It was one of the wettest days during Spring when we were welcomed on Circuitpark Zandvoort to take part in the BMW Driving Experience. We were ready to meet seven BMW M5 F10’s and the tires underneath them. In this case, the M5 F10 is delivered on Michelin Pilot Super Sports. This tire is developed for these sort of cars and offers you the perfect handling.
The bi-compound tire consist of a mix of two rubber-compounds. A part for dry roads and one for wet roads. We definitely needed the last part on this day. The rain was falling and we immediately felt that the Super Sports were relatively good. It isn’t as bad as when you’re driving on semi slicks but now and then the car was definitely looking for some grip, especially with the traction control turned off. But this is also due to the 560 hp on the rear wheels. When we drove the car more than a year ago, the weather was great so we had no problems with this. This makes it more fun to meet the M5 again, on a wet track and the slipperly epoxy surface of the driving school. This surface is getting more slippery when it’s wet and that’s when you start to feel how a car reacts when there’s a layer of water on the road. Drifting is getting easier because you only have to floor the pedal a bit.
After a small training under these circumstances it’s time to enter the track. First we went on the track with a row of BMW 1 Series followed by a few laps with the M5. The tires under the 1 Series were very bad so it wasn’t much fun to drive around in this car. After this car we had the M5 with the Michelins, what a difference! Still, we’re confirmed that it must be lovely to drive this car on a dry track. You’ll have endless grip and afterwards you can easily cruise homewards with the same BMW M5!
