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ED209
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Prototype Michelin tires for the 2014 C7 Corvette Stingray

During the 2013 Grand Prix of Long Beach, I joined my fellow Corvette enthusiasts at the Corvette Coral for the afternoon ALMS race.  Similar to past events Chevrolet and Corvette Racing did a fantastic job of hosting a hospitality area for Corvette owners by providing private parking and a comfortable giant tent with plenty of great food, snacks and drinks.  Throughout the day we could watch the race practice sessions on large flat screen monitors, walk out the grand stands for live racing, visit the vendor areas and also stop by the lifestyle exposition inside the Long Beach Convention Center.  There were plenty of exciting and fun things to do all day.

One of the highlights of the technical presentations in the morning was presented by Michelin Tires.  Before we get into the details, I wanted to mention that I've been following this development over the years and still somewhat sentimental and patriotic towards Goodyear Tires:  An American tire on The premier American sports car.  Stock tires on my prior generation C5 Coupe and my current C6 Coupe have OEM Goodyear Eagle F1 EMT run-flat tires.  But I have to admit that the C5 spec'd tires were good but not outstanding.  My complaints with the tire were slightly rough and loud road noise, and slippery wet road handling due to the stiffness of the run-flat technology.  On my C5 Corvette the first two sets of replacement tires were the OEM Goodyear EMT's.  But the last and current set are the Michelin Pilot EMT's.  I switched because I wanted to try out another brand and see if there were any noticeable improvements.  And from the drivers seat it definitely had better handling, lower road noise and better ride, and most importantly better wet traction.  So I've personally experienced the benefits of Michelin's tire quality versus Goodyear.

As for the Corvette Racing Team, they have been working with Michelin since the 2004 racing season and right after they switched from Goodyear's they won 3 consecutive Le Mans class victories in 2004, 2005 and 2006; and 48 out of 56 ALMS GT1 wins.  Pretty impressive results!  On the C6 Corvette Z06 and ZR1 high performance models Chevrolet decided to arm the sports cars with Michelin's PS2 zero-pressure tires.  The base Corvette's in the C6 generation, like mine, still have Goodyear F1 EMT tires.  The news that was confirmed during the presentation was that starting with the 7th Generation "C7" Corvette, it will be the FIRST TIME  in the 60 year history that the ENTIRE Corvette lineup will fitted with Michelin tires as standard equipment OEM tire.

So during the Michelin technical presentation, Corvette Racing invited engineer Bob Williams to talk to us about the newly created Michelin tires.  Development is approximately 95% completed and we were shown prototype tires that will be close to the production tires.  

For 2014 the Corvette will be wearing Michelin Pilot Super Sport ZP run-flat tires, on 18 x 8.5" front wheels, 19 x 10" rear.  The front size specs are P245/40ZR18 and the rear P285/35ZR19.  Mr. Williams pointed out that their engineering goals were focused on performance but also improved steering response and reduced road noise. 

The C7 Corvette Stingray will have an optional Z51 performance package that will have larger tire specs with 19" front and  20" rears.  Tire specifications are P245/35ZR19 for the front and P285/30ZR20 for the rear.