GOODYEAR EAGLE Fi — AS BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE TIRE Pe eae eae GOODYEAR TAKES PERFORMANCE TO NEW HEIGHTS. .. the best pasa . you can't beat ae fete Meal Pe ere ate MP ate): ed ee ae aS ee ae Pe aTIRE TEST THE QUICK AND THE TREAD We test 11 of the big names in street tires. BY LARRY WEBSTER inding the right tire for your ride is like trying to pick the right mattress for a good night's sleep. You know that buying the wrong one can have dire conse. quences. but you can get dizzy just wading through the jungle of choices. And unlike mattresses, you can’t take new tires for a test run. That's where we First off, we decided against evaluating the popular all- season tires in favor af an examination of 11 high-perform- ance ones, what are labeled in the industry as*“maximiim per- formance” tires, If you're like us, you want to know which fires will best contribute t the performance of your w secepling the inevitability of having #0 switch to snow tires ‘when the white flakes appear. Even iTyoue home turf is snow free, you still have to deal with driving in the rain, Hence, all the tires here were put through three wet tests and three dry tests, Testing tires iss difficult job (and probably the reason we haven't conducted such a test since 1989), But tires are 4 most critical part of your ear, your only connection to the rowed. ‘There are many diffieult-to-control variables that affect tire performance and make accurate testing a challenge. For one, the temperature of the track surface, which can havea signif- icant effect on how a tire performs, can vary widely aver the course of a day ‘To minimize these variables, we enlisted the help of the Tire Rack, a tire and automotive-accessory business that was created in 1979 by a.couple of autocrossers—Pete Veldman and his son-inelaw, Mike Ioines—who found ittough to locate high-performance tires for their hobby. The business tonk aff, and in 2001. the Tine Rack built a 530 000-square-foot ware~ house anda small west track in South Bend, Indiana, The com. pany Keeps a fleet of three BMW 325i that it uses to per orm its own tre tests To educate its sales foree and regulaly pasts the data on the Web at wworlirerack.com (888-541 The Tire Rae generously offered us the use of its BMWs st, The 325i is a wonderfully balanced ear, and it 8 SO Consistently predictable that we felt sure we'd get a clear idea of what the tires were doing as we put them through the tests. The required tire size—225/45R-17—is made by the 11 brands we wanted to evaluate. We used*) a Tire Work? ites are much more sophisticated than they look. Although the basic construction af every tie here i the same-there's a carcass of polyester oF rayon far with steel cords baked inside the rubber-there are countless detail ciferences that affect hove a tire performs. The most obvious isthe tread clesign. Tites with lage grooves gener: ally expel water ftom roaduays more effectively. The larger and deeper the grooves, the better the fires able to resist hydroplaning, But these large grooves doa't help on dy surfaces, where the more rubber a tire putson the road, the better it pris. Think of a sick racing tre that has no grooves. Thea take fr example, the BFGoodrich tire inthis test. thas large tread blocks, not many grooves; as a result’ great in the dry but not so hat in the wet. ‘We're oversimpliying here, becouse the chemical makeup of the rubber— nom as compound-aso has a pro found effect on grip in both wet and dry conditions. Usually, a compound that's effective when the road is wet can over heat andl get greasy wen the road is cry. Thats why we experienced a few tires that excelled in the wet but not in the dry-and vice versa. ‘tie, lke mast pans of a car, a compromise. Make it great in the wet and it more than likely sacrifices dry performance, and that’s why' we did’ come across one tie that as able to ace all the tests. Sill there are countless other vati- ables for tire engineers ta consider, For ‘example, the construction of that inner carcass can be made sit for precise feel or compliant fara goad, comfy ride. And the construction can havea marked effect on performance Don't forget noise, durability, and appearance considerations, too. its enough to make us glad we're not tie engineers. “Ww BMW's recommended tine-pressure set tings of 29-psi front and 35-psi rear forall ca testing “Although the track -we used is small — longest straight portion is only 436 feet—it's Lined with sprinklers that can soak the asphalt and simulate driving in ruin. The 0.3-mile autocross. course has five timing beacons that provided a total time for cach lap and segment times along the way. One of those segments wasa long constant-radis turn that allowed us toca. culate maximum Iatezal grip during each lap. It took three days te perform all the tests. On day one, we did wet and dry brake tests, We accelerated to 50 mph and then braked 10 a standstill. (We were unable to drive to our traditional 70-mpa rari becouse there simply wasnt enough track) There