/19/Y/98/f?tyre=41860133
https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/bridgestone...
https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/bridgestone...

[steveatesh]

Cheers guys

[Jon39]

Has the new Michelin Pilot Sport 5 any relevance to Vantage owners?
I think that tyre is OEM on the DB12.

[Nigel_O]

Whan I bought my V8V in October '21 it had Bridgestone potenzas fitted. they had plenty of tread, so I assumed I'd be OK for a couple of years.

After a couple of months, I was beginning to wonder why the PH collective was raving about the Vantage's handling - I was findiing it a bit wayward and imprecise - always a feeling of never quite being connected with the road, as if all the wishbone bushes were soft. Tipping it into a bend always took at least two bites of the steering and usually a good few corrections once in the bend - not very confidence inspiring...

Soon afterwards, I was cleaning the car and I noticed the date stamp. Rears were eight years old and the fronts were 11 years old Schoolboy error not to notice it when I bought the car, otherwsie I'd have negotiated a bigger discount.

I already know what I would be fitting when the Bridgstones came off - a set of PS4S went on (less than £800 for the set IIRC) and even with my knackered OE suspension, the change in the behaviour of the car was amazing. It felt like a big version of the Westfield I also had at the time (which is about right - three times the weight and just over 2 x the power). The turn-in was amazing and the mid-corner feel was off the scale.

Tyres are almost always the best money spent / car improvement ratio it's possible to have on a car (apart from bypassing the boost restriction on a turbo'd lump, but that tends to be short-lived...)

[john ryan]

I have Potenza Sports on my 07 V8V - very happy with them. New tyres of course always feel much better than old tired ones.

Edited by john ryan on Friday 1st December 14:52

[Import]

I am running continental extreme contact sport on mine..so far I like them…

[TeddS]

Here's a vote for the Michelin PS4S's. Put them on my V12VS and it was a drastic improvement over the OEM Pirrelli's.

[Calinours]

Here’s perhaps one of the more detailed and authoritative tests of all the ultra sport offerings.

https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2022-Tyre-Revi...

It confirms pretty much what is stated by contributors on this corner of PH - the now aging PS4S is just starting to be slightly shaded by newer offerings from Bridgestone, Continental and Goodyear in terms of the all important dry handling and braking performance. However, it’s not by much, and the trusty PS4S is still up there with the very best in wet handling and braking. Where the PS4S continues to outperform the other heavyweights is in comfort and noise, and it still has the lowest rolling resistance of any of the heavyweights.

This overall still near benchmark performance combined with edging the others on comfort and noise is why I would continue to recommend the Michelin PS4S for owners of Aston Martins. I personally don’t recognise these comments about feel, for me the Michelins work absolutely brilliantly on my Vantage, but I haven’t tried the Conti Sport 7s or the Potenzas. Interesting that these are the exact 3 tyres recommended by the owners on this thread.

Interesting that a couple of the cheaper tyres outperform the heavyweights in aquaplaning resistance, though the PS4S was again the best of the top drawer tyres..

PS5 too new for any decent comparative tests, though I think we can probably expect that it will firmly put the Michelin offering back on the top of the tree, not that it apparently ever left. It will probably carry a bit of a cost premium, if available in the sizes needed for the older cars. I personally can’t wait to try the PS5 on my DB11, as I suspect that many of the DB12’s handling improvements over essentially the same car that were raved about by the journalists to be down to that tyre. Remember the DB11 was launched with rubbish hard Bridgestone tyres, which was surely a mistake.

Edited by Calinours on Saturday 2nd December 10:22

[LTP]

Jon39 said:

Has the new Michelin Pilot Sport 5 any relevance to Vantage owners?
I think that tyre is OEM on the DB12.

I've had a quick look through the sizes available on BlackCircles and Camskill in the UK and (talking VH V8 Vantage) It got a little complicated so I made a quick chart - size available marked with an 'X'



Note that you couldn't necessarily get all indicated sizes from both suppliers

According to the Michelin website they do make the PS5 all four sizes but they may not be offering all of them in Europe. Just like they don't the PS4S

The other consideration is that I believe the Pilot Sport 5 is a replacement for the Pilot Sport 4, not the Pilot Sport 4S; that will be replaced by the Pilot Sport S5

[bogie]

How are owners of >MY 2012 onwards Vantages with wider wheels running Michelins ? according to chart above you need to run a mixed set

or maybe go 10mm wider to V12 Vantage sizes 255/35 and 295/30 ?

[Nbgring]

Jon39 said:

Has the new Michelin Pilot Sport 5 any relevance to Vantage owners?
I think that tyre is OEM on the DB12.

The new Michelin high performance tyre is the PILOT SPORT S 5.
Available in few 21'' sizes, special versions for AMG, AML and Porsche, like 325/30ZR21.
Not available in 19'' sizes...

