Tire Reviews Tire Tests

For 2021, the testing experts at ViBilagare have tested eight of the latest 225/45 R17 tires, with a surprising result!

The Maxxis Premitra HP5 aced the tire test to finish in first spot overall, ahead of the new Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2 in second place and Continental PremiumContact 6 in third. This is a really impressive result for the Maxxis brand, especially when you consider price was NOT taken into account for the final results!

The only caveat worth remembering is wear was not tested in this test. In previous tests where wear results were included, the second placed Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2 had a significant advantage over other tires on test, and the Maxxis didn't score too well..

It's the second time in history the new Bridgestone Potenza Sport has been tested in a tire test, and it's super exciting to see whether it can it match the first place from the Auto Bild Sportscars test!

There are some small differences between the two tests. Firstly, Auto Bild tested 20" tires using a Ford Mustang, where for this test Sport Auto have used the Toyota Supra / BMW Z4 platform which wears 255/35 R19 front and 275/35 R19 rear tires.

Sport Auto have also added a little depth to the test by including both UUHP (or Maximum Performance) and UHP tires, which means we get the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 up against the best from Michelin and Bridgestone, not the Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport.

Following on from the massive 53 tire braking test, Auto Bild have taken the best twenty 205/55 R16 tires through to further testing, which includes wet and dry handling, aquaplaning, rolling resistance, noise, and a rarity in tire testing, wear!

As the 2021 Tire Reviews summer test is covering UHP and SUV sizes, this will be the most complete reference we have this year for the 16" summer tire market, however if you'd like to watch a 16" summer tire test, you can check out ours from last year here.

It's the test we've all been waiting for, it's the first test of the brand new Bridgestone Potenza Sport, the only new tire in 2021 that has the chance of taking the fight to the established ultra high performance tires such as the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, Continental SportContact 6 and Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport.

Naturally, it's the best testers in the business doing it first, the German publication Auto Bild. They've tested nine 265/35 R20 UUHP tires in the dry and wet using a very un-european Ford Mustang.

For the 2021 Sport Auto summer tire test, the German publication have tested eleven tires in the relatively small 195/55 R16 tire size. As this tire size is intended for smaller vehicles such as the Audi A1, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 208 and other similar sized cars, Sport Auto used a Seat Ibiza for testing, and placed all eleven sets of tires through the usual dry, wet and environment based tests.

The 2021 Auto Bild All Rad SUV test has tested ten SUV tires in the popular 215/60 R17 size. While the German publication used a Jeep Renegade for testing, this size is also fitted to vehicles like the Nissan Qashqai, VW Transporter, Renault Kadjar, Toyota C HR and many other popular crossover SUVs.

As always Auto Bild have done a great job testing, as not only have they tested in the dry and wet, they've also conducted FIVE off-road tests. Given these sort of vehicles rarely see any activity outside of the school run, the tests have a low weighting in the overall results, but it's certainly excellent data if you ever plan to take your crossover SUV on grass, gravel, sand or mud!

After already publishing the ADAC 16" tire test in 2021, ADAC have also released their slightly more sporty, 225/50 R17 summer tire test.

While the 16" test received wear data, for this test we have wet braking data, and the range between best and worst is larger than ever!

For the 2021 ADAC summer tire tests, the German organisation selected the popular 205/55 R16 and 225/50 R17 summer tire sizes.

As usual with ADAC tests there is little raw data provided, instead the testers grading each tire with a score, but this year we do get wear data (below) and even some of the testers subjective thoughts on the tires, which is an excellent addition.

Without fail, each year German publication Auto Bild provides the most comprehensive overview of the summer tire market by testing a huge amount of tires ability in the dry and wet, in order to work out which twenty tires deserve to be tested in their full summer tire test.

For 2021, Auto Bild have tested 53 tires in the most popular tire size in Europe, 205/55 R16.

All 53 sets of tires have their wet and dry braking results below, with the shortest 20 combined braking distances progressing to the full test, which will be on the website shortly.

The 2021 summer tire test season is kicking off early, with the excellent team at Auto Zeitung publishing their 10 set 225/40 R18 summer tire test during February!

