Tire Reviews Tire Tests

Winter tires are a hot subject at the moment, with new tests being released weekly. Usually winter tire tests focus on the smaller tire sizes winter tires are often used in, meaning if you drive a performance car and are interested in ultra high performance winter tires you have to hope the tires tested in the smaller sizes have the same attributes in the larger sizes.

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This year the 2010 winter tire reviews season was opened by Auto Zeitung who put 14 different 195/65 r15 winter tires on a Ford Focus to the test.

The good news for UK drivers is that this years report included a slush test which rates how the tires cope with the road surface when the packed snow is melting and it's a mix of snow and standing water.

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With fuel prices sky high, "Eco Tires" (or ultra low rolling resistance tires) are a hot topic. Traditionally eco tires have been just like normal tires only with a harder rubber compound. While this is an effective way to save fuel, the harder the tires compound the less grip it produces meaning people were having to consider whether the risk of low grip tires was worth the savings in fuel.

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This years Auto Express UHP Summer tire test comes at a rather odd time - issue 1131 released 8th September. While it might have come at a time when the country is starting to think about winter tires, Auto Express have still done an excellent job writing 9 pages dedicated to 12 performance summer tires over 10 different disciplines. To carry out these tests Auto Express borrowed the Contidrom in Germany, a fleet of Skoda Octavia test cars wearing the optional 225/45 r18 sized tires and purchased 2 sets of each tires tested at random to ensure the manufactures didn't send "special tires".

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Here are the results from the 2010 Autocar tire tests for the RWD section of the test. To read commentary, and the results of the FWD tire test click here

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It's always nice to have a tire test from British Magazine, and this week the Auto Car have provided us with not one, but two excellent tests.

Testing both 205/55 r16 tires on a FWD VW Golf and 225/45 r17 tires on a RWD Mercedes C280, Auto Car visited Uvalde test track in Texas, USA to put the chosen tires through seven different disciplines.

On test were tires from Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Goodyear, Michelin and Vredestein echoing Auto Cars message from 2008 - budget tires aren't worth the risk, especially in a wet climate like the UK.

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Providing an enjoyable change from the usual Ultra High Performance tire tests, Auto Zeitung have rated 10 Premium Touring tires across the usual range of wet and dry tests. As with its other 2010 tire tests, they have included a rolling resistance test ensuring the fuel economy of the tire is included in the final score.

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This is part 2 of the 2010 European Summer Tire Test - 185/65 r15. To read the reaction, and see the results of tires sized 225/45 R17 please read Part 1
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Keen to help tire buyers select the best tire for the 2010 warm season, the German auto club ADAC, Switzerland's Touring Club (TCS) and Austrian magazine AMTC (Automobile, Motorcycle and Touring Club) have already published this years group summer tire test. The usual dry and wet performance tests have been performed, along with scoring for fuel consumption, wear rates and tire noise in this extremely comprehensive test.

Like the AMS tire test the major brands have once again dominated the results table with Pirelli, Dunlop, Continental, Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear taking 10 of the top 12 positions.

Both Nokian and Hankook have once again proved their strength in the midrange category and finished the tests amongst the "big 6", where as the budget brands Goodride, Wanli and Sunny were described as being dangerous thanks to their woeful dry and wet performance.
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If you're interested in premium, ultra high performance sports tires this is the tire test to read. Germanys leading car publication Auto Bild has thoroughly tested no less than 7 premium ultra high performance road tires on a 457bhp 6.3 litre Mercedes C63 AMG.

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In the past few years budget and mid range brands have taken the tire market by storm. Tires like the Falken FK452, Toyo T1R and Uniroyal Rainsport 2 have proven to be excellent performing and cost effective compared to some of the premium offerings. This year however, it seems the premium manufacturers have stepped up a notch and all released excellent updates to their ranges. The 2009 Auto Motor und Sport [AMS] tire tests was dominated by premium brand tires and AMS believe premium cars, like the Mercedes E-Class used in this tire test, should be run with premium tires.

