Tyre Reviews Tyre Tests

It's not often you see a tyre test where the highest placed premium manufacturer is placed in fifth place, and often test winning Goodyear and Michelin brands are eighth and ninth respectively, but that's exactly what the 2018 ACE / GTU 235/45 R18 tyre test shows.

It's rare you find tyre tests specifically scoring subjective handling qualities as it's a very difficult thing for tyre testers to quantify, but this latest tyre test from the Finish publication Test World scores the tyres subjective behaviour out of a possible ten points in both the dry and wet. This is particularly interesting if you're not worried about that final 0.1 seconds of dry lap time, but do rate the subjective qualities of a tyre such as steering feel, feedback and car balance.

This test covers sixteen 225/45 R17 UHP tyre patterns using an Audi A3 - perhaps not the last word in dynamic handling but it is still an insight to the tyres we don't usually get.

Thanks to the explosion in SUV type vehicles, tyre companies are feverishly updating their SUV and 4x4 product lines. To see which manufacturer is currently doing the best job, Auto Bild Allrad have tested eight of the latest patterns in the large 265/60 R18 size.

The 2018 Gute Fahrt test is a confusing tyre test for a number of reasons. Firstly is tests both summer and all season tyres in the same dry and wet tests, but fails to include the all season class leading Michelin CrossClimate. 

This year Auto Bild have covered both 19 and 20" UHP tyres, and while we've covered the 20" test already, we delayed covering the 19" test for a few weeks.

In those few weeks, Sport Auto Magazine released their 19" tyre test, and it uses exactly the same 245/35 R19 and 265/35 R19 tyres, on the same BMW M2, and tests the same six UHP tyres at the same location.

The logical question would be why publish this version of the test, as the results should be exactly the same? Well, they're not. Whether it be down to driving style, test parameters or just the weather on the day, Sport Auto and Auto Bild have managed to come up with two different test results using the same vehicle and tyres, proving just how close the very best tyres on the market are.

There's a lot of tyres in the 2018 Auto Bild 195/65 R15 test, so we'll keep the intro as short as possible and let the data do the talking.

It's worth keeping in mind, the twenty tyres chosen for this test have been through a 51 tyre wet and dry braking pretest. This means the tyres included in this test are some of the best tyres available on the market, had Auto Bild included some of the worst tyres in the pretest, the gap between the best and the worst tyres overall would have been much larger.

The latest trend of combining two tyre tests into a single result seems to be continuing, with the brilliant German publication Sport Auto combining six ultra high performance tyres and three track day tyres into a single test!

Using a BMW M2, Sport Auto used the M2 OE sizes of 245/35 R19 front and 265/35 R19 rear, and objectively tested wet and dry performances while also scoring the subjective handling and feel of a tyre.

As you would expect, the track day tyres dominated in the dry, were the weakest in the wet, and generally had the highest rolling resistance and were the nosiest. Some of the road tyres were surprisingly close to the track day rubber during dry testing, and they were leagues ahead in the wet testing.

Read on for the full results!

2018 is setting up to be an excellent year for tyre testing, with the epic German publication Auto Bild already delivering three excellent tests. Of the three, this 20" tyre test is perhaps the most interesting of the trio.

For this investigation, Auto Bild have bought eight 245/30 R20 tyre patterns and placed them through the usual array of wet and dry tests using a Mercedes E Class.

While the internet favourite Michelin Pilot Sport 4S takes its traditional top spot, there is a strange result for the Continental Sport Contact 6, a great result for the ten year old Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 (not 3!), and Bridgestone make a return to tests with the old Potenza S001.

Read on for the full results!

Every year Auto Bild test over fifty tyres in wet and dry braking test to decide which twenty tyres make it through to the full summer tyre test. In 2018 they have used the popular 195/65 R15 summer touring tyre size.

The spread of dry braking results was higher than usual this year. The best dry braking tyre on test, the Hankook, stopped the car from 62mph in 34.5 metres, and the worse 42.4 metres. This 7.9 metre difference might not sound like a huge amount, but it is the difference of stopping or hitting an object at around 26 mph!

