Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 2025 review – 'N0' tyre makes Porsche GT3 RS a wet weather weapon

The new Porsche 911 GT3 RS-specific Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 could have been designed solely for the UK market. From autumn to spring (and sometimes mid-summer!) our climate delivers cold, wet weather and you’d be brave to venture out on the RS’s Pilot Sport Cup 2 in a downpour. The Porsche-specific ‘N0’ marked Pilot Sport S 5, however, is designed to perform in the wet, between 5 and 15deg C, and has a bespoke construction, compound and tread pattern, plus different specifications for front and rear axles for optimum dynamic balance.

To demonstrate the new tyre’s abilities, we’re driving a GT3 RS on Cup 2s back-to-back with another fitted with the new 5 S on the demanding wet circuit at Michelin’s Ladoux proving ground. I have prior experience of the GT3 RS on Cup 2s in sub-optimal conditions: eCoty 2023 was held in southern Scotland and it was cold and wet. Prior to the test, Porsche itself said the RS was probably too track biased, but with its dampers fully backed off it was remarkably grippy and composed, making some other coupes feel skittish and snappy. It went on to be crowned evo Car of the Year. 

> Best car tyres: evo tyre test

Jörg Bergmeister, ex-works driver and now Porsche ambassador, has helped develop the new tyre and will lead us around the wet circuit in another GT3 RS to show us the lines. While I at least know the circuit, he does too and he’s considerably more talented. More than that, while I’m on the Cup 2, he’s on the new tyre. 

As we venture out, the temperature is at about 15deg C, at the upper end of the new S 5’s optimum range. The dampers on both cars are turned down to their softest and stability control is on, which is a good thing. On the Cup 2s, it’s a tentative experience and we’ve been advised that 120kph (75mph) is enough on the straight, with its aquaplane-inducing standing water. It’s good advice. 

Of course, Jorg is soft pedalling and although I know my way round from previous visits, I’m on some strange lines, the front letting go on the entry to the turns, the rear kicking wide on the exit before the stability control catches it. On the uphill hairpin, the Cup 2 car is almost defeated by the gradient. With very smooth steering inputs, very subtle throttle modulation and getting the car into tight turns early, you can string a lap together that isn’t too wayward but is still a bit spooky. 

12

The contrast switching onto the N0 Pilot Sport S 5 is dramatic. It feels like a different track. If you’d been told you were on full wets from a GT3 race car, you’d believe it. There’s not only more cut-through on the straight – the tyre works at over 150kph (93mph) with ease – and much better braking, there’s also keen turn-in, a lovely dynamic balance and benign slip too. You can drive so much faster everywhere, so much more precisely, and enjoy exploitable progression at the limit of grip. I wouldn’t want to turn off traction control on the Cup 2, but on this S 5, I’d do so happily because the GT3 RS feels so much more approachable and responsive, even though it’s lapping so much faster. 

Completing the A-B-A test, switching back to the Cup 2-shod car, I feel like the F1 driver who has elected to stay out on slicks when the rain has started coming down and is regretting it as those on wets disappear into the distance. On this lap of about 90 seconds, the S 5-shod GT3 RS was over 10 seconds a lap quicker. They’re not racing wets, though: they look a lot like a regular S 5 and we’re told they last a good mileage too. 

12

They can also tackle a high-speed dry track with impressive pace. My first laps on the dry circuit at Ladoux are on the S 5 and the level of grip is remarkably high, with the same superb front/rear balance and benign slip as in the wet. Swapping into the Cup 2 car, I’m expecting to be able to hold the gap to S 5-shod pace car, but with an ambient of 12deg C and a track temp of around 18deg C, the advantage isn’t there. The front rumbles, suggesting the Cup 2s aren’t up to temperature, and although there is a bit more crispness to the transitions and a bit more traction out of the hairpin, overall it isn’t as enjoyable. The expected gap between the two tyres is only a second or two. 

Two more laps in the S 5 car shows a bit more understeer in the faster corners and a bit more swing in the slower ones but the same predictable nature. And it’s always a good thing for a tyre to behave the same wet or dry. Inspecting the tyres after, they didn’t look any more marked than the Cup 2s, despite starting with 7.5mm of tread versus 4.5mm. Jorg says that even limit-handling testing in Spain at 25deg C, the tread held up fine. Michelin claims the S 5 lasts about twice as long as a Cup 2 tyre, so what’s not to like?

There’s no word yet on price or availability, but the tyre will be sold exclusively through Manthey, and although it will initially be available only in GT3 RS sizes – 275/35 ZR20 and 335/30 ZR21 – expect more sizes to become available; it’s too good to keep exclusively for the RS.