Most tire innovations come from the big 6 manufacturers and patents are quickly awarded stopping the budget manufacturers replicating their discoveries. Due to this, AMS decided to test tires from what it considers to be the "top 10" premium manufacturers. The big 6 are Goodyear, Pirelli, Continental, Dunlop, Bridgestone and Michelin and also included in the test is Uniroyal who are part of Continental, Vredestein which have been recently been bought by the Indian giant Apollo Tires, Nokian who are an independent manufacturer from Finland and Hankook, a Korean "mid range" brand who are quickly moving into the premium sector.

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EVO magazine has a huge amount of respect in the industry, making their tire test in 2007 one of the most talked about tire tests of the year. Since 2007 the Germans have put out a number of excellent group tire tests, but the pages of EVO have remained strangely devoid of the black boots. Thankfully this month that has all changed.

Feeling the high expectations the EVO writers selected 9 tires to test and visited the Contidrome in Germany to put them through their paces over 9 different tests.

As EVO chose an MX5 as their test mule which has relatively small rear tires (205/45 r17), the choice of high performance tires was somewhat limited and the final mix a little bizarre.

Tires on test:
- Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
- Continental Contisportcontact 3
- Hankook Ventus K12 EVO
- Kumho Ecsta LE Sport KU39
- Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2
- Uniroyal Rainsport 2
- Vredstein Ultrac Cento
- Yokohama Advan Neova AD08
- Zeetex HP103

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We'll keep this brief! In 2010 Auto Zeitung have tested 9 ultra high performance summer tires on a 200bhp VW Scirocco.

The magazine covers aquaplaning resistance (where sensors determine the speed at which a tire floats in 7mm of standing water), braking (from 62mph in both the wet and dry), a timed lap in the wet and dry, and how the cars respond on the limit. Added for this year, Auto Zeitung also tested the rolling resistance of each tire using a dedicated machine.

Key highlights include...

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It might still be August, but after an unusually snowy start to 2010 talk has already turned to winter tires in the UK.

While we're waiting for the magazines to put together their 2010 winter tire tests, here's one of the more interesting articles from 2009. This test is particularly good as it uses a powerful RWD car (Mercedes SLK350) which wears relatively wide 225/45 r17 performance tires.

Each of the 8 tires were tested in the snow, on wet roads and in the dry with the scoring emphasis bias towards wet weather and snow performance (these are winter tires after all!)

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The Continental Winter Contact TS 830 once again proves it's the snow king, scoring a massive 98 points out of the possible 100 in the snow tests. It also proves extremely strong in both the wet and dry road tests, meaning it really is a tire you could use all year round. The Goodyear Dunlop brands have placed second and third respectively with the Goodyear Ultra Grip Perf 2 proving the strongest tire in the wet and the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D a good all round scorer.
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We might now be into 2010 but we've found not one, but two excellent tire test from 2009. It seems while we've been keeping an eye on the German magazines ADAC and Auto Zeitung, Auto motor und Sport has somehow slipped under the radar. What's more, like all the German car mags they've done a rather excellent job of testing both summer and winter tires in 2009!

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Too good to be true? A tire test with premium ultra high performance tires, mid range performance AND trackday semi slick tires. Australian MOTOR magazine has done just that! Follow the link below for the results of the test.



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Here at tire-reviews.com we love Auto Bild. No other magazine comes close to the amount of tire testing they do and being German, their testing metholodgy is always excellent.

This month they've released their 2009 All Season (175/65 R14) tire test.




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ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V.), Europes largest motoring club have published their 2009 winter tire test.

As is always the case, ADAC have been extremely thorough testing 34 different tires across two tire sizes. All the tires were purchased anonymously from independent retailers to avoid any "special" test samples being delivered by the manufacturers.

The winter tires were tested on dry and wet roads, a specially created snow surface and the local ice ring to emulate icy condtions!

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Is this the new high performance king? Read on to the 2009 Auto Zeitung Summer Tire Test with some surprising results!







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