2012 Autobild Ultimate Tyre Test

jase1

thefishdude wrote: »

nice to see nexens getting a reqsonable turn out for a budget tyre big nexen fan here

Yup Nexen are the new Khumo/Hankook, and look where the latter is

gilbert_and_sullivan

Crabman wrote: »

In probably the largest tyre test of its type, the German magazine Auto Bild have tested 50 leading tyres in both dry and wet braking.

Highlighting the difference in 225/45 R17 tyres, the best tyre (Nokian WR G2) stopped in just 44 meters in the wet from 100kph, while the worst tyre on test, the Rockstone F105, required nearly 28 metres further to stop at 71.7 metres! The Nokians wet braking distance was only a little longer than the worse dry braking score, at 42 metres for the Runway.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-Autobild-50-Tyre-Braking-Test.htm

The summary above which you have quoted is in fact a misprint on the tyre reviews site, i have emailed them to let them know.

The winning tyre is Nokian Z G2 a summer tyre, the WRG2 in the summary above is a winter tyre.

sillygoose

colino wrote: »

Useful tool, but not by any means the full story. The Dunlop Sportmaxx, which will spin you 360 on a "normal" wet roundabout scores highly?

Your car was knackered! I switched to Sport Maxx's when I got tired of the noise and hard ride of my usual Eagle F1's. I went through several sets of the Dunlops and found then superb 85-90% the grip of the legendary F1's but without the racket! ...and as I wasn't paying for tyres or fuel I showed them no mercy.

Perhaps you were sold some foreign ones, there are grey import versions of many big brands that find there way into the country. Often same names and design but not same formula or performance.

mikey72

Marangoni and GT Radial come out well, but the Uniroyal is 7th in this test, but faired poorly in others recently.
Doesn't seem to be much consistency between these tyre tests.

property.advert

mikey72 wrote: »

Marangoni and GT Radial come out well, but the Uniroyal is 7th in this test, but faired poorly in others recently.
Doesn't seem to be much consistency between these tyre tests.

I agree. I have the Uniroyal Rainsport 2s on all corners with about 4k miles on them and they are very good. Yet if I did the same research today (9 months later), they would not feature so highly.

colino

Thanks sillygoose (picked or given name) but the car, excellent in every other respect, I passed on, was a minter and with many jags, was drastically let down by terrible dunlop tyres.

Inner_Zone

daveyjp wrote: »

Goodyear F1s may come near the top, but after having a pair which lasted 8,000 miles they won't be my tyre of choice again.

Great tyres though. Have used them for the last five years.

sunshinetours

molerat wrote: »

It is interesting how some supposed "ditchfinders" from these forums have outperformed some premium brands although some are rightly where they belong.

I would say there were very few surprises actually in the top 15 or so.
Wet braking in particular is important in this country and there are huge differences between the top and even the lower mid range performers in this test.

I love the Sportcontacts on my BMW but their longevity is not great (obviously driving style probably affects this) and they aren't cheap - but none of those at the top of that list are cheap either

AllanB_2

What these tests show is not always useful. Having been a car enthusiast for years and having run many different cars I've found that some tyres suit other cars better than others.

On my Impreza the Toyo Proxes T1S were superb , lasted well, good ride very progressive breakaway and wet grip nearly as good as the Bridgestone Pole Position SO1 NOT the SO2 which were poor. One another car a small light Daihatsu Sirion we found the Kuhmo Escta better than the Continentals.

I've had very poor experiences with Avon ( nearly lost control of a car on a wet rod) Dunlop ( similar poor grip on wet roads) and Pirelli P600 that were not great even in the dry.

I think its good to now see many new brands like Kuhmo, Hankook, Nexen, Nankang etc producing good tyres without the premium price tags you see from some brands.

Personally I would never ever scrimp on tyres as apart from the driver they are one of the most important parts of the car. Crap tyres can make a situation potentially fatal.

andygb

My next set of tyres will probably be Barum's, simply because they score highly, are very reasonably priced, and I used to use them all the time for cycle racing, and found their grip and construction better than many other far more expensive brands. I believe that they are highly regarded in motorsport, particularly rallying.