Tyre Reviews Tyre Tests

Below is our database of tyre tests split by tyre season and vehicle type. To read the tests just click on the test title

Continental Sport Contact 5 We don't usually analyse the European tyre test, carried out by the excellent German ADAC organisation, but this one was too good to ignore.

Not only is it the first year they've used a tyre larger than 16", there's several new tyres involved in the 225/45 R17 tyre test. It's the first time we've seen the new replacement for the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta in a group test, along side some of it's new mid range stable mates, the Toyo T1 Sport and the Falken FK453, and its the first time we've seen the Continental Sport Contact 5 beat the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2. Interesting!
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Just because your car runs wide, low profile wheels and tyres, it doesn't mean it shouldn't work in the snow. Modern winter tyres are now made in extremely wide sizes, and can totally transform RWD cars such as a BMW 3 Series from an unusable drive way ordainment, to king of the roads in poor conditions.
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Continental WinterContact TS 850 Continuing on from the 42 tyre winter tyres shootout, Auto Bild carried the top 15 tyres across to the more in-depth group tests. Qualifying for this ultimate winter shoot out were tyres from each of the six premium manufacturers, along with eight midrange brands and one brand we consider a high end budget (Maxxis).
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A modern all season tyres can offer 95% of the snow ability of a dedicated winter tyre, but with the promise to be able to run it year round. They could be the perfect tyre for the UK climate, but which tyre works best? To answer this question, Auto Bild have tested ten all season tyres in 175/65 R14, and included a winter and summer tyre in the group for comparison purposes.
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Continental WinterContact TS 850 It's that time again - read on to find out which winter tyres we think you should be using this year!
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Dunlop SP WinterSport 4D Winter tyres shouldn't mean limited performance, and many modern winter tyres are rated up to V which means they're safe to run at 149mph for extended periods.

To test nine of the best, Auto Bild equipped a Golf GTI with the recommended 225/45 R17 winter tyre size in V rating, and subjected them to handling, braking and comfort tests in the dry, wet and snowy conditions.
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Continental WinterContact TS 850 The 2012 winter tyre test season is upon us, and the usually excellent Auto Zeitung have just realised their latest winter tyre test.

Focusing on the popular 205/55 R16 tyre size, Auto Zeitung have tested 8 tyres - one from each of the six premium manufacturers, and a tyre each from the two brands known best for their excellent winter offerings, Nokian and Vredestein.
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Continental WinterContact TS 850 By their very nature, cold weather, or winter tyres have more of a compromise built in than another other type of tyre on the market, due to the wide range of conditions they need to perform in.

Developing a tyre to perform well in snow conditions is actually relative easy for the tyre manufacturers. Lots of edges, a nice wide tread pattern and you have a reasonable snow performance. It's the balance between snow and wet performance which is extremely important to a lot of European countries, where the cold wet conditions far out weigh the snowy or icy driving conditions, and where a lot of cheaper winter tyres fail.


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In EVO Magazines second tyre test of the year, they're testing 10 of the best tyres ultra high performance summer tyres in 225/45 R17 on an Audi A3.

Read on!

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Auto express tyre test 2012This years Auto Express summer tyre test is probably the closest test we've seen, and with all 8 tyres within 2% of each other overall even a slight change in the weighting of the test categories would dramatically change the overall result!

As usual, Auto Express have focused on the more popular size of 205/55 R16 91H, with this years test vehicle being FWD Skoda Octavia. The test was conducted at Bridgestones test facility in the south of Italy, and covered the usual thorough array of tests, including 5 wet tests, 2 dry tests plus noise and rolling resistance tests.


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Hankook Ventus Prime2 While German tyre tests are great at putting raw figures together, they often miss out on some of the subjective feel of the tyre. This is where the Russian magazine Auto Review comes into its own, combining great data along with the subjective feel felt when driving on each tyre.

In 2012 Auto Review have tested 9 touring tyres on an Audi A3 in 205/55 R16 91V. Auto Review selected the newest breed of touring tyres, specifically designed to save fuel without sacrificing performance in any other areas, such as wet grip.
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Continental ContiSportContact 5 P With every new generation of cars being fitted with larger wheels, tyres are having to follow suit. While 20 inch wheels and tyre were unheard of a few years ago, they are now becoming commonplace enough for the excellent German publication Auto Bild Sports Cars to investigate the options.
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While some tyre tests end up testing a seemingly random selection of both new and old tyres, Sport Auto seem to have hit the sweet spot with their latest summer ultra high performance tyre test.

Using a VW Golf GTI, and testing 235/35 R19 tyres Sport Auto took a no-nonsense approach and tested 9 of the newest, and greatest tyres on the market, only omitting the brand new Dunlop Sport Maxx RT in favour of its higher performance brother, the Dunlop Sport Maxx GT.


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The Winning Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 Traditionally, German based Auto Bild put together some of the best tyre tests in the world, and in 2012 they've set a new benchmark.

Not content with picking 15 of the top tyres to test, Auto Bild started with 50 of the leading tyres in 225/45 R17, and subjected them to wet and dry braking, only putting through the top 15 to this test to ensure the tyres on test really are the best of the best.

Subjecting just the top 15 tyres from the braking tests to the usual array of handling tests have left the results closer than ever, but with some surprise tyres included. Of course, with only 15 of 50 going through there's some surprise ommisions, with the Falken FK453, Yokohama Advan Sport, Vredestein Ultra Cento and Avon ZV5 not even making it to the top 25 of the knockout test.
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It's not often you get the chance to test different tyres on identical vehicles, and even rarer that the tyres in question are two of the newest, most exciting max performance summer tyres on the market, but this is exactly what we found ourselves presented with recently at Ascari race circuit.

The tyres in question are the latest offerings from Continental and Dunlop, with each of the four cars being fitted with a set of Continental Sport Contact 5s, and a set of the brand new Dunlop SportMaxx RT, all in 245/40 R18. Two of the vehicles comprised of the high performance coupe from Audi, the TT S, and the other two were the the high powered Audi S4 saloon.
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