Summer Tyre Tests

Ultra high performance tyre tests always make us happy, and Auto Bild do some of the best. For 2020, AutoBild have tested nine sports tyres in the staggered 245/35 R19 and 265/35 R19 sizes using a Mercedes Benz C63 AMG.

Like our UHP tyre test in 2019, Auto Bild have tested the very three best UHP tyres on the market, the Continental SportContact 6, Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport, and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, along with some of the other well know UHP tyres from Hankook, Vredestein, Falken and other brands.

The 2020 Auto Bild AllRad SUV / 4x4 tyre test has looked at the popular 255/55 R18 tyre size. While the tyre patterns included in the test are aimed at "soft roaders", which spend 99% of their time on normal roads, Auto Bild still went to the effort of testing the handling and traction on gravel of all ten tyres, along with traction on grass, mud and even sand!

Off-road performance is often an opposing quality to on-road grip, with dedicated off-road tyres performing well in loose surfaces such as gravel and mud, but poorly on-road in the dry and wet.  It's worth noting, as we found out with our off-road tyre test, repeatable off-road testing is extremely difficult, especially in mud, so these figures should only be used as a broad guide.

Following on from the fifty tyre braking shootout, Auto Bild have more thoroughly tested the best twenty 245/45 R18 summer tyres using a RWD BMW 5 Series.

The top three tyres should come as no surprise, with Continental, Goodyear and Michelin proving to be the most rounded tyres on test. 

The Continental Premium Contact 6 and Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 drew for first place. As we found with our video comparison, both the Continental and Goodyear tyres offer sporty handling, good levels of comfort, and short wet braking. Both tyres also topped the Wear testing, and thanks to a reasonable purchase price, offered some of the best value on test.

The 2020 Auto Zeitung summer tyre test has been published, and as usual they've tested a really interesting mix of twenty tyres in the popular 225/50 R17 size.

As 225/50 R17 tyres generally bias towards comfort rather than outright sporty performance, AZ tested with the new brand BMW 3 Series, and performed the usual array of  thirteen dry, wet, comfort and economy tests.

The talented guys at ACE Europe have just released their first summer tyre test for 2020, and interestingly they've tested nine 215/55 R17 summer tyres from the mid range sector of the market!

Having already looked at the 2020 ADAC 18" UHP summer tyre test, the SUV version in 235/55 R17 is more of the same.

Of the twelve tyres tested in this popular crossover SUV size, Michelin once again take the top spot with the Primacy 4, thanks to an excellent all round balanced performance.

While ADAC doesn't provide its readers with raw data from their testing, their yearly tyre tests are some of the most influential in the world. This year they've tested sixteen 225/40 R18 car tyres, and twelve 235/55 R17 crossover SUV sizes. For the 225/40 R18 test, there are few surprises.

Continental and Michelin tie for first place with the PremiumContact 6 and Pilot Sport 4, two tyres we've seen perform extremely well in all testing. It's worth noting that the Continental and Michelin both scored the same in the wear testing, once again showing Continental have got on top of wear.

Every year the German publication Auto Bild performs the industries most comprehensive tyre test by putting a huge number of tyres through wet and dry braking, to find the best twenty tyres to progress through to a full tyre test.

For the 2020 summer season, Auto Bild have tested fifty tyres in 245/45 R18, which gives us an excellent overview of the UHP market for 2020.

The excellent UK automotive magazine EVO always seems to publish their summer tyre test late in the season, but it shouldn't be ignored as it's one of the best in Europe if you care as much about steering feel and feedback as you do ultimate grip.

This year, EVO have tested seven 225/40 R18 UHP tyres using a VW Golf GTI at the Pirelli test facility in Vizzola, Italy, and while the volume of tyres is surprisingly small for such a common size, the breath of testing was as vast as any European tyre test.

For their 2019 summer tyre test, Auto Express have tested eight SUV tyres in the popular 235/50 R18 size.

Track day tyre tests are always a welcome read, as those of us who use our cars on track are often super switched on to the differences the tyres can make. This year AutoMail.Ru have tested four track day tyres in 225/45 R17 using a Mazda MX5 Cup car, and included the Continental PremiumContact 6 as a reference "normal" tyre.

It's worth remembering the MX5 is a light, relatively low powered car, so the results from this test might be different on something heavier.

It's never a bad thing when a magazine goes to the effort of testing summer AND all season tyres in the same test, as it gives the motorist a good idea of the different balance of performances each tyre type has, so it's great to see Auto Navigator doing exactly this for their 205/55 R16 summer tyre test.

Not satisfied with just summer and all season tyres, Auto Navigator have included a "test winning" winter tyre, as well as worn summer and worn winter tyres (tread depth unknown!)

The Norwegian AutoMobile Federation (NAF) has tested seven summer tyre patterns in 205/55 R16, and included a premium winter tyre for comparison.

The winter tyre performed surprisingly well during the wet braking testing, which was tested between 18 and 25c, beating the Dunlop and Bridgestone summer tyres. Wet handling showed a little more weakness, with the winter tyre finishing last, but it was still within a few percent of the summer tyres.

The Swedish news paper Aftonbladet have tested thirteen 205/55 R16 touring summer tyres using a VW Passat.

Sadly the data is a little lacking in this test, but as the driving was done by the experts at Test World, you can be sure it was a proper tyre test.

The ACE / GTU tyre test is always a funny one, as they go to a lot of effort to test the tyres, but then provide no data at all, only the overview scores.

For this reason, we always keep the commentary low, but it's important to have the test results on Tyre Reviews, as the more tests published the better right?

Finnish magazine Moottori have recently compared eight 205/55 R16 tyre patterns that sit in the midrange price category!

While midrange tyres are cheaper than their premium rivals, they're not the cheapest tyres available on market, so in theory should still provide a reasonable level of performance, just offering better value.

Auto Bild's second summer tyre test of 2019 has tested eleven 245/45 R18 tyre patterns using a BMW 5 Series. This tyre and vehicle combination isn't an often tested setup, and has yielded some interesting results!

The Pirelli P Zero PZ4 (Sports Car variant) dominated the testing, with the shortest dry and wet braking, fastest wet handling lap and second fastest dry handling lap.