See my post #45 above. Yes 1 or maybe 2 flats in a car and 1 on my motorcycle in 49 years. I have this huge magnet dangling in front of my vehicles to catch nails.

 

Funny, the inferences you draw absent any knowledge about the person you're taking shots at. I've been swapping tires (winter/summer/race), prepping for track sessions, maintaining and flying airplanes, boats, cars, and doing home repairs and renovations my entire lifetime. My entire career has been in the very technical, aerospace sector.

To others, a lot of the posts here claiming knowledge of ZP tires is very dated, and there are many apples and oranges comparisons. There are 100s of comparison of Michelin ZP and non-ZP tires of the same tire type on Corvettes, and the overwhelming consensus is no difference in handling, ride quality, or noise on the same tire, ZP vs. non-ZP. I did substantial back-to-back testing of ZP vs. non-ZP Michelin tires on my own Corvettes.

Performance is very important to Corvette, and they go to great lengths to equal or better Porsche performance. When they're developing a new Corvette, they always use a comparable 911 model as a benchmark to each of their variants. The last thing they would do is put an inferior, more poorly performing ZP tire (ride or comfort-wise) as the exclusive offering on all of their models.

As I said above, Michelin ZPs and non-ZPs use exactly the same rubber compounds, tread block pattern, and sidewalls as their non-ZP counterparts. The only difference on the two Michelins is an inner sidewall band, who only job is to support the tire at zero pressure. When inflated it serves no purpose.

Sure if you compare a brand X ZP to a brand Y non-ZP tire, you might find huge difference and draw erroneous apples to oranges conclusions attributed to ZP vs. non-ZP, when that's not the deciding factor at all. Moreover, other manufacturers used to, and perhaps still do, use techniques like thicker sidewalls that could make them harsher. Michelin does not do that.

I love to do the same testing on my C8 with ZPs and my TS back-to-back, but there is not suitable ZP tire for my TS.

 

Have you taken the issue up with the tire companies instead of on Rennlist? That would be a start. And if you are worried about flats, hire a AAA vehicle to follow you around.

And can you stop writing a effing novel on tires.

 

It's the manufacturer that has to take things like this up with the tire companies. If you had read my previous posts, I wouldn't have to continually have to repeat myself responding to you.

It was GM that decided to partner with Michelin to produce ZP tires of equal performance and ride comfort to their non-ZP offerings. They obviously have the clout and volume to make that financially attractive to Michelin. Porsche has not done that.

Your comment about AAA is just plain silly.

I'm not taking anything up with Rennlist. I was hoping to participate in an intelligent discussion. Silly me . . .

 

Really? It took them long enough to catch up and it took engines with far more power to do so. I wonder if GM engineers didn't get a degree from Flunkies 'R Us. The American auto industry are followers and not innovators.

 

Finally did the dismount-mount dance with my center locks. Reason:



It ws leaking only about a pound a week so it wasn't urgent and I had time to get the gear to do the job. I used...

1. Neiko 3/4" socket & breaker bar (Amazon, $95)
2. Neiko 3/4" digital torque meter (Amazon, $80)
3. Castrol Molub-Alloy grease (SunCoast, $35)
4. 2.5 ton floor jack (Harbor Freight, $99 I think)
5. Jack pads (Amazon, $20)

Lots of YouTube...

Went well. Breaking the nut loose took more force than I expected but got it pretty easily with the parking brake set. Grease wasn't in too bad a shape but I added a bit here and there to ensure coverage (tires were put on like 1500mi ago earlier this year). Discount Tire patched for $50 and she's good as new.

I spent in total less than the cost of a new Cup2 from anywhere especially Porsche who is the only place I've found near me who will to CL wheels. I'm happy with the outcome.

 

maybe a dumb question, but I’m dumb — did you take the wheel off and take it to Discount Tire and they patched it, and you reinstalled the wheel yourself? I asked my local discount tire if they deal with CL wheels and he told me I have to bring the centerlock tools for them…

 

Not dumb. That’s precisely what I did, for that reason.