Edited by Nbgring on Saturday 2nd December 11:43

[Nbgring]

bogie said:

How are owners of >MY 2012 onwards Vantages with wider wheels running Michelins ? according to chart above you need to run a mixed set

or maybe go 10mm wider to V12 Vantage sizes 255/35 and 295/30 ?

The V8 models have rims 8.5 (front) and 10'' wide - which is already on the narrow side for the standard 245-40 R19 and 285-35 R19.
The sizes 255-35 R19 and 295-30 R19 from the V12S would require the wider rims 9'' (front) and 11'' (rear) wide.

Anyway, since the Bridgestone Potenza Sport and the Continental SportContact 7 outperform the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, it is not quite as painful that Michelin will not deliver matching sizes?

[LTP]

bogie said:

How are owners of >MY 2012 onwards Vantages with wider wheels running Michelins ? according to chart above you need to run a mixed set

or maybe go 10mm wider to V12 Vantage sizes 255/35 and 295/30 ?

In places like the US Michelin do sell the PS4S in the required 245/40 ZR 19 XL. Alternatively I have seen at least one later Vantage with PS4 on the front and PS4S on the rear. A last resort would be to go even wider (or narrower) on the front axle as both the 235/40 ZR 19 and the 255/40 ZR 19 are available in Europe.

I have a recollection that when AML increased the tyre sizes with the introduction of the 4.7S they only increased the width of the rims on one axle, but without research I can't recall if I'm right or on which axle.

One final and personal observation: as the handbook clearly states the required tyre size per model I wouldn't want to fit a non-specified profile, even if a tyre application chart showed the profile was suitable for the particular rim width, as if anything happened and it was picked up your insurance company might get upset (unauthorised modification?) and the law might be interested, leaving the onus on you to prove that the tyre fitted was suitable. But you do you.

Edited by LTP on Saturday 2nd December 12:24

[bogie]

Nbgring said:

The V8 models have rims 8.5 (front) and 10'' wide - which is already on the narrow side for the standard 245-40 R19 and 285-35 R19.
The sizes 255-35 R19 and 295-30 R19 from the V12S would require the wider rims 9'' (front) and 11'' (rear) wide.

Anyway, since the Bridgestone Potenza Sport and the Continental SportContact 7 outperform the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, it is not quite as painful that Michelin will not deliver matching sizes?

Yep next time I change tyres I will try the new Bridgestone's, they get great reviews

[steveatesh]

Great info thanks everybody for the links and the charts, really appreciate it

[V8V Pete]

LTP said:

I have a recollection that when AML increased the tyre sizes with the introduction of the 4.7S they only increased the width of the rims on one axle, but without research I can't recall if I'm right or on which axle.

8.5/9.5 for the earlier Vantages with 235/40 & 275/35
8.5/10 for the S and later Vantages with 245/40 & 285/35
9/11 for the V12 & V12VS with 255/35 & 295/30

The V12 size tyres are available in PS4S so getting a set of V12 rims for your V8 Vantage is one solution. Main Dealers always used to say that they don't fit without spacers but I've been running V12 wheels on my V8S with no spacers for 6 years now with no problem whatsoever so this obviously isn't really true.

[LTP]

V8V Pete said:

8.5/9.5 for the earlier Vantages with 235/40 & 275/35
8.5/10 for the S and later Vantages with 245/40 & 285/35
9/11 for the V12 & V12VS with 255/35 & 295/30

The V12 size tyres are available in PS4S so getting a set of V12 rims for your V8 Vantage is one solution. Main Dealers always used to say that they don't fit without spacers but I've been running V12 wheels on my V8S with no spacers for 6 years now with no problem whatsoever so this obviously isn't really true.

Thanks Pete. So this implies a good case for going 235/40 ZR19 EL for the front on later V8V's if you wanted PS4S, as it was a standard fitment on earlier Vantages on that same rim width - unless anyone knows a technical reason they might have increased the section (other than Stylist group wk and Golden Ratios between the tyre section and the increased tailgate spoiler height ).

As for not fitting V12V widths on a V8V? Wild stab in the dark and I'd say it could be snow chain clearances, which is why you wouldn't have a real-world problem.

[Nbgring]

LTP said:

Thanks Pete. So this implies a good case for going 235/40 ZR19 EL for the front on later V8V's if you wanted PS4S, as it was a standard fitment on earlier Vantages on that same rim width - unless anyone knows a technical reason they might have increased the section (other than Stylist group wk and Golden Ratios between the tyre section and the increased tailgate spoiler height ).

As for not fitting V12V widths on a V8V? Wild stab in the dark and I'd say it could be snow chain clearances, which is why you wouldn't have a real-world problem.

If you go for 235/40 R19 for the front, you would need to go for 275/35 R19 for the rears.
The situation with Michelin is actually a good case to move to the US, where the 245/40 R19 are available.