Michelin importer Tyreline Distributors recently invited a group of media and dealers to the New Zealand launch of the Michelin Latitude HT 4WD tyre and the new Michelin Pilot Sport 3 car tyre at Boomrock on the Wellington coastline.

Unfortunately TyreLine sales and marketing manager Graeme Mead hadn’t expected the 50 knot gale force winds and driving rain which assaulted the venue that day, making the 4WD experience and track circuit even more demanding.

However Kiwi tyre dealers and motoring writers are a hardy bunch and we weren’t deterred from having a test drive of both tyres in some pretty hair-raising conditions.

TyreLine has launched the new Pilot Sport 3 to replace part of its Pilot Sport 2 range, and the new tyre benefits from Michelin’s ongoing technical innovations to deliver a tyre designed for driving pleasure and security in both wet and dry conditions.

The Pilot Sport 3 has been built using Michelin’s  advanced technologies and Formula One racing experience to give better grip while at the same time offering lower rolling resistance (leading to better fuel economy) and longer tyre life.

We drove the cars in monsoon weather, and it was really difficult to get a handle on what was happening underneath us, except that at no stage did we lose grip even in the worst of the almost-horizontal rain when vision was so bad we could hardly see the cones we were trying to drive around.

Even so we managed to set the second fastest time of the day (against one set in much better conditions) and were satisfied that the wet weather capabilities of the tyre, at least, are up to Michelin’s claims.

However, we were more interested in the Michelin Latitude HT (Highway Terrain) tyres fitted to a Mitsubishi Challenger SUV.

Michelin rates this as an 80/20 tyre, e.g, 80 percent on-road and 20 percent off-road, but as Graeme Mead explained, the company always takes a more conservative view to such ratings.

Boomrock has an excellent, though narrow, vehicle test track mainly used for driver training by FleetSafe NZ, a joint business venture between GSB Supplycorp and Boomrock, with an interesting feature the telematics hardware and software it uses to electrically measure driver reaction times and fuel efficiency.

But that’s another story. We were more concerned with Boomrock’s very hillocky countryside with typical short-cropped grass on ground with a clay/soil mixture.

And it was so slippery that it was difficult to keep our footing when we got out of the vehicleto take photographs.

In fact, such were the levels of grip with the new tyre that the safest place was definitely inside the vehicle.

There were places where we drove on sidelings that would have challenged most All Terrain tyres on the market, but the Michelins held on tight, with no hesitation or sideslip.

Steep descents were undertaken without any drama at all with the vehicle in low range first gear, and it was only when we turned around and tried to go back up the churned-up surface that the tyre finally cried “uncle” and we had to do a slipping and sliding failed hill.

We expected that Graeme would have aired down given the conditions, but he explained that he had only dropped pressures to 25 psi.

Part of the reason for this, we feel, is the assymetrical tread pattern which tends to self-clean mud out of the tread and also offers great straight-line stability and excellent sideways grip.

Boomrock is quite far from Wellington airport, so instead of catching the coach back we elected to take the Challenger so we could see how the tyre performed on back road and highway conditions.

There’s only one word: excellent.

As a gravel road tyre it is absolutely superb, giving the Challenger much higher levels of grip than we had encountered before on its standard Bridgestone Duellers.

And once we were cruising on the tar it was obvious to all of us that the Michelins offer a much quieter and smoother ride than the ATs.

Bearing in mind that for most people most of their travelling is on tar, this would seem to offer an excellent combination, offering better grip off-road while at the same time giving car tyre qualities once on the beaten track.