was a benefit to that lower speed: Itensured that we were measuring the braking performance ofthe tires and not just brake fade. Over the next two days, when we per= formed the we' and dry uuiocrass tests, We were joined by Spencer Geswein of Full- Lock Industries. Geswein and Brian Smith formed Full-Lock in 2001 and offer a variety of driving-related services that include instruction, testing, and racing (www full-fockeam). Both men spent st Jeast 10 years testing ttes far Michelin, so we figured that kind of experience would uncover some subtle tire traits that we right miss. And in ease you're thinking Geswein might play favorites, he asked that we moe tell him which tires he was driving on, so his testing of the 11 brands was done blind Geswein drove three laps throw.gh the jutoczmss course, and then Wwe drove three Japs—in dry and wet conditions. We aver- aged the six dry and six wet laps to come up with atime for each tre’s performance con wet und dry surfaces. Inthe end, se had performance results for six tests: brakEpg autocross, and lateral grip—each in wet and dry conditions. ‘We wave the top-performing tire ineach test a.score of 100 and scored the rest on their relative performance. For cxample, the tits that had the highest dry lateral grip ‘£95 g scored 100 points, and the tire placing last with 0.88 g received 92.6 points (0.88 is 92.6 percent of 0.95). We then added the scores from all the dry tests to artive at a dry-performance rating and did the same for the wet-test results Things were more complicated when it ‘came to determining the finishing order of the 11 tires. In addition to factoring in the ‘wet and dry scores, we gave points based ‘ona tire’s price (we used the typical selling price in our calculations) and tread-wear grade, which is a rough estimate of how ong tire will have usable tread, For the price und tread-wear ratings we used the same proportional method. But the categories were not_all ‘weighted equally, Our test focused on measuring performance, so we decided that results in the dry—lateral grip, for example—would carry the most weight. ‘Wet performance is important, but less so) for the purposes of this test. The price and the tread-wear scores had nothing to do ‘with performance, but who doesn't con: sider what something will cost before ‘After a lot of debate, our scheme worked like this: The proportional ‘weighting for tread-wear and price scores ‘vas cut in half, the wet scores were not changed, and we doubled the dry-per- formance scores. And that"s how a tire’s ‘overall ranking wus culculated for this test. ‘Should you disagree with our rating methad, we've presented all the data in graphical farm so you can decide what's important to you. ‘Before you jump to the results, a few more things: The BMWs are rear-wheel drive, and our subjective comments might nnot be completely applicable to front-drive cars, which typically have handling char- acteristics different from the BMWs". We dldn’t test the tires far ride o° noise char- acteristics, two traits tiremakers may con: sider as important as performance. WeKumho Ecsta MX Nl rethose nwo for drivers interested in spoed, When the three days ended, we had a n af data—and sore backs from ng ries 43 Limes, We hope you find esd tien ‘Compared with tire companies th ts would be secondary hhave been in business for mace than 100 years (Michelin and Goodyear, for example), Kumho began selling tires in Korea 45 years ago. Te company has been selling its rubber in the U.S. since 1966, andl its tires are well estab lished and competitive in amateur eircles, Its highest-performing sacet tire, though, couldn't keep up here. Inevery test except ddry broking, the MX finished well dowa the scale Tn the dry tests, the Kumhos fet stable and casy to drive and gave plenty af ‘warning of the approsching traction lim The tires vecovered well once that limit, ‘was eressed. They did't offer much grip (0.92 g versus the best at 0.95), and the time of 30.28 seconds in the dry aurioerass was 0,62 second slower than the fastest tee, That may not seem like much, but our test course was only 0.3 mile long. and om the gap would be eam a longer tracl mensurately 2 Te was tricky driving the Kumho in the ‘wet, however, because once the tite stared sliding, it took seemingly forever to recover and regain traction. Geswein ddocermined it was simply “slippery.” That BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD oN by Ng behavior would have been excused if the Kumba had posted fast numbers the dry but it didn’t. And although the MX —at 3136 per—was the third-least-expensive tine in our test, the high seo segory wasn't enough to regs lost in the perform: ole, Kumho recently introduced a new tipe called the Eosia SPT thatoffers slightly than the MX but may be jgquite tempting with a price of $90. cd Eljeeericey io) ‘Here's a tive that trades off its weak- nesses on wet surfaces for outstanding pet formance onddry anes. The BFGoodrich g- Force gripped so ferociously inthe dry that it felt almost like a race