The New BMW M5

[Nastaliq]

I was at a parking lot oogling a White one. It looks lovely in white and much better in person. It actually gave me that "wow" reaction as it rolled in.
One thing i always notice is how it looks like an evolution of an E60. The more i see it the more i think its one of the better looking New Gen M cars.

The owner came and we had a nice car convo.
He said he doesn't notice the weight driving a round the city, and for short drives he uses it in EV mode.
When he started it it the ICE engine sounded good.

Interestingly the car came from Factory with Hankook tires. He said he doesn't mind as he plans on replacing them and then probably getting Pilot sports.He said you can chose from 3 sets of tires Pirelli P Zero, Continental SportContact 7 or the Hankooks. I thought it was interesting the Michelin's aren't standard on it.

From my own research it appears each manufacturer uses vastly different recipes when they cook rubber. This means vastly different things then, when it comes to tyre grip, hydroplaning and handling/sound performance etc.

Therefore, some brands are chosen above others for certain markets for the same exact car depending on the above characteristics.
I cant make up my mind on whether hankooks as BMW brand tyres is a good thing for us or not, as has been mentioned beofre, the association with BMW is likely to inflate the prices.

I find Pirellis very hard compared to Bridgestones and Michelin.
The longevity on Hankooks fitted to a car like this will be interesting to see.

In the end, BMW starred tyres are not cheap and I dont imagine that star has everything to do with performance etc, but endorsements/brand positioning etc more than anything else.

 

[TurboLlew]

The same thing happened with Kumho on Porsche's base model Macans. Not throwing shade at them or the Hankooks: and I've had them and even tracked specific models when I had my S2000, but this is just going to shift them from a mid-tier tyre brand into a higher priced one and I think nobody wins having fewer options. With Kumho it was more of a marketing thing than anything else and I heard many times from people and shops that 'even Porsche is using them'... without an N rating in sight for anything in the shop...

The tyres designed for specific models of car are a different animal and that specific Hankook is fine on the M5 (apart from looking terrible, but then again with BMW these days, beauty is in the eye of the beholder LOL). The rest of the lineup that you'd buy in a tyre store with no rating is totally different... and the version on the M5 certainly shares no DNA with the Hankook someone is going to try to sell you for your rep-mobile. There have been claims that journos were not allowed to publish test data with the hankooks, but to be honest whether that is true or not, I can't imagine driving an M5 with PSS5s or P Zero Rs and thinking anything different (positive or negative) than driving the one I did with Hankooks. The M5 has other problems and I don't think tyre brand/spec is a huge one... it is still a very fast car that those tyres can definitely handle on the road. The PS S5 is definitely an option for the G9x - there were issues at the start of production IIRC where Michelin had not yet produced enough of them. There are cars driving around already with these (granted some owners may have changed them...)

Somewhat on this topic, the P Zero Corsas for instance that are on my F90 and are star rated are very much like a regular road tyre (despite having a 60 treadwear rating to convince CS buyers that they have a race car LOL - this is another thing that means absolutely nothing comparing between brands). By contrast, the ones that you would find on a 488 that are K2 rated even feel different to the touch (and might be a 'real' soft compound). The 200TW Cup 2s on my Alfa are even 'softer' than the 60TW Corsas.

There is no blanket rule for 'brand x is harder or softer' anymore - they all vary by model, the various other ratings and tuning for the brand (stiffer or softer sidwalls, different 'fit' for a given size etc). I think all the brands are also constantly improving and the landscape is quite different from a couple of years ago where Michelin was the default for these sorts of things. These model specific things are also getting crazier and more specific with things like certain models of Porsche getting tyres with better heat ratings on the inner bands of the rears because of the way air and heat are channeled for that specific model.