The spread in the wet was even larger. The Bridgestone was best in the wet, stopping the car from 50 mph in 34.3 metres, where as the worst tyre on test took a massive 17.6 metres further, totaling 51.9 metres. That's over 4 car lengths further and a huge residual speed at time of accident.

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested fourteen 175/65 R14 summer tyres, and sixteen in the larger 205/55 R16 size.

In this 175/65 R14 test, the mid range brands dominate! Falken impressively win the test and continue their run of recently form with the SN832 Ecorun having a very balanced overall performance. The Continental owned brand Semperit finishes in second place, owing to an excellent wet performance, and third place was the best result a premium manufacturer could manage with the Dunlop proving to be a well balanced tyre.

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested sixteen 205/55 R16 summer tyres, and fourteen tyres in the smaller 175/65 R14 size.

In this 205/55 R16 test, premium manufacturers take the top three places. Michelin lead the way, having the lowest wear on test and proving to be excellent in the dry, Bridgestone have a surprisingly strong performance in the wet to score second place overall, and Continental have a very balanced showing for the last of the podium spots.

The first tyre test of 2018 is rather unique. German publication Auto Zeitung have tested six summer tyres and three all season tyres all in the same test, and while it's going to make the Tyre Reviews version of the result at the bottom of this page read slightly wonky, it's a really interesting way of comparing the dry and wet performances of the two tyre types.

Keep in mind, the nine tyres were only tested in the dry and wet, there was no snow or ice testing to highlight the all season tyres year-round abilities. This means this test should just be looked at to see how the all season tyres compare to the summer tyres in summer conditions, rather than making a purchase decision for year-round motoring.

There's one more summer tyre test left to cover in 2017, and this time it's the American publication Car and Driver testing five 245/40 R18 maximum performance summer tyres using a BMW 430i.

We'll keep the words low and data high for this Australian ultra high performance tyre test. All tyres tested were 235/35 R19, and the magazine used a Ford Focus RS.

The 2017 EVO magazine summer tyre test tested nine 225/40 R18 ultra high performance tyres using a VW Golf GTI.

As with previous years, the overall result is 60% subjective and 40% objective, making it quite a different test from the traditional tyre tests which rate objective data above subjective. This means that while the raw objective figures from the wet and dry tests are still important, how the tyre feels subjectively with regards to steering speed and car balance has an even more importance on the overall result.

The excellent 2017 Auto Express summer tyre test has just been published! This year Auto Express tested eleven 205/55 R16 tyre sizes, ranging from the premium end of the market to the budget end.

This year's winner is the Continental Premium Contact 5. This tyre has always tested well, but with the newer Premium Contact 6 having already been on the market for 6 months at time of test, it would have been interesting to see just how well the latest version of the Premium Contact range would have done!

The German publication Auto Bild have just tested five 235/35 R19 track day tyres using a Ford Focus ST, and included a "normal" maximum performance road tyre as comparison.

Given the location of the test (Continentals proving grounds in Texas), and the performance of the included road tyre, we're going to assuming the tyre was the Continental Sport Contact 6, and it demonstrates just how good road tyres have become!

With the SUV sector booming, tyre manufacturers are starting to merge their car and SUV lines into one product. The latest, and according to this test by the Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare, greatest example of this, is the new Continental Premium Contact 6.

The first test featuring the new Bridgestone DriveGuard runflat tyre has been published!

Testing ten 205/55 R16 touring tyres on a VW Golf, Polish Motor magazine included the new generation Bridgestone DriveGuard runflat tyre against the traditional non-runflat competition. 

We've currently very few details about this years ACE / GTU SUV Summer tyre test, but we do know some things.

The testers tested eleven 215/60 R17 tyres using a the crossover SUV Vauxhall Mokka. No offroad tests were done, as crossover SUVs spend most of their lives on the black stuff.