tre. It posted the highest lateral aeceleration (0.95 g) on the dry skidpad, and i never placed lover than third best in the other dry tests, The g- Force rewarded aggressive driving be less perforn Bridgestone Potenza REOSOA » ‘ @ r ‘ance it started sli (Ona wet mad, the g-Foreeis not so for giving. Once you venture past the limits. ‘ofadhesion and the tire begins to slide, you sget.a spooky feeling that resembles driving. ‘an ice, that is, you slide for a while before ‘gains grip. Gesweincs Force's wet-Weather performance “not good” and “easy to overdrive in the wi rack s some tires do. In finished last in two.out of three wet This result was not a surprise because printed on the side of this tire ate the let ters “KD." which company employees told us stand for “killer dry.” Although this tire was designed to give up some wet per- formance in return for dry grip, we dic find ‘afew other tires that re just as capable in the dry and a lot betier in the wet stone performed a lo be in the wet than the BFGoodrich, [n two. wet tests, the autocross aad the skidpad, it placed third. Those were its highest Fin: Ishes, and for the most part this tie didn't shine in any one area, In performance terms, the Bridgestone micipack. Ie Fell wo ninth in the averall ranking becanse its [40 tread-wear grade was the lowest of the group, and com: pounding S178 it was the second: ast-expensive tee Our subjective comments seemed 1 back up the midpack performance. Geswein said it felt “dull and discon: nected” and that itwas “somewhat saft andToyo Proxes TIR Pirelli P Zero Rossa Asimmetrico Dunlop SP Sport Maxx NWAE eeepc imprecise when driven hard,” Although we i tire, we wondered if its lazy feel was a result of being designed for a compliant n't test the ride characteristics of this Fide, I performance is your goal, there ste batter choices. ro Ada us “Tayo says its new TIR has “h ulus bead apex rubber." You probably d know what that means, and neither da-we. This wasn’t mueh more clear: "Spiral ‘wound, jointless edge and eapplies.” IFthis test werebasedn no comprendoenginees- speak, Toyo would win, In fact, the Proxes never placed highce than eighth in any test, and intwo dry tess, the autacross:and the skidpad.the Toyofin- ling the top ft gins, In some tests itfelt better 1s performing, burowerll Gesweinnoted it was “soft and imprecise” and didn’t “feel like a sport ti In the end, the Toyo has its high wear ‘prac (280) and attractive price ¢$135) to thank For its eighth-place finish, Im per= ished last, nificant than itac Formance terms, there are lots of tires that lo better. Perhapsa new set of “capplies” would help. Seventh Place Gace eee ee With this Pirellt's seventh-place finish swe come now ta the first of the midpack tires, which never execlled, but neither die they fall an their faves, ‘The Pirelli did flub two tests, which is swhy it lands farthest down in this group. arip test, the Pirelli tied 1 the dey-later for sevomd to | oat the enthusiast sensibilities but ot knocking ‘oar sacks off, either, The Pirelli didn't move us to fill ou noichooks with earaments. Geswein noted there was “nothing particularly strong o¢ sweak" in its performance. We did notice it ‘was easy to smoothly straddled the transition zone between sliding and gripping. When some tires—the Kumhes come to rind—begin to slide on wet surfaces, they veal slide, fe in the wet because it after oar testing, Pirelli called to 1 different version of the Asimmetrico that would have performed better. This version is nosed iby a hsn-to- see "MO" that's embossed on the sidewall (it stands for "Mercedes spec.” identifying the line of cars it was desig uses a different compound th tested, Bryer Pe ase ces The Dunlop surpassed the Fire overall score by just 0.1 point, am amaz- ingly close finish of 1100 possible points ‘The Dunlop performed better in most test eategorios than the Pirelli. We thought itwaca fairly satisfying tire to deive in that it provided good road feedback and scoced higher in the wet tests than in the dey, In he water, the Dunlop had & “prope bination of direct feel and firm Geswein noted. But in the dry, the tire seemed to lose its confidenc® and lost some of the erispness we appre One thing to keep in mind about the imprints wee carefully oblained is that ate’ contact patch changes sramatcally ast Tadd, so these prints. are not accurate ep- resentations ofthe ‘amount of rubber that each tre puts on the oad while comering or brakingslightly better wet tire but isn't The Dunlop was the only re that had its con imprinted on the tead, which might score style points with some Fifth ene ca eases Hank ook hi tires. cant match —a $99 price eget Hankook dd bane ip, seorin braking reculs landed it in last place, that shortcoming did not greatly affect rhe Flan Kook's drysautocross showing 2 29.96: a third-place result that 0.20 seenond away from the svn. ed For dry ua \Wel-rack results were below e. Like the other poor runners in wi Han ook felt greasy and was slow to recover fice it broke It placed in the top half