Michelin is producing custom-engineered tires for Ford's performance vehicle line-up, including Focus RS.
Few events highlight the importance and fun of what car owners can do to their vehicles to make them go faster and look cooler than SEMA. However, Ford is using the show as a springboard to highlight what all of that speed and coolness ride on: tires.
Ford announced that Michelin is now the exclusive provider of custom-engineered tires for the maker’s performance vehicle line-up at the show in Las Vegas.
Michelin will provide tires for the Ford GT, Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT350R Mustang, Fiesta ST, Focus ST and RS and F-150 Raptor.
“We have a long relationship with Michelin, and could not ask for a better teammate to help extract maximum capability from our vehicles,” said Dave Pericak, director, Ford Performance. “That confidence extends from our upcoming racing effort at Le Mans in 2016 with the all-new Ford GT, to the Ford Performance vehicle lineup, including Shelby GT350 and F-150 Raptor.”
(Ford earnings up 128%, but miss Wall St. targets. For more, Click Here.)
Michelin is providing tires for Ford's performance car portfolio, including the Mustang GT350.
Engineers from Ford and Michelin will work in concert to produce tires are essentially tuned to that particular vehicle. They’ll meet a wide range of performance targets developed to maximize the performance of each vehicle on the Performance team roster.
In addition to its racing support, Michelin will provide both standard and optional tire fitments for Ford Performance production vehicles, including the all-new Ford GT (Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2), Shelby GT350 (Michelin Pilot Super Sport), Shelby GT350R (Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2), Focus RS (Michelin Pilot Super Sport; Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 on the optional forged 19-inch wheels), Focus ST (Michelin Pilot), Fiesta ST (Michelin Pilot) and the upcoming 2017 F-150 Raptor (BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2).
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“Our tire development teams are excited to be working hand-in-hand with Ford on these amazing vehicles,” said Thom Roach, vice president, original equipment marketing, Michelin North America.
“The Michelin Pilot tires and BFGoodrich T/A KO2 tires on Ford Performance vehicles are all custom-tuned to help maximize vehicle performance on multiple fronts.”
(Click Here for more about Ford’s plans for SEMA.)
In addition to the tires, Ford’s displaying a variety of vehicles at the show from its Edge, Explorer, F-150, Mustang, Focus and Fiesta line-ups, ranging from a 900-horsepower four-cylinder EcoBoost-powered Mustang to a 400-hp, track-ready Fiesta ST to a go-anywhere, Leer Edition Outdoorsman F-150.
A custom tire can enhance a vehicle’s performance numbers enough to give it a minor statistical leg up on the competition. The problem of course is stickier tires tend to wear faster, ride firmer and cost a very high price when replacements are required. So while a car maker might pay $5 more per tire consumers could easily pay $100 more for these special tires over a similar high performance tire. Three hundred dollars plus per tire is becoming common on special models of Corvettes, Mercedes and many other performance oriented cars.