Tyre News

Patience is a virtue long needed by those awaiting the WinterContact TS 870, but it has finally paid dividends: Continental has debuted this successor to the WinterContact TS 860 as a ‘double act’ together with the WinterContact TS 870 P. The tyre maker originally intended to release these two new winter products individually, one after the other. The WinterContact TS 870’s launch should have taken place last autumn but Continental postponed it until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Auto Bild begins coverage of its 2021 test by noting that motorists in its home market of Germany largely ignored winter tyres until legislation mandated their use in certain conditions. The absence of a comparable law in the UK means winter tyres remain a niche product here, yet they’re a sensible choice for some drivers, such as those living in remote areas of the country or owners of powerful vehicles.

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.

Everyone who tested Uptis at this month’s IAA Mobility 2021 “unanimously approved” the prototype airless tyres, says Michelin. This is a lofty claim and hard to verify, but Michelin does provide some evidence in a short video featuring automotive influencer Mr JWW and enigmatic car enthusiast Gercollector.

Statista research published in May 2021 found that over 93 per cent of consumers had made a purchase online in the last 30 days. The tyre sector is no different with both pre-sale research and online tyre retail booming. But tyres are a highly technical specialist product. So, is buying tyres online a good idea? Here, Dartford Tyres shares three reasons in favour of buying tyres online.

Half a century after kitting out the original prototype, Pirelli is back as Lamborghini Countach tyre supplier. All 112 examples of the new 814hp, 220 mph Countach LPI 800-4 will wear Pirelli P Zero tyres in 255/30 R20 size at the front and 355/25 R 21 at the rear as standard. Pirelli says it has optimised the tyre’s structure and compound to “reach the best possible roadholding in all driving situations” and provide “high levels of traction and braking in the wet as well as the dry.”

The shortlist for this year’s Auto Bild winter tyre test provides no big surprises, with all 20 tyres chosen for the final round being flagship or second brands from well-known manufacturers. Bridgestone’s Blizzak LM005 tops the list after delivering the shortest combined stopping distance (from 80 km/h in wet conditions and 50 km/h on snow) during the preliminary test round. Following closely on the Bridgestone tyre’s heels were the Dunlop Winter Sport 5, Hankook Winter I*Cept RS² and Continental WinterContact TS 870.

Launched in June, the Halfords Garage of the Year competition has attracted hundreds of entries. A shortlist of 20 has now been selected. The winner will be announced in the coming weeks.

Demand for all-season tyres has shot up since Michelin launched its initial CrossClimate in 2015. 27 million all-season car and SUV tyres were sold in Europe in 2020, up from 11.2 million in 2015. As demand has grown, so the product has evolved. For example, the new CrossClimate 2 offers a 10 per cent reduction in rolling resistance when compared to its best-selling predecessor thanks to a Cool Running Sidewall designed to improve fuel efficiency or electric vehicle battery range...” amongst other enhancements.