2017 Sport Auto Winter Tyre Test

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Nokian WR A4
Dry Braking	Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen 1
Wet Handling	Continental WinterContact TS 850 P Hankook Winter i cept evo2
Wear	Continental WinterContact TS 850 P Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen 1
Rolling Resistance	Continental WinterContact TS 850 P
Noise	Cooper Weather Master SA2 Plus Nokian WR A4
Snow Handling	Toyo Snowprox S954 Hankook Winter i cept evo2
Snow Handling	Continental WinterContact TS 850 P

We're a little bit late with this one, as it's likely the UK has had most of its bad weather for winter 2017/18, however we can't resist covering a winter ultra high performance tyre test, especially when they use a RWD Toyota GT86 as the test car!

For this test, Sport Auto magazine fitted the GT86 with ten different patterns of 225/40 R18 sports winter tyres, and put the tyres through the normal dry, wet and snow testing.

Snow

Looking at the snow braking and snow handling tests, no tyre dominated. The Hankook Winter I*Cept Evo 2 won the snow braking test but could only manage fifth in snow handling, while the Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 won the snow handling tests but could only manage sixth during snow braking testing! The Continental WinterContact TS850 P, which has now been replaced buy the WinterContact TS860 S, had the best overall result finishing in the top three in both tests. The Nankang SV2 proved to be the weakest in both snow tests.

Wet

During wet testing, the Continental once again proved to be amongst the best along with the Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 and Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 dominating the top three. The Toyo Snowprox S954 had an extremely poor result, finishing in last place by quite a margin.

Dry

As with the snow testing, the best dry braking tyre didn't do well during the dry handling test, and the best dry handling tyre was the worst dry braking tyre! While this is unusual for dry testing and might highlight the difference between FWD and RWD for winter tyres, there were two brands which managed to score consistently - the Nokian WR A4 and Toyo Snowprox S954 finished top three for both tests.

Results

The limited coverage of the full results are below, please see the Sport Auto article for the full test data.

Click here to view Results as a single table and adjust the score weighting based on your own driving needs!

1st: Continental WinterContact TS 850 P
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 71.8 Dry: 8 Wet: 9.4 Snow: 9.4 Subjective: 8 Comfort: 8 Rolling Resistance: 10 Noise: 10 Overall: 9 Excellent grip and stable behavior on snow and dry surfaces. low rolling resistance, very low noise level Relatively weak resistance to aquaplaning, relatively long braking distances on dry surfaces Highly recommended Read Reviews
1st: Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen 1
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 69.2 Dry: 8.2 Wet: 9.9 Snow: 9.1 Subjective: 8 Comfort: 8 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 9 Overall: 9 Excellent grip and very good handling on wet surfaces, balanced and reliable behavior in the snow, balanced handling on dry roads Slow steering response in the dry Cost:Highly recommended Read Reviews
3rd: Michelin Pilot Alpin 4
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 66.4 Dry: 7.8 Wet: 9.6 Snow: 8.5 Subjective: 8 Comfort: 7 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 9 Overall: 8.5 Good results in the wet, good handling in the dry Relatively weak resistance to aquaplaning, long dry braking distances Recommended Read Reviews
4th: Hankook Winter i cept evo2
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 63 Dry: 8 Wet: 6.7 Snow: 9.4 Subjective: 10 Comfort: 7 Rolling Resistance: 6 Noise: 8 Overall: 7.9 Strong in the snow, good dry handling Average wet performance, long braking distances in the dry and wet Conditionally recommended Read Reviews
5th: Yokohama W drive V905
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 57.8 Dry: 7.6 Wet: 7.9 Snow: 8.5 Subjective: 6 Comfort: 6 Rolling Resistance: 6 Noise: 8 Overall: 7.8 Good snow braking, good wet handling Slow steering reactions in the dry, relatively noisy Conditionally recommended Read Reviews
6th: Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 59.9 Dry: 7.3 Wet: 8.4 Snow: 7.5 Subjective: 7 Comfort: 7 Rolling Resistance: 7 Noise: 8 Overall: 7.7 Good handling and grip in the wet Slow steering reactions in the dry, relatively noisy Conditionally recommended Read Reviews Buy from £158.28
7th: Nokian WR A4
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 66 Dry: 9 Wet: 6.6 Snow: 6.8 Subjective: 9 Comfort: 9 Rolling Resistance: 9 Noise: 9 Overall: 7.6 Very good in the dry with good grip and precise steering, short braking distances in the snow, low noise level Unstable in the wet with high levels of oversteer Conditionally recommended Read Reviews
8th: Cooper Weather Master SA2+
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 61 Dry: 7.4 Wet: 8.6 Snow: 6.6 Subjective: 7 Comfort: 9 Rolling Resistance: 6 Noise: 9 Overall: 7.4 Good on wet surfaces, high levels of comfort Poor steering and grip in the dry, low grip on snow Conditionally recommended Read Reviews
9th: Nankang SV2
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 57.5 Dry: 8.6 Wet: 6.8 Snow: 5.2 Subjective: 8 Comfort: 7 Rolling Resistance: 6 Noise: 9 Overall: 6.9 Very short braking distances and quick reactions to steering on dry surfaces, good resistance to aquaplaning Very poor in the snow, noisy Conditionally recommended Read Reviews
9th: Toyo Snowprox S954
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 60.2 Dry: 8.7 Wet: 5.9 Snow: 5.7 Subjective: 10 Comfort: 7 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 8 Overall: 6.9 Quick and accurate reactions to steering on dry roads Poor on snow and in the wet Recommended with caution Read Reviews