Sport handling is one of the main characteristics of high-performance tires such as firestone Firehawk Indy 500 Vs Michelin Pilot Super Sport. These tires are designed for maximum traction and provide as much contact to the surface to improve the vehicle’s performance. They are ideal for drivers who want a sporty driving experience. If you also have the same goal, let’s see which tire will be the better choice here.
In this comparison we are going to talk about:
- What is Summer High Performance Tire
- What are Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport
- What are the Features of Firehawk Indy 500
- What are the Features of Michelin Pilot Super Sport
- How are the Dry Performance of Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport
- How are the Wet Performance of Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport
- How are the Fuel Efficiency of Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport
- Firehawk Indy 500 Vs Michelin Pilot Super Sport
Summer High Performance Tire
A tire is the extension of our car that generates traction and makes the vehicle tackle various roads or surfaces—choosing an ideal set of tires includes considering what type of application the vehicle is used for and what type of driving performance you want to have. Different sets of tires will most likely deliver a different driving experience, and the best tire should match the working condition of your vehicle. Due to different demands, manufacturers can make tires with varying characteristics.
Some people may want high versatility, while some want the best handling and road performance. All-season and summer or high-performance tires will be ideal for vehicles that primarily drive on the road. What are summer high-performance tires? They are tires developed for high-performance cars or those who want the handling characteristics. They aim for speed and agility, so the tires are very responsive to your input. These performances are achieved from designing the compound and tread patterns that allow for such qualities.
Summer high-performance tires are often expensive, so are they worth it? It can be subjective based on the driver’s preference, but if you wish for sports handling, a set of good summer tires will be a great pair. They offer an excellent grip on the road during warmer weather or on damp surfaces. What to note is that usually, they will wear faster due to the higher contact of surface to the ground, which makes them leave lots of rubber on the road.
About Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport
No single answer will satisfy everyone, so it is wise to match the choice with what you want to have. Overall, all-season is best for road versatility and traction and yearlong, while summer high-performance tires are great for sports handling and mild weather. We recommend summer tires with their maximum grip if you wish to improve handling. Summer tires tend to be quite expensive for their sports qualities, but it doesn’t mean there are no cheaper alternatives.
The performance will always vary, and sometimes the cheaper tire may offer a greater value, such as between Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport. We are sure most people will recognize what these tires are categorized based on their naming. Firehawk may not be as famous as Michelin when it comes to their performance tire, but this brand is part of Bridgestone, so you may be able to find similar tires in their collection. What’s interesting is Firehawk is almost always cheaper.
Cheaper doesn’t always mean bad because, in our opinion, the main difference between Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport is their price. Performance-wise these tires are impressive, but as you can guess, the latter is quite an expensive choice here, so if you want to optimize the budget and don’t want to neglect experience, the Indy 500 is an ideal option. Does it mean the SuperSport is a bad option? No, Michelin Pilot tires are always some of the best high-performance tires in the market.
However, it seems that Michelin is already replacing the Pilot Super Sport with their newer Pilot Sport 4S, which is an upgrade to the tire’s versatility. In comparison between Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport, we think Pilot Sport is still a better high-performance or Max performance tire. Still, the gap is probably not as significant to make the considerable price difference. If you want the best of the two, Michelin is still leading the game.
Firehawk Indy 500 Features
Tires are not just rubber with a distinct pattern, but they are engineered to fulfill the tasks. Indy 500, as the name suggests, is inspired by the racing performance, and this tire is available in a brand version like what you can check in our Firehawk Indy 500 Vs Bridgestone RE003. The compound is made of silica and Long Link Carbon rubber. The tire has this quite aggressive look that we find many people are fond of. It is asymmetric with large independent shoulder blocks. The design should improve cornering and handling for dry roads.
It has center circumferential grooves with Pulse Groove Technology for water evacuation, combined with two additional circumferential grooves to enhance water evacuation and improve stopping distance, even on wet surfaces. The internal structure of the Indy 500 is made of a high-turnup polyester casing or two plies in some sizes with twin high-tensile steel belts beneath it. It is joined with nylon reinforcement to give you responsive handling and high-speed ability.
Michelin Pilot Super Sport Features
Pilot Super Sport has a significant history in its career. They were first introduced as Original Equipment for some of the most sophisticated high-performance vehicles, including the limited-edition Ferrari 599 GTO. It is a Max performance tire, similar to P Zero from Pirelli or the Goodyear Eagle F1. This tire is developed for racing, focusing on long tread wear and featuring asymmetric tread pattern molded into Michelin’s Bi-Compound. This is their unique rubber inspired by Le-Mans dry compound.
The tire features twin steel belts combined with a spirally wound Twaron cord on the internal structure. Twaron is a polyamide cord, but it is lightweight and offers high strength above steel belts for high-speed application and durability. This technology also reduces the tire’s weight to be comparatively 10% lighter than similar tires of the same size. In some sizes, the Pilot Super Sport is available with Michelin Acoustic Technology, a sound-dampening feature.
Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport on Dry Road
Are Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport good? Yes, both of these tires offer an impressive driving experience. There is nothing we can complain about for their dry road performance. The tires are very responsive, typical of summer tires, so small inputs are enough to drive them. They are almost identical on hand and very comfortable too. There is no issue with keeping the vehicle on a straight track, but some people may have to get used to how responsive they are.
Surprisingly, these tires also suffer from one minor drawback, and it is about the stiff compound. Smooth roads and pavement are not a problem, but uneven surfaces will give the driver or passenger quite a bit as they feel stiff.
Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport on Wet Road
In our opinion, what is noticeably different from Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport is their wet road handling. While Indy 500 is impressive on a dry road, this tire tends to be aggressive on damp roads. This is too much for our liking because water naturally decreases traction, and when there is less grip, the tire becomes harder to control. This results in drivers constantly figuring out how far they can drive the tire before it becomes unsafe.
This is not an issue with the Pilot Super Sport because while the traction is not as excellent as when it was on a dry road, the steering feels almost identical. It is still responsive and easy to control, so drivers have complete freedom over their performance. As for winter applications, we think you can still drive them when transitioning to colder weather, but they are not made for snow or ice, so we may have to change the tire.
Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport Fuel Efficiency
Lastly, for the fuel consumption, this may not be the main concern for high-performance tire drivers but can be good information on how much they set you back. Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport are not far different here, with projected fuel consumption around 519 gallons per 15,000 miles for Indy 500 and 515 gallons for the SuperSport. As a performance tire, Firehawk and Michelin can only put a 50,000 miles tread warranty for these tires, which is lower than typical A/S variants.
Firehawk Indy 500 Vs Michelin Pilot Super Sport
The Firehawk Indy 500 and Michelin Pilot Super Sport are good options if you want a responsive tire or get sporty handling on both dry and wet roads. The dry road performance is very similar, and they share some issues with being stiff on bumpy roads. The wet performance is the main difference because it becomes hard to control the Indy 500 on the damp road as it is not as stable and confident as Pilot Super Sport, which behaves the same as on the dry surface.
| Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 | Michelin Pilot Super Sport |
|---|---|
| - Ultra high-performance tire | - Max high-performance tire |
| - Very affordable | - Expensive |
| - Weaker wet road performance | - Excellent on dry and wet roads |
Conlcusion
The price difference may affect your buying decision, but if the goal is to get the most out of the budget, we still recommend the Indy 500. It is very affordable, and unless you drive aggressively, this tire is a good all-rounder as a high-performance variant.