As this test is out so early in the season, it means the testing would have been completed in late 2020, which means it's missing the new Bridgestone Potenza Sport, but it's still an excellent start to the year as AZ always dig into the subjectiveness of the tires, covering dry handling, wet handling and comfort!

All testing was carried out using a Seat Leon FR, and the popular 225/40 R18 UHP tire size should cover many mid-sized sporty cars, including the ever popular VW Golf, the front of a BMW 1 Series, the Audi TT and many other vehicles.

Every year, the British publication EVO Magazine conduct a UHP summer tire test, with this years test covering the hugely popular 235/35 R19 tire size, on a VW Golf GTI. This year, due to travel restrictions, the handling testing was conducted at MIRA in the UK, rather than the Continental facility in Germany.

The EVO summer tire tests are particularly interesting as they're one of the few publications to really dig into the subjective handling of each tire on test, as what good is a fast tire if it's no fun to drive? This means, much like our own tests, the EVO test can help you understand which tire will give you not just the best grip, but the most driving enjoyment too.

Motorcycle tire testing is the most difficult type the tire testing available, and as such we don't get a many good motorbike tire comparison tests as we do for car and SUV.

Fortunately in 2020 the UK motorcycle magazine MCN managed to test six of the best sports touring motorbike tires using a BMW R1250RS.

The only objective test included was a 70-0 mph dry braking (below), the rest of the results were taken from a 22 mile road route over many different surfaces, which two riders tested blind and rated the tires for steering, confidence, stability, ride quality and feel.

This year Auto Express have tested ten 205/55 R16 summer tires using a VW Golf. You can be forgiven if this setup sounds similar, as it's almost the same test as the Tire Reviews 16" summer tire test.

As eight of the ten tires on test match tires we used in our test, but the overall results differ in places, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look into what's different, and why that might be.

Do you want to know what tire is best for every day, real world driving? In this test we take eleven of the very best 205/55 R16 tires on the market, plus a well regarded budget tire, to see exactly what tire performs best in the dry, wet, comfort, noise and rolling resistance tests!

The Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport RS, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R and Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R are regarded as three of the fastest road-legal track day tires in the world. To find out which of these three semi slick tires reigns supreme, I've borrowed a 991.2 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and have use of Michelin's tire test facility in central France to run my own testing program.

Not being satisfied with just running dry handling, I'm going to test the tires in wet handling, dry and wet braking, and of course the all important dry handling, to find out which tire is fastest in which conditions.

Tire Reviews is a big fan of two wheels, and we gladly cover new motorbike tire launches whenever we're invited to them. Sadly, our driving is better than our riding, which is why we leave the high risk motorcycle tire testing to people who aren't highly likely to destroy the bikes and themselves trying to do a fast lap.

Luckily for us riders, the excellent British magazine Fast Bikes has tested five of the very fastest extreme performance / track tires, using a Suzuki GSX-R1000R, wearing 120/70 R17 and 200/60 R17 "hoops".

Tire testing is incredibly complicated to conduct, and one of the most difficult parts of testing is good repeatability.

Take for example wet braking. To get the wet braking distance of a tire, you don't just do the braking run once, you do it 6-8 times, delete the outliers then average out the results. Even on the most expensive test facilities in the world, with the most perfect sprinkler systems and perfect tarmac, you rarely get the same distance twice as there are so many variables, which means when you use a less than state of the art facility, results can be surprising.

This brings us on to this test by the Italian publication "al volante". 

Here at Tire Reviews, we receive many different questions about tires, but one question that comes up more than most asks if modern retreaded tires, sometimes called "retread" or "remoulds", any good?

While we've not been able to test ourselves, tests from many years ago indicate that retreaded tires don't perform as well as even a budget tire. Car tires typically aren't designed to be retreaded (commercial bus and lorry tires are), so the retreading process can leave you with not only poor performance, but a product that could be classified as unsafe.

Naturally in the past few years there have been improvements in the car retreading process, and one brand in particular, King Meiler, has established a name for itself as "the" retreading brand.

To find out whether a modern retread can match a premium, or even a budget tire, the Polish magazine "Motor" have tested the King Meiler HPZ against the premium Continental PremiumContact 6, and a much cheaper Debica Presto HP.