I believe I have finally found Goldilocks' tires. 205/50-16 Michelin Pilot Sports.

When I got the Goodyear GS-D3s, I wished they'd been closer to the weight of the light/fragile Toyos. The Pilot Sports are that compromise, at 20 lbs. They feel better new (full mass) than the GS-D3s (or MXMs) felt after some wear, in terms of how well they mate up with my car's suspension, which requires low unsprung mass for high enough frequency response for the Bilsteins to do their thing, which they are now doing better than ever. I still have very few miles on the tires, so these are very initial driving impressions: Slight sense of vagueness to the steering (nothing serious or even significant; the Toyos were about 10X more vague), great strength with good flexibility (I haven't hammered it yet, but no sense of any "torque steer" which is often really just tire deformation). If the pavement is not smooth, they are noisy.

The Pilot Sports have rim protection (bead offset from sidewall) that the MXMs lacked, but less than the Toyos or especially the Goodyears. The MXMs' sidewalls were more vertical and less bulgey than these, which I think is why the MXMs' ride was thuddier than these Pilot Sports with their bouncier, more vertically flexible (via the more bulging contour's pre-existing greater curvature) sidewalls. So, except for the fact that they're noisy on rough pavement, the Pilot Sports are going to be better touring tires for my car's non-linear suspension than the MXMs were, which is backwards from Michelins' designations. I feel like I'm sensing some sidewall flex (which my car's suspension demands), but no tread squirm (unlike most other tires when new), which is all to the good for this application.

The one other notable physical/geometrical characteristic is that these Pilot Sports are much closer in size to the OEM MXMs than those seriously-oversized GS-D3s, which put nearly 1/2" wider tread pattern on the road (which probably sounds good, and also looked good, except that undoubtedly contributed to my car's inability to go where steered with those accursed Goodyears of same size designation mounted on the original factory wheels).

So my car now feels better than it has in years, and, right now, I'm thinking, "Thank you, Michelin." (And also "Thank you, Discount Tire." They gave me a considerable allowance on those accursed Goodyears they'd sold me.)

Rolling on,

- Dave; '95 854T, 160K mi