Michelin Pilot Super Sports on an M4 are great, but they can only take so much abuse.
Tracks are violent places—and automotive enthusiasts can’t get to them quickly enough. Gas gets burned, G-forces assault racers, records get shattered, and tires get murdered. One of the latest victims of track brutality is the set of tires on Youtuber Adam Bornstein’s BMW M4.
In the video above, Bornstein takes his M4 out to the Grange Motor Circuit in Apple Valley, California. He and his buddies have the whole course to themselves—which Bornstein calls a hybrid of a drift track and a regular track. His M4 is joined by a Nissan 240SX, a heavily modified and track-focused M2, and a bonkers-customized Lamborghini Huracan.
All-day Drift Session
With those kinds of vehicles and that much free time and space, you’d think Bornstein and his pals would focus on seeing who could set the lowest lap time, right?
Nope.
Thrashed and Trashed
To hell with stopwatch readings. They spend the day powersliding and drifting their expensive machines around the course’s numerous turns.
Bornstein has altered his M4 cosmetically, but he’s kept it mechanically stock. That means it’s running on its stock rubber: Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. They’re soft. They’re grippy. They’re doomed.
Bornstein proceeds to light them up on his way around the track. In between laps, he points out how beat up his friend’s M2 is and clearly, it’s been driven hard. That doesn’t stop Bornstein from lending it to his friend so he can get it sideways.
It goes about as well as you’d expect it to for the M4’s Super Sports. Their outboard surfaces are scrubbed down to shiny, slick nothingness. The back left tire loses a chunk of tread on the track. Good thing Bornstein’s buddy has some cheap spares. Those go on and so does the smoky automotive mayhem.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
