Touring tires, designed for family cars and vehicles which spend most of their time on the motorway might not be the most exciting of tires, but they do make up a large percentage of tires sold in the UK.

ACE have started the year off with their annual touring tire test, covering 15 tires in the popular 205/55 R16 size. The test covers a wide range of tires, including a yet unreleased tire and a number of budget options.

Results

In a rather strange twist, the tire which has won the test is not yet available for purchase in the UK. The Continental Premium Contact 5 replaces the Continental Premium Contact 2 as the companies flagship premium touring tire, and seems to pick up right where the PC2 left off by winning the test convincingly. The tire is officially being launched at the end of March and should be available for sale shortly after.

Second place is taken by the excellent Dunlop SP Sport Fast Response with a convincing all round performance, but it’s 3rd to 6th places where things get far more interesting.

Finishing 3rd is the Nokian V. Nokian are a company well known for their winter tires, and have recently been making strides with their summer V, Z and Z G2 tires. The V in this test managed to combine and excellent dry result with a good rolling resistance score to round out the top 3.

4th place was secured by Fulda, with the new Eco Control HP. Fulda are widely regarded as a premium brand in Europe, but their relatively unknown status in the UK means they’re a bit of a performance bargain. The Eco Control HP had the lowest rolling resistance on the test, yet still managed good dry and noise scores.

5th and 6th were taken by Semperit and Hankook, both brands which are making real strides up the midrange table, and along with Fulda and Nokian, are almost defining a new “premium midrange” sector.

At the bottom end of the table are the budget tire, continuing the trend “you get what you pay for”. While a number of budget tires can offer good rolling resistance scores, the tire off in wet performance isn’t worth the small cost saving.

As always, the full results are below. Any questions please feel free to comment!

1st: Continental Premium Contact 5
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 135 Dry: 43 Wet: 72 Rolling Resistance: 14 Noise: 6 Read Reviews    Buy from £84.99
2nd: Dunlop SP Sport Fast Response
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 133 Dry: 44 Wet: 71 Rolling Resistance: 10 Noise: 8 Read Reviews    Buy from £78.08
3rd: Nokian V
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 133 Dry: 44 Wet: 68 Rolling Resistance: 12 Noise: 9 Read Reviews
4th: Fulda EcoControl HP
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 130 Dry: 44 Wet: 59 Rolling Resistance: 17 Noise: 10 Read Reviews
5th: Semperit Speed Life
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 129 Dry: 43 Wet: 67 Rolling Resistance: 10 Noise: 9 Read Reviews
6th: Hankook K425 Kinergy Eco
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 129 Dry: 43 Wet: 63 Rolling Resistance: 14 Noise: 9 Read Reviews
7th: Goodyear EfficientGrip
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 131 Dry: 41 Wet: 67 Rolling Resistance: 17 Noise: 6 Read Reviews    Buy from £72.00
8th: Pirelli CINTURATO P7
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 127 Dry: 42 Wet: 67 Rolling Resistance: 12 Noise: 6 Read Reviews    Buy from £66.98
9th: Vredestein Sportrac 3
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 114 Dry: 39 Wet: 57 Rolling Resistance: 12 Noise: 6 Read Reviews
10th: Kumho Ecsta HM KH31
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 112 Dry: 38 Wet: 59 Rolling Resistance: 7 Noise: 8 Read Reviews
11th: Firestone TZ300A
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 112 Dry: 36 Wet: 67 Rolling Resistance: 3 Noise: 6 Read Reviews
13th: Sava intensa hp
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 94 Dry: 27 Wet: 59 Rolling Resistance: 2 Noise: 6 Read Reviews
14th: Goodride SA05
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 77 Dry: 29 Wet: 37 Rolling Resistance: 10 Noise: 1 Read Reviews
15th: Rotalla F108
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 65 Dry: 22 Wet: 17 Rolling Resistance: 16 Noise: 10 Read Reviews

Note: 12 place was awarded to the "High Performer HS2" with the scores 37 / 39 / 9 / 12, however we could find so little information about the tire we were unable to include it in our tire database.