A nail to the sidewall just ended the life of a Nitto Motivo tire on my AMG GT S’s rear axle. The unpatchable wound forced the purchase of two new rear tires, much earlier than I was expecting. I didn’t love the Nittos, but they were new, and I planned on roasting them with abandon at a drift school, so I was sad to see them go. (The mismatch in tread depth between the surviving Nitto and the fresh tire would not have been good for the LSD.) I decided to upgrade to Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, my top choice for street rubber.
Surprisingly, the new PS4S meats completely changed the character of my AMG GT S.
The Nitto shod AMG GT S was the drift Benz. The Motivo all-seasons didn’t stand a chance against the twin-turbo engine’s 503 hp. With ESP off, aggressive throttle dips provoked first-gear burnouts and second-gear slides. This made the AMG GT S a little nervous in the corners—especially in the damp!—but gave the car the chuckle-worthy knuckle-dragging character. I thought the more-power-than-grip personality worked well with the black Benz’s bad-boy image and felonious bellow.
Rubber swapped, the Michelin PS4Ss turned my GT S into a circuit racer. Now the power went straight to the pavement; flat-footing the gas resulted in little to no wheelspin. The car’s accelerative shove improved, and through tight second-gear onramps, the rear end stayed locked to the road. Nigh unflappable, the remade GT S reminded me of the road-missile 992 911 Carrera S and taunted me to drive harder and faster.
My GT S’s turn-of-face actually made it more similar to the AMG GT C I first fell in love with. The GT C spun my world around; it was equally fantastic at hooning hairpins and honing racing lines. With Nittos, my GT S had maybe 90% of the GT C’s athleticism but always felt duller and sloppier. No more. The new PS4S rears make my GT S trustworthy and precise, significantly closing the performance gap to the GT C. Good rubber pays big dividends on the GT S!
When I’m not blitzing onramps or (slightly) bemoaning my GT S’s newfound propensity for grip, you may find me smiling on the school run. You see, I finally found a child seat that works with the AMG sports seats. It’s the Diono Radian 3R, a convertible car seat that can fit both infants and elementary-school children, and it is blessedly able to tuck between the GT S’s tight leg and torso bolsters. Curiously and wonderfully, the Mercedes airbag computer recognizes child passengers (via the weight sensor hidden in the seat cushion) and deactivates their airbags.
(In California, it’s legal to mount a child seat in the front of a two-passenger vehicle.)
In this way, I’ve been driving my 5-year-old to school in the GT S. She gets a kick out of riding shotgun, and I love sharing my automotive excitement with her. The only awkward part of the school trip is that I don’t want to show off my flashy Mercedes at drop-off, so I’ve been parking a half block away and walking the last 500 feet!
The last improvement I made to the GT S was the installation of STek paint protection film. The skilled detailers at Immaculate Reflections covered my car’s high-impact surfaces with PPF for $3,500. I bought the PPF to protect against future blemishes, but as it turns out, the glossy PPF hides many of the existing rock chips and repainting flaws. The car looks excellent from six feet away; it’s only when you have your nose to the paint that the defects become obvious.
With its PPF makeup, my GT S has turned into a stunner. It gets compliments everywhere I go. And when it’s freshly washed, you’ll find me staging sunset photoshoots with my black beauty.
Mike's Steering Column 