Typically high performance tires don’t have the best treadware rating. The stickier the tire, the faster it usually wears. However, there are some high-performance tires that have high treadware ratings and, in this new video from Tyre Reviews, we get to see which of them is best. However, what’s more interesting than the tires themselves was the car they’re tested on — an E36 M3 Lightweight.
The reason an E36 M3 Lightweight was used in this test because the test was conducted at Michelin’s proving grounds in South Carolina and their test car is the aforementioned Lightweight. It has about a zillion track-tested miles on it but it’s still the car that Michelin uses to test its tires. Ironically, no Michelin tires are tested in this video because Michelin doesn’t have a 200tw (treadware) rated performance tire, which is what this test is for.
In this test, eight different tires were tested on the E36 M3 Lightweight: the BFGoodrich Rival S 1.5 (BFGoodrich is a Michelin brand), Cooper RS3 RS, Dunlop Direzza ZIII, Falken Azenis RT660, Hankook Ventus RS4, Kumho Ecsta V730, Maxxis Victra VR1, and the Yokohama Advan A052.
This video isn’t super BMW-related but we’ll use any excuse to post a video of an E36 M3 Lightweight lapping a track, for literally any reason at all. Also, it helps if you’re looking for a performance tire but need one that can handle up to 60,000 miles worth of use.
If you’re curious about the E36 M3 Lightweight, it was a special edition model that used a hand-picked 3.0 liter striaght-six engine with 240 horsepower, five-speed manual gearbox, shorter final drive for the rear-differential, a lowered sport suspension, and a plethora of aerodynamic bits. It was also stripped-out and lighter than the standard M3, hence the name, and was designed to be the sharpest, most engaging M3 of them all. Check out this video to watch it put a bunch of tires to the test.
