Welcome! We have a special review for you guys today and I’m excited ’cause get to take a look at some pretty, crazy tires, The Michelin Sport Cup 2. So we are gonna dive into these today and talk about what they are, all the technology that has gone into developing these tires, and why they are such an incredible tire.
Let’s just go ahead and take a look at these guys. So as you can tell from just by looking at it, these are some pretty, thick boys. So what we got here and why we got these in, is because these are going to be going on Alex’s Ferrari at 4:30. They are matched with the ESR Multi-Piece wheels here, and this is a size of 32530-20 so.
So Michelin, even though you probably all remember back in the day the Michelin Man tire commercials throughout like our childhood and all of that kind of stuff, they’ve really done some absolutely incredible things when it comes to their tires and the technology that they’ve been putting into them.
So, the Sport Cup 2 is in the family of the Michelin Pilot Sport series of tires which also includes tires like the Pilot Sport 4S, the Super Sport, and the Pilot Sport All Season 3 Plus. And these are all high or ultra-high performance tires. A lot of people that we see, especially in the Gallery, tend to go with something like the Pilot Sport 4S or the All Season 3 Plus. However, the Sport Cup 2 is like the tire.
It’s like the one, ya know, legendary drop that you wanna get while playing War Zone. Like this is the tire of that series. So just some quick notes on the Sport Cup 2, this tire was actually developed in partnership with the AMG SLS Coupe Black series, the Porsche 918 Spider, and the Ferrari 458 Speciale.
And then maybe one more that you’ve probably heard of, the Porsche 911 GT3. With that being said, there was a ton, and I mean a ton of testing that went into developing the Sport Cup 2.
And with that, a ton of technology was also put into it. Michelin actually labels this tire as a tire that is halfway between track and road. That is actually what they label it as. And it’s actually the last step before you get to just an all out Michelin slick, which is not approved for road use. However, the Sport Cup 2 is.
Let’s get into all the technology that this tire uses. The first thing would be the compound of the tire. The Sport Cup 2 features abide compound technology, which is a distribution of two different types of compounds. And those are different between both the exterior and the interior parts of the tire tread.
So the exterior side, will have a high molecular chain elastomer, which is meant to help with increase circuit wear as well as provide a crazy amount of dry grip in the corners.
Moving in towards the interior side, we have a more rigid elastomer which provides a precise steering and driving control that enthusiasts are going to want out of a high-performance or ultra high performance tire.
So this is all derived from endurance competition driving. Like I said, they test the absolute crap out of these tires before they even think about bringing them to the market, and the Sport Cup 2 was no exception. Paired with that, we also have a reinforced external shoulder here as well.
Now this is gonna help a lot with endurance and track longevity of the overall tire, making sure that you’re going to get the absolute most out of a set of these.
Moving into the tread design here, not a whole lot to talk about other than the fact that this is a very aggressive-looking tire. Absolutely massive tread patches. You’ve got three larges grooves in the center here and then you have not a ton, but you have these sipes on the outer edge. However, the Sport Cup 2, just a quick note, does have a 20% deeper tread depth compared to its competitors. Now let’s see what else we have on this, oh right, the sidewalls!
So this is kinda cool! So Michelin uses a special mold machining process, which has really, ya know, created the appearance. I’ll see if I can turn this, here, here there we go. So, the sidewall, this is really for it’s appearance for the Sport Cup 2 because of this process that they use. Now, they call this their Michelin Velvet Sidewall and it really makes the tires stand out.
And overall, it just really looks good. I mean this is a fantastic looking tire from the sidewalls, to the tread, just to pretty much everything, and it’s even better in the performance that it offers. In 2013 actually, Michelin helped set a new ring record of six minutes 57 seconds around the numbered ring with a 918 Spider. And a lot of that same technology, was brought over into these tires, which the tires that were run on that car were Michelin tires. But they brought that technology over into a tire that can be purchased by the public.
And that in turn, is why we have tires such as the Sport Cup 2 here today, that are both meant for track and street use. Michelin has gone so far as even give the recommended tire pressure for both hot and cold operating temperatures for these tires.
Meaning if the tires are cold, you’ll want to run somewhere between 24 and 26 psi and if they’re hot or warmed up, they can be ran at 33 psi in the front and 36 psi in the rear. So Alex, when you finally get that Ferrari running hopefully, and I hope you’re listening, ya know, take that into consideration. But for typically, for a road use, you’re going to use the cold pressure recommendation, so that lower end of the tire pressure.
But other than that, this is an absolutely fantastic tire. I’m super glad we got to take a look at it today. But all said and done, that’s really all I have on the Sport Cup 2. A lot that’s gone into it, it’s an absolutely amazing performing tire, but there it is. The Michelin Sport Cup 2.
Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you to Michelin for giving us the opportunity to take a look at these and let us learn about them, talk about them, and I can’t wait to see these on the car.
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