It's not often we report on tire tests from across the pond. The tires, roads, and driving conditions can be very different, especially in North America, however this test from the Australian magazine "Australian Motor" was too interesting / random to miss.
Testing 235/35 R19 on a Mercedes A45 AMG isn't that unusual, but the mix of tires included is! The magazine tested eights tires in total, and included tires you'd normally expect such as the Continental Sport Contact 5P and Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2, but then also included the track day specific Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 instead of the Pilot Super Sport, the Dunlop Direzza DZ102 instead of the Sport Maxx RT, a Winrun budget. An interesting mix.
Track vs Road Tires
Unfortunately the magazine didn't do any proper laps to judge subjective handling, and the test only covered dry and wet slalom, dry and wet braking, and a figure of eight, but it still gave us a good look at how the track rubber performed next to road tires.
Unsurprisingly in all but one of the dry tests, the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 was the best tire, and the only test it didn't win, it finished equal first with the Continental Sport Contact 5P. More interestingly was the gap to the Conti. While the Michelin had the clear lead in dry slalom, the Conti was only slightly behind in dry braking from 62 mph, at 113 feet vs 35.79. The third best tire, the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A was a further 7 feet behind the Conti at 37.50.
In the wet, the top two were slightly different, but for a track day tire the Michelin did very well to beat all the other road tires in the wet 'eight' test, and put in a good showing under wet braking to finish in the middle of the pack.
The Budget
The Winrun R330 could only drag itself out of a firm last place in the wet tests, where there it only narrowly beat the track day (and rather dated) Dunlop. It still lagged behind the rest of the group in every test, proving once again, budget tires aren't quite there yet.
The Rest
One last surprise of the test was the Bridgestone beating the Goodyear overall. The RE050A was replaced by the S001 a number of years ago, and neither have tested particularly well in European tests, which makes it import to remember what works in one test, in one climate on a particular vehicle might not work for everyone. As always, use tirereviews to aggregate all the magazine and user reviews possible!
The Results
Continental ContiSportContact 5 P
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 9 |
| Wet | 10 |
| Overall | 43 |
Total: 62
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 10 |
| Wet | 6 |
| Overall | 40 |
Total: 56
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 9 |
| Overall | 36 |
Total: 53
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7 |
| Wet | 8 |
| Overall | 28 |
Total: 43
Toyo Proxes T1 Sport
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 5 |
| Wet | 7 |
| Overall | 27 |
Total: 39
Falken FK453
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6 |
| Wet | 5 |
| Overall | 22 |
Total: 33
Dunlop Direzza DZ102
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 4 |
| Wet | 3 |
| Overall | 18 |
Total: 25
Winrun R330
235/35 R19
All discipline results (3)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 3 |
| Wet | 4 |
| Overall | 12 |
Total: 19
One correction.
The Dunlop DZ102 tested was not the "track version". You're thinking the DZ102 *Star Spec* which had completely different compounds.
The DZ102 tested here is basically the touring version.
I see the sportcontact 5P has done very well in a few tests. How would they go lap time wise around a dry racetrack against a middle of the range semi - say a federal 595 RSR or a Hankook RS3 or Nitto NT-05 ? thanks
The 5P has been replaced by the 6.
Check out this test - http://www.tirereviews.co.u...
The road tire was almost certainly the 6, so should answer your question quite nicely.
Thanks for the reply. I was in my local tire shop here in Australia and read this article in a magazine in full. The Sport Cup 2 was a gap quicker than the conti 5P in the dry slalom run but the conti made up for the final score by doing better in the wet and other areas. According to this
http://www.tirereviews.co.u...
I would assume the conti 5P would be about 2 km/hr slower than the Sport Cup 2 in the dry ? I'm excited about the conti 6 but my wallet thinks the 5P should be on sale now.
So you think the 5P would be equal to the Advan AD08r and the Toyo888r around a track and the new 6 would be even faster ? If so that's very impressive for a non semi slick...
my own query re tire choice was why they didn't include the brand new Bridgestone Adrenalin RE003. It would have been no odder than other inclusions & would at least have been current.
It could be down to whether the tire is available in the Australian market. The RE003 isn't available in the UK, nor do Bridgestone have plans to launch it here.
Yes it is. In Bridgestone's Bloggers' preview of the RE003 in Australia, it was put up against some rivals (in carefully selected pairs) in various disciplines. Three such rivals were Michelin's PS3, Pirelli's PZero Rosso (an oddly obsolescent choice of rival) & Continental's SC5. So it would seem to be viewed as either in the class of the MM test (SC5) or next one down (PS3).
Then this test is even more confusing! We know Bridgestone put the RE002 forward for the UK magazine EVO this year, the RE003 or S001 for this test would have made more sense.
Yep. I don't know if the magazine had any influence or the manufacturers did the choosing. As you observed, the astonishing thing was how well the Michelin did in the wet. It makes the point that wet grip, unless speeds are high enough to threaten aquaplaning, are more a matter of compound micro-interaction with the surface imperfections than water channelling.
A quick summary of the RE003 would be that it's as nicely crisp in response as the 002 but with much better wet grip. The only "pair" that seemed challenging for the RE003 in the preview was to put it up against the excellent SC5 in wet laps. It was at least equal to the Conti.
Drop us an email on [email protected] , would be interesting to hear more
I had a look & the S001 is not available in Australia in the relevant size (the RE003 is though). Relatedly, the seemingly odd choice of the Conti SC5P over the superior SC5 is also explained by size availability.
The 5P is the "Performance" version of the 5, and is available in the larger sizes. It was launched before the 5, but is still a very good tire (as this test proves)
Indeed. Similar to a point I made in relation to another article where the test included a measure of the rubber durometer, some of the softer tires were more durable and some of the harder ones had great wet grip, showing that the general assumption of softer = more grip, harder = better durability don't exactly bear out in practice. What matters is the make-up of the compound. Add into that that the durometers were all largely similar...