The MXV4 is a piece of crap. It has about as much grip as Christopher Reeve. I tried to push its limits at Watkins Glen a couple years ago and almost died. I think I lost about a quarter of the tread the thing was squealing so much. The MXV4 is a tire designed for low rolling resistance, high tread life and a quiet ride. Those are the attributes that make it utter crap for anything but straight line driving. Not to mention the fact that it hydroplanes constantly.
:stupid:
No one ever said the MXV4 was a performance tire. Like I said before, that tire comes as factory equipment on cars that are not designed for performance, like the Mercedes S-Class and many BMW's, even Camry's and Lexus uses it because it is the best riding tire out there (as I said before, for highway use) The fact that you tried to even put that tire on the track is incredibly amusing. That likens to many tire customers going "gee, I only got 15,000 miles out of my "Z" rated tires, I must have a defect." What were you thinking? You can argue all you want about the ups and down's of the S-03 tire, but the fact remains that it is an O.K. tire at a fair price. If you weren't shopping price, why would you not go to an actual tire store and let them put some tires on your car that you buy from them? Any decent tire store can order that tire. Fact is, you won't find many that carry it in stock. I won't go into why, but lets just say that the truly discriminating customer thinks it's crap. We can continue a pissing contest until we run out of hard drive space--you have your opinions about the tire, we have ours. Fact again, Butler Tire services MOST of the high performance cars in Atlanta, and even though they are a Bridgestone dealer, the S-03 is not a tire that they have ever carried...
Pricing aside, if you really want a tire that handles rain, handles the track, is extraordinarily quiet, and looks good, buy yourself a Michelin Sport Pilot (or Pilot Sport if you like). Remember, you get what you pay for and you pay for what you get. You can't make chicken salad with chicken SH!T.
-poysonivee and co.