of every test wet tract Koran tire fel and finished second in boi wet and dry That performance will cost yau. At sticky as it ‘competition, braking, animpressive display-orthistire's $179, the PS2is the most expensive tire in ‘The th h, the harder you nd competence the test, A set of these Michelins would run drive th Perhaps the nos interesting revel ‘almost dou i four Han: ifyou't ‘addict who doesn't how similar the tie Felt in water a > for, Is it worth it? How impor mind sacrificing some wet-weather eapa- on dry pavement. Regardless of the level, tant is all-around performance to yu? bili s.the Hankook is a choice that will the PS2 provided crisp turn-in response save you money without lasing much per> and a gradual loss of grip-as the driver formance exceeded the tire's comering capabilities Ae cornposel of two diferent comps. put tie BEI cars ins poston to go Cia The outer two-thirds of the tread has «fastest throagh ou tests. Ceck the results Ever since we fistesperiencedthe P52 _eubber compound that’s biased to provide With the Yokos at all comers, the BMW in 2004, we suspected it Wasa betier-than- good dry traction; the inner third has adif- was fastest on the dry autocross, and they performer. We were right that's skewed toward provided the shortest stopping di ce by Hankook Ventus R-S2 2212 ‘Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 Yokohama Advan Neova ADOT QUI? ailie QiheBFGoodrich a significant margin, Geswein knew the Yoko was a tire before its results were posted. “Gr - Way wp” he contimigated after ar Bridgestone also noted that grip level stayed consistent exen when the tire was sliding. Inthe dry, Continental it performed a lot like the BFGoodrich, but Dunlop the Yokohama is alse pretty good in the oodyea Of all the tires, Geewein thought the « 7 ‘Yokohamaand the BPG g-Foece rewarded Hankook ‘aggressive driving because the two had a ‘Wide plates af grip versus slip angle. That Kumho ‘means if you entera comer a little too fast - and begin sliding. the Yokohama recovers Michelin duickly ad in some sense covers up you a mistakes, Pirelli ‘The behavior in the wet was a lie ‘more toward the slippery end ofthe scale, Toyo ‘but we could push the Yokohama hard and Yokohama not feel as if we were on the verge of suxklen spinowt, This combination of out- 50 90 100110 standing dry performance and moce-than- Vital Stats wre6 see radia rece ene ‘pa itt 0 7 = Me ‘pfs VA KD Sages a a = ae Petia REA I ae aH Eo) a = enspertenar2 Denlop cr a a ao © SP spac, ‘ceodeae ae wv Ea a 8 | tage es os veoh @ a = ae = ‘ern 2 222 una ae aw ae a = wt ‘wet a aw Ey a = it Spent Po a a ry a © Prats so Asi ao as a a ao "7 Prove THR "eke m7 ow we a = ‘von Naor 07 “The cunbe. seine ac ho is res Fon 098 ath a gol ert en; Pee mi ec Gy Toebtrnin peggy BEd esp ‘ied tech1 Continental ContiSportContact 2 Hil passable wet performance makes the Yokohama a very alluring product. If you're looking tocul the quickest lap times ‘while using a street tir, this isthe one to have. Bring money: They're $175 apiece found the Continental in second place. we ‘went back and checked our math, During three days of testing, our subjective impressions didn’t lead usto believe that the Continental was a second-place tire bat when we adked the scores. that's where at landed It simply didn’t feel as sporty as some of the ather performer —the Yokatama and the Michelin, for two—but thanks in Par to the wide channels im its treads that shed water well, this tire was very good in the wet, placing second in the wet autocross test and skidipad measurements On dry surfaces, the Conti never mse above third from last among 11 tires, It felt soft and imprecise, two qualities notin the vocabularies of performance tires Geswein grouped il with the other “dull, and disconnected” tires. So how, then, did it land in second place? There simply weren’thuge gaps in the percentage differences among all the tires in dry situations, For example, the last-place tire was within Mt percentaf the best tire. But in the wet the spread from best to worst was 15 percent, which made 0.60 0.801 Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-03 AWD Conti wear grade thar was, its S146 price point neni ad 3980 weed the highest for this tes, ‘competent in the dry. It ‘on the dry skidpact, ont consid aly 0. The E {201 8 Jot of favorable commer Geswein called it “divect be tire provided clear signals about its cont There were tires that performed better in the dry, but the Eagle wasn't was a litle ess precise than the BPG ww ona dry wack, but ct by much, Andi like the Continental, the Ciondyear ha a high 20 ead-wear rae, Yokohama ji BFGoodrich fi Michelin Goodyear} Bridgestone | Pirelli Kuhmo Hankook jf Dunlop fi Continental j Toyo} : | 260 270 280 290 300 Goodyear Continental Bridgestone Michelin Yokohama Dunlop Pirelli Hankook Toyo BFGoodrich Kuhmo 230 240-250-260 270 280) 280 300 OVERALL SCORE Goodyear Continental Yokohama, Michelin Hankook Dunlap ...... Piel Toyo... Bridgestone BFGoodrich Kumho dy pestorrnce (a), vet performanc