How many countries can the MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4 S conquer in 24 hours?

Content creator and petrolhead Joe Achilles and filmmaker Patrick Whelan are no strangers to remarkable road trips. In 2022, the pair drove more than 1,000 miles from London to Madrid on one tank in a BMW 730D. Two years later, they took a Volkswagen Passat almost 1,500 miles from Morocco to London without refuelling. 

But this July, they raised the stakes: how many countries could they reach in just 24 hours? The idea came from their good friend Chris Eades, the motorcycle vlogger and journalist also known as Baron von Grumble. “Nearly 10 years ago, he did 14 countries on his motorbike with his mate,” Joe explains. “I always thought that’s amazing, what a challenge that is!”

If you’d like to see how Joe and Patrick got on, you can watch the full escapade on Joe’s YouTube channel below but keep reading for a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to pull it off – and how the MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4 S performed along the way.

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The set-up

Joe spent £25,000 on what he believed was the perfect car for the job: a 2022 BMW 330D Touring, chosen for its combination of speed, efficiency, practicality and comfort. With the car sorted, attention turned to the four patches of rubber that would need to do a lot of work over 24 hours. 

“The main thing we wanted to do was put some good tyres on,” says Joe. “As this challenge was against the clock and relied on keeping a good average speed, we needed to know we could maintain most of that speed if the rain came. 

“MICHELIN came to the rescue, and we put its Pilot Sport 4 S tyres on there. I have run these for years and experienced their incredible ability in wet weather, so we knew they would perform at a brilliant level come rain or shine.” 

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Planning the impossible  

Traffic, fuel stops, border crossings, different national speed limits and fatigue could all eat into the clock, so Joe and Patrick spent years refining the idea and preparing for as many ‘what ifs’ as possible. 

“Pat and I initially started looking at routes on the internet,” Joe reveals. “What we ended up doing was, Pat went away and worked out his route, and I went away and worked out my route, and they both came back pretty much the same. But actually, when it came to doing it, we couldn’t have a set route.”

The BMW also became something of a mobile command centre, with Waze and Google Maps running alongside a spreadsheet of national speed limits. 

“The interior took a lot of time. We had cameras everywhere. I think we had six action cams, then we had Pat’s iPad that came down the passenger’s side of the dashboard. We also had a massive clock in the middle of the dashboard that was counting down 24 hours.” As Patrick puts it: “The logistics have been insane.”

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The challenge begins

However much the lads prepared, there was one thing they couldn’t control: what happened once they were on the road. Setting off from Aachen, Germany, at 4am, Joe and Patrick had exactly 24 hours to cover as much ground – and cross as many borders – as possible. 

“You have to be fluid once you’re on the road with all of the unknowns of traffic,” Patrick stresses, which is why they had both the Waze and Google Maps navigation systems running simultaneously. This allowed them to constantly compare routes and adapt whenever delays threatened to slow them down. 

From Germany, they made their way through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland, before continuing further across Europe. Within six hours, they had already covered 730km before making their first fuel stop and swapping drivers. 

But with every stop, traffic jam and border crossing threatening their final tally, maintaining momentum wherever the road opened up was crucial. 

How did it go?

Tyres that go the distance

For most drivers, 2,554km – or 1,587 miles – is serious road-trip territory, but Joe and Patrick covered it in less than a day at an average of 107.9 km/h, which is around 67mph.

 “Our trip was all about uptime and how much time we could spend on the road to make sure we were getting and staying at those speeds for as long as possible,” says Patrick. 

Joe adds: “The pace we were going at wasn’t breaking speed limits, but we weren’t hanging around either. We’d go through tolls or a set of traffic lights, and we were straight back up to speed, trying to keep that consistent average speed, pushing the car.”

That meant asking plenty from their tyres. 

“We wanted the car to consistently drive and handle the same, and this was especially important as we started to get tired towards the last couple of countries,” continues Joe. 

That sort of consistency sits right in the MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4 S’s wheelhouse. Designed for road use with the occasional track outing¹, it uses MICHELIN PILOT SPORT TECHNOLOGIES to deliver performance and longevity, while Bi-Compound Technology helps optimise performance in both wet and dry conditions. 

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Staying in control 

One of the most demanding stretches came towards the end of the journey, after the pair crossed from Slovakia into Poland. 

“I assumed that the majority of the route over to Ukraine was going to be motorways, but the first 90 minutes were on twisty A and B roads,” says Joe. “There was wildlife absolutely everywhere. We probably saw about 50 deer, so the car’s handling dynamics and stopping ability really were put to the test.”

Patrick was behind the wheel and, as Joe laughs, “driving the 330D Touring like it was an M3 Touring!”

“If we had budget tyres on the car, all those handling dynamics would go out the window. Apart from the extra body roll, the tyres gave the car plenty of mechanical grip. The car felt really stable on the brakes and cornered really well, giving Patrick plenty of confidence.”

That’s because the MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4 S uses an ultra-reactive tread pattern designed for precise steering control¹, while the tyre’s Dynamic Response Technology combines aramid and nylon to help transmit steering inputs to the road. 

The Pilot Sport 4 S

Challenge complete

Traffic in Slovenia cost them around 45 minutes, while a missing Slovenian vignette led to another delay. Fuel stops and driver swaps ate further into the clock, before they spent roughly another 40 minutes at the Ukrainian border.

But despite those setbacks and spending around two hours and 20 minutes completely stationary, Joe and Patrick completed their challenge 23 hours and 40 minutes after setting off. They covered Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czechia, Poland and Ukraine – 16 countries in less than 24 hours.

“It’s a big relief knowing we’ve done it, we’ve succeeded and we’re here to tell the tale!” says Joe. “The car was incredible and really didn’t miss a beat. I couldn’t have wished to have done it in anything better – and it was great to see that Patrick and I could put MICHELIN’s long-lasting performance motto to the test, quite literally! In fact, the MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4 S tyres were so good, we really didn’t need to think about them throughout the entire trip.”

Watch Joe and Patrick’s race against the clock with MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4 S tyres now...

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