2013 European Summer Sports Tire Test

We don't usually analyse the European tire 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 tire larger than 16", there's several new tires involved in the 225/45 R17 tire 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!

The Details

The reason we don't usually analyse the ADAC test is because it's a little thin on words, and sadly this year is no different. What we can do, is work out a little bit of form from the data.

The Continental beat the Goodyear thanks to a stronger wet performance, as it scored lower in the dry, was noisier, used more fuel and wore more quickly. It's not unusual for tests to be weighted towards wet performance, and in this instance wet performance was worth 40% of the final grade, compared to 20% for the dry performance. Still, an excellent result for the Sport Contact 5, clearly the best in the wet and not far behind in the dry.

The Goodyears new sister, the Dunlop SportMaxx RT matched the Goodyear in everything but the dry, where it was only a little behind, and the fourth place Michelin almost matched the Dunlop, just losing out in rolling resistance and wear (oddly for a Michelin...) but second best in the wet.

Fifth place is very respectable for the new Vredestein Ultrac Vorti, especially when you consider the tires it's normally compared against, the Falken FK453 and Toyo T1 Sport finished thirteenth and sixteenth respectively. The Vredestein matched the top placed Goodyear in the dry and got excellent wear results, just slightly marked down for its wet and rolling resistance results.

The Bridgestone Potenza S001 had a relatively poor result ending ninth due to an average wet showing, despite being excellent in the dry, and for some reason Pirelli supplied the P7, instead of the more appropriate P Zero. The result, eleventh.

Other points of note are a strong performance for both Hankook and Semperit, and a poor result for Uniroyal with one of our favourites, the Rainsport 2. While the Uniroyal was still extremely strong in the wet, it was let down by high fuel consumption and a bad dry result. The rumour on the street is the Rainsport 3 is due this year... it should move things on nicely.

The Results

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

1st: Continental Sport Contact 5
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38 Dry: 8.8 Wet: 8 Rolling Resistance: 8.8 Noise: 5.4 Wear: 7 A very balanced tire, top marks in the wet, good on dry roads, low fuel consumption Read Reviews Buy from £90.62
2nd: Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38.6 Dry: 9.2 Wet: 7.2 Rolling Resistance: 8.2 Noise: 6 Wear: 8 A very balanced tire, top marks on dry pavement, good on wet roads, relatively low wear Read Reviews
3rd: Dunlop SportMaxx RT
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38 Dry: 8.8 Wet: 7.2 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 6 Wear: 8 A very balanced tire, good on dry and wet roads, relatively low wear Read Reviews Buy from £81.38
4th: Michelin Pilot Sport 3 PS3
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 37.6 Dry: 8.8 Wet: 7.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.6 Noise: 6.6 Wear: 7 A very balanced tire, particularly strong in the wet, good on dry pavement Read Reviews
5th: Vredestein Ultrac Vorti
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38.2 Dry: 9.2 Wet: 7 Rolling Resistance: 7.4 Noise: 6.2 Wear: 8.4 A very balanced tire, top marks on dry pavement, good on wet roads, low wear Read Reviews
6th: Hankook Ventus S1 evo2
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 37 Dry: 8.4 Wet: 7.2 Rolling Resistance: 7.8 Noise: 6.6 Wear: 7 A very balanced tire, good in the wet Read Reviews Buy from £91.99
7th: Semperit Speed Life
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38.2 Dry: 7.6 Wet: 7 Rolling Resistance: 9.2 Noise: 6 Wear: 8.4 A very balanced tire, top marks in fuel consumption, good in the wet, low wear Read Reviews
8th: Apollo Aspire 4G
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 36.4 Dry: 8.4 Wet: 6.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.6 Noise: 6.4 Wear: 7.4 Perform well in almost all disciplines A little weak in the wet Read Reviews
9th: Bridgestone Potenza S001
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 36.8 Dry: 9 Wet: 6.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.8 Noise: 6 Wear: 7.4 Especially good on dry roads A little weak in the wet Read Reviews Buy from £102.50
10th: Kumho Ecsta KU39
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 35.6 Dry: 8.2 Wet: 6.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.6 Noise: 6.2 Wear: 7 Perform well in almost all disciplines A little weak in the wet Read Reviews
11th: Pirelli CINTURATO P7
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38.6 Dry: 8.2 Wet: 6.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.6 Noise: 6.2 Wear: 10 Top marks for wear A little weak in the wet Read Reviews Buy from £76.20
12th: Yokohama C Drive2
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38.6 Dry: 8.8 Wet: 6.6 Rolling Resistance: 8.2 Noise: 6 Wear: 9 Good on dry roads, low wear and good fuel consumption A little weak in the wet Read Reviews Buy from £108.85
13th: Falken FK453
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 36.8 Dry: 8.8 Wet: 6.4 Rolling Resistance: 7.8 Noise: 6.4 Wear: 7.4 Good on dry roads A little weak in the wet Read Reviews
14th: Uniroyal RainSport 2
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 33.8 Dry: 6.8 Wet: 7.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.2 Noise: 5.8 Wear: 6.4 Particularly strong in the wet Weaker on dry pavement, relatively high fuel consumption and wear Read Reviews
15th: ESA Tecar Spirit UHP
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 38 Dry: 8 Wet: 6 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 6 Wear: 10 Top marks for wear Bad in the wet Read Reviews
16th: Toyo Proxes T1 Sport
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 35.6 Dry: 8.8 Wet: 6 Rolling Resistance: 7.6 Noise: 5.8 Wear: 7.4 Good in the dry Poor in the wet Read Reviews
17th: Nexen N8000
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 35 Dry: 8 Wet: 7.4 Rolling Resistance: 7.8 Noise: 6.4 Wear: 5.4 Particularly strong in the wet Very high wear Read Reviews
19th: Syron Race 1 plus
225/45 R17 3PMSF: no	Total: 33.2 Dry: 7.6 Wet: 4.2 Rolling Resistance: 8.6 Noise: 5.8 Wear: 7 Very poor in the wet Read Reviews