tyre testing

It’s been raining a lot lately, and that is great news for tyre developers testing the wet performance of their latest products. Not so good if they’re trying to test tyre performance in the dry, and it would be better to go indoors in search of better weather. Continental has done precisely this.

Multiple tyre tests in recent years have shown all-season tyres to be a good choice for people wanting safe, year-round motoring, but Auto Bild points out that testing has mostly focused on tyres for small and compact cars. To shift the spotlight onto tyres for sporty mid-sized saloons, the German motoring publication has evaluated 32 brands in size 225/50 R17. In Auto Bild tradition, its testers carried out wet and dry braking tests to cut down this field of candidates to a shortlist of the 16 top performers.

At the end of November Auto Express published its latest test comparing the performance of leading year-round tyres. Continental’s AllSeasonContact won but Goodyear’s Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 and Hankook Kinergy 4S2 were hot on its heels in second and third place respectively.

As we shared in July, progress is being made towards a wet grip test for worn tyres. Michelin actively supports this. Through its Long Lasting Performance (LLP) strategy, it claims that driving on tyres to the legal tread depth of 1.6mm can be safe. But as a new tyre test shows, the subject is one where opinions vary.

Prefer to watch a tyre test than read about it? Then you’ve come to the right place. Tyre Reviews has tested eight brands of UHP tyre and presented the proceedings in a 16-minute video. As far as we’re aware this is the first full-video test ever published – but we’re certain it won’t be the last.

The latest tyre test from German car magazine Auto Bild Klassik sets out to show whether “classic tyres with today’s technology can make the driving behaviour of yesterday’s sports cars even more dynamic and, most importantly, safer.” To answer the question, its test team fitted eight 185 R15 (today’s 185/80 R15) classic car tyre brands […]

The problem with the wet grip rating found on every tyre label is that it measures wet grip when the tyre is new – and tyres don’t remain new for very long. This will change in the next few years with the introduction of wet grip testing on worn tyres. WhatTyre recently spoke with Michelin, a passionate supporter of such testing, about what we should expect.

Continental opened its new Advanced Indoor Evaluation Center in Ulvade, Texas on 5 June 2019. The firm has spent 9 million euros on the new test centre. In January 2019, Continental announced that it had begun outside driverless tyre testing at its Ulvade centre.