2020 ADAC 18 Inch Summer Tire Test

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Pirelli P Zero PZ4
Dry Braking	Continental Premium Contact 6
Wear	Continental Premium Contact 6 Michelin Pilot Sport 4
Rolling Resistance	Rotalla RU01 S Pace Sava Intensa UHP 2
Snow Braking	Continental Premium Contact 6 Cooper Zeon CS Sport Rotalla RU01 S Pace Falken Azenis FK510 Sava Intensa UHP 2 Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Nexen N Fera Sport SU2 Maxxis Victra Sport 5 Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 Michelin Pilot Sport 4
Snow Handling	Rotalla RU01 S Pace Maxxis Victra Sport 5 Nokian PowerProof

While ADAC doesn't provide its readers with raw data from their testing, their yearly tire tests are some of the most influential in the world. This year they've tested sixteen 225/40 R18 car tires, 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 tires we've historically seen perform extremely well in testing. It's worth noting that the Continental and Michelin both scored the same in the wear testing, again showing Continental have got on top of wear.

The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 and Maxxis Victra Sport 5 finish a tied third place overall. While it's not unusual to see the Goodyear near the top, the latest range of Maxxis tires are proving to be really strong in testing.

The "best of the rest" spot was awarded to the Nexen N'Fera Sport, with tires from Sava, Vredestein, Falken, Bridgestone, Kumho, Nokian, Pirelli and Toyo all close behind. The Pirelli in particular is an interesting result as it was the best in every category during dry testing, but still finished relatively poorly overall.

We'd also love to see more data from the wear testing, as most of the tires on test were given the same scores, but we'll have to wait for the Auto Bild test due soon for actual numbers.

The full results are below, feel free to ask any questions in the comments, and be sure to come back to Tire Reviews in the coming weeks for more of the latest summer tire tests!

Update

We've been sent the actual wear figured, which sheds some light on the poor result for Pirelli overall. ADAC wear tested each set of tires on the open road for 15,000 km then predicted the total mileage based on starting tread depth and remaining tread before 1.6mm.

Results

ADAC applied the following score weighting to the overall results - Dry 20% / Wet 40% / Noise 10% / Fuel 10% / Wear 20%

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

1st: Continental Premium Contact 6
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 44.2 Dry: 7.2 Wet: 8.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.8 Noise: 4.8 Wear: 8 Overall: 7.8 Top marks in the wet (especially in brakes and handling) A little noisy, a little weak in the dry compared to the best Highly Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £97.62
1st: Michelin Pilot Sport 4
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 46.4 Dry: 8.2 Wet: 8 Rolling Resistance: 8.2 Noise: 6.2 Wear: 8 Overall: 7.8 Very balanced, very good in the dry and wet, low fuel consumption None mentioned Highly Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £107.84
3rd: Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 45.6 Dry: 8.6 Wet: 7.4 Rolling Resistance: 8.2 Noise: 5.8 Wear: 8 Overall: 7.6 Very balanced, particularly good in the dry, low fuel consumption None mentioned Highly Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £90.10
3rd: Maxxis Victra Sport 5
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 44.8 Dry: 8 Wet: 7.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.2 Noise: 6.4 Wear: 8 Overall: 7.6 Very balanced, good in the dry and wet, quiet None mentioned Highly Recommended Read Reviews
5th: Nexen N Fera Sport SU2
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 43 Dry: 7.6 Wet: 6.8 Rolling Resistance: 8.2 Noise: 5.8 Wear: 8 Overall: 6.6 Good in the dry, low fuel consumption Slightly weak in the wet Recommended Read Reviews
6th: Vredestein Ultrac Vorti
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 41.6 Dry: 7 Wet: 6.6 Rolling Resistance: 7.2 Noise: 6.2 Wear: 8 Overall: 6.6 Good in the dry Slightly weak in the wet Recommended Read Reviews
6th: Sava Intensa UHP 2
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 44.2 Dry: 8.4 Wet: 6.6 Rolling Resistance: 8.8 Noise: 5.8 Wear: 8 Overall: 6.6 Lowest fuel use, very good in the dry Slightly weak in the wet Read Reviews
8th: Falken Azenis FK510
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 41.6 Dry: 6.2 Wet: 7.2 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 6 Wear: 8 Overall: 6.2 Good in the wet Relatively weak in the dry Recommended Read Reviews
9th: Toyo Proxes Sport
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 40.6 Dry: 8 Wet: 6.4 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 6.2 Wear: 6 Overall: 6 Good in the dry Slightly weak in the wet, relatively high wear Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £92.99
9th: Pirelli P Zero PZ4
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 42.6 Dry: 9.4 Wet: 8.4 Rolling Resistance: 6.6 Noise: 6.2 Wear: 6 Overall: 6 Best in dry, good in the wet Relatively high wear and high rolling resistance Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £132.91
9th: Nokian PowerProof
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 40.8 Dry: 7.2 Wet: 7.2 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 6.4 Wear: 6 Overall: 6 Good in the dry and wet, relatively quiet Relatively high wear Recommended Read Reviews
9th: Kumho Ecsta PS71
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 40 Dry: 7.2 Wet: 7.4 Rolling Resistance: 8 Noise: 5.4 Wear: 6 Overall: 6 Good in the wet Relatively high wear Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £82.45
9th: Bridgestone Potenza S001
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 40.4 Dry: 8.6 Wet: 6 Rolling Resistance: 7.8 Noise: 5 Wear: 7 Overall: 6 Very good in the dry Relatively weak in the wet Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £97.68
14th: Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 40.2 Dry: 8 Wet: 5.8 Rolling Resistance: 8.4 Noise: 5.2 Wear: 7 Overall: 5.8 Good in the dry, low fuel consumption Relatively weak in the wet Recommended Read Reviews Buy from £96.30
15th: Cooper Zeon CS Sport
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 39.4 Dry: 8 Wet: 5.4 Rolling Resistance: 7 Noise: 5.6 Wear: 8 Overall: 5.4 Good in the dry Relatively weak in the wet Recommended Read Reviews
16th: Rotalla RU01 S Pace
225/40 R18 3PMSF: no	Total: 39 Dry: 6.2 Wet: 4.8 Rolling Resistance: 8.8 Noise: 6.4 Wear: 8 Overall: 4.8 Low fuel consumption Relatively weak on dry and wet roads Conditionally Recommended Read Reviews