I’m looking at changing the rear tyres on an Aston Martin, the fronts are still almost new! The tyres are Pirelli PZero all round at the moment.
So, I’ve been hearing lots af good things about Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2S & 4S and think this is the way to go when changing tyres! So my questions to you knowledgeable lot is, can I change the rear tyres for now and wait for the fronts to wear out then change them? Or would I be risking some catastrophic event changing to different brands on different axles?
What are better in the Michelin line up? I believe they are now upto sport 5’s?

The car is only ever used on road and at the higher end of the spectrum when travelling through Europe. Often at sustained high speed…

Thanks all in advance…

Happy New Year

My thoughts would be that if you have to ask the question, you know the answer Craig. Will you feel happy at those sorts of speed with tyres that you think may not be a good idea to use....  Pete

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2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
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Craig, not sure what model you have, but my 2018 Vanquish S has pirelli tyres, they are specific to the Vanquish S, I would steer clear of anything that's not designed specifically for the car personally. Tyres might fit but are they recommended is the question? especially if speed is your aim. I know with Vanq s the Pirelli was specifically developed for the set up of the car. They have an AML code on them.

Works Service always told me that i should stick with the same on both axles and steer clear of anything that's not recommended by AML, and never mix them unless i had a death wish. Even though I never buy tyres from them, so nothing to gain. I trust the guys up there as they have looked after me for 20+ years. I personally wouldn't move away from Pirelli is my 10pth for what its worth. Also first thing I look at on a car is the tyres.

Whilst I am a strong believer in the tyres are the only point of contact between you and the road, for on road driving with premium brand manufacturers I doubt even on an autobahn you come any where near to the point of making a difference. letters not necessarily in the right order

I've leant this lesson the hard way......

Ultimately, different tyres have different characteristics in different conditions. So whilst it all feels fine on a nice dry day, there's that one cold, wet day when you go into a corner a bit faster than you really should have What happens then is that one set let go before the others - so instead of that progressive understeer that you usually have, you now have a super snappy oversteer.
Me, not being a driving god, was not able to react quickly enough.

Once the car was all fixed up again - I went on a track / test day at MIRA on the wet handling circuit. Thats a low grip circuit with sprinklers for good measure. The instructor told me my car was almost undriveable - that's when the penny actually dropped as to what had happened - we swapped the tyres around and the car went from an oversteering monster to one that could hardly get round a corner as it just wanted to go straight. I became a spectator / passenger for the rest of the day.

Needless to say, I've never mixed tyres since, even on a FFRR. On most cars in most conditions, I'm sure it doesn't matter at all - but you'll always have that nagging doubt which stops you enjoying driving quickly......

Mixing tyres is OK within reason mate on any car. As long as your getting very similar tyres and your not sticking winter tyres on the back and summer tyres on the front. Me personally on a car like that, I'd change all 4 of them in one go, get the other two tyres back and flog them off on ebay so you'll get something back for them

Think it's all been said, for high performance cars, don't mix tyres across axles and stick to what the car manufacturer recommends! There has probably been a lot of testing carried out! I run cup 2's but mainly in the dry and occasionally on track. Also, if l remember correctly, they have a tread depth of 5mm from new. Not great if your mainly touring!

To fill in some gaps, the car went into Bamford Rose a month or so ago and when I collected the car Mike said “that’s very lively in the handling department! When was the last time it was set up?” As it’s the only DB9 I drive and Mikes the AM professor! I take it on the chin and off I go to our nearest hunter machine and sure enough only one of the little boxes are not RED!!! Ooooops! 🤬 and away the boys go removing the floor and adjusting everything back to perfect!
She now drives tonnes better BUT I have noticed the rear tyres are done!
So, the Pirelli’s on the car now are AML marked, the Michelin’s are also AML marked “hence me asking”
Pirelli used to be the preferred tyres. Times have moved on and Michelin have taken over the crown, so to speak.
The car is a 2007 DB9…

Hi CTC,

My view would be to stick with the Pirelli’s all round, after all the car was developed and tested with the Pirelli’s pre 2007 no doubt for many 100’s of hours back then to provide safe and predictable handling, but can the the same be said for those particular Michelins, -were they AML marked for the DB9 in 2007, for example?

Personally, I’d walk away from any high end vehicle which didn’t have all four premium & matching tyres, it’s the next thing I look at after the body & shut lines, it shows the previous owner cared about the car.

That said, at road speeds, and assuming the car will not be tracked, or driven in a manner not to endanger other road users, perhaps this is all a bit acedemic?  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” -where’s the fun in that?

"That said, at road speeds, and assuming the car will not be tracked, or driven in a manner not to endanger other road users, perhaps this is all a bit acedemic? Whistle Twisted Evil"

Thanks for all the answeres guys... Much appreciated...

Everyone has their own thoughts on this subject, so, here's mine

When I bought my XFR (510bhp, RWD) it had a brand new set of Dunlop SP Sport Max on it. There were the Jaguar tyres with the J on the sidewall and I hated them. I threw them away when they were at 6mm of tread as in anything other than bone dry conditions they were lethal. They weren't that great in the dry either!

After some Googling, I wasn't alone in my findings on those tyres.

I swapped them for a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres and the difference was incredible. I did all 4 in one go and it transformed the car. It gave you the confidence to push on properly whilst using the power and after the change you could drive it semi spiritedly in the wet without it trying to kill you.

For me, my go to tyre on anything with a bit of poke these days is a Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. I know the Pilot Sport 5 is out but that's a replacement for the 4, not the 4S.

Since the tyres for cars like the DB9, Vanquish S, etc. were developed, tyre technology has moved on a lot so if you can get a modern tyre like the PS4S with the Aston logo on the sidewall, that's where my money would be going.

However, depending on the age of the tyres on the car, any new premium rubber could be better then what's on there at the moment.

I buy tyres from a company online in Whitehaven called CamSkill. The chap there is incredibly knowledge on tyres and will quite happily chat to you about them before you make a purchase.

David. 2002 4.6 Vogue SE - Alveston Red with Lightstone Leather
2007 Range Rover Supercharged in Java Black with Ivory Leather
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Tyre sidewall stiffness can vary significantly between brands & specific tyre variants - even on low profile tyres - which if different front rear can lead to some very wierd initial cornering "turn-in" behaviour - especially on something as heavy as an Aston.

I went through a similar exercise on my 966 911 (Rear Wheel Drive & much lighter than an Aston) some years ago & the handling went from pleasant to "not nice at all" & caused me to accelerate the purchase of the remainng tyres to get a matching set.
Cornering turn-in was restored to predictable.
I've only ever changed brands / variants in 1 go since Paul,
2001 Discovery 2 TD5, 211,000 miles & climbing
2006 FFRR TDV8 Vogue 145,000 miles & climbing
Member of Midland (Land) Rover Owners Club, www.mroc.co.uk

dhallworth wrote:

When I bought my XFR (510bhp, RWD) it had a brand new set of Dunlop SP Sport Max on it. There were the Jaguar tyres with the J on the sidewall and I hated them. I threw them away when they were at 6mm of tread as in anything other than bone dry conditions they were lethal. They weren't that great in the dry either!

My XFR came with well worn Nankangs, and it was horrendous in the wet

Some brand new Conti's went on, and it wasn't much better. Suspect that was something to do with the 500bhp

Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, fantastic tyre. Stick them on the rear and then change the fronts to the same as soon as you can I would suggest SDV8