Tire Traction Question

[Stevens21234]

I know many on here have criticized the M's ability to accelerate from start resulting in low 5.high 4 second 0 to 60 times. This can be attributed to the traction loss from the tires. My question is, are there a set of tires out there with better grip than the 19" mixed performance tires that comes with the car? And how much of a difference would they make? Or is surface contact area the determining and limiting factor (based on how the car is designed..i.e. it doesn't matter as the surface contact area of other tires would be constant or close to the existing tires)?

[maxd23]

I read in an article somewhere that BMW engineers worked closely with Michelin to design tires that maximized their contact patches given the car's suspension settings/geometry. Having said that, it's pretty safe to assume that putting stickier rubber (NT01, RS3, etc.) will result in greater traction and thus greater acceleration.

[Stevens21234]

Originally Posted by maxd23

I read in an article somewhere that BMW engineers worked closely with Michelin to design tires that maximized their contact patches given the car's suspension settings/geometry. Having said that, it's pretty safe to assume that putting stickier rubber (NT01, RS3, etc.) will result in greater traction and thus greater acceleration.

That's what I assume as well, that treading grip will make a difference. I wonder how much more though. It's also interesting that the M3 mixed performance option tires are $1900 that come with the stock car, about the price of some of these grippier tires. I'm just hoping the mixed performance M3 19" tires are not worse than the Michelin Super Pilots in traction performance.

[paddy335]

When you say "mixed performance", do you mean the Michelin Pilot Super Sports that come standard with the 19"?
The road legal track tyres may be the same price but don't forget they will last about half as long, which in effect makes them double the cost of the PSS.