For the 2015 ultra high performance tire test, Auto Bild have chosen the new BMW M4, wearing 275/35 R19 rear and 255/35 R19 fronts. While this limits the amount of tires available to test to just seven, it is a very good test car as the M4 is the benchmark for the current breed of big-wheeled super-saloons!
Surprisingly missing from the test were Pirelli, Dunlop and Yokohama, but Auto Bild did manage to include Hankook, Maxxis and Nankang to give a spread of the midrange and budget end of the markets.
The Results
Subjectively, the tire which offered the best steering feel was no surprise. The Michelin Pilot Super Sport offered outstanding turn-in and great feel, so much so that sometimes it left the rear a little lose. The Vredestein was a close second, and while the Vorti might have lost some of the sharpness the Ultrac Sessanta had, it still did very well on test and even provided a slightly better overall balance than the Michelin ending up with a fractionally quicker lap time. Continental, Hankook and Goodyear all had very close lap times for third to fifth, and unsurprisingly the two cheapest tires on test were the two slowest.
In the wet Vredestein and Hankook traded top places in handling and braking, with the Maxxis and Nankang once again consistently last.
Overall, Auto Bild awarded the top spot to the Hankook Ventus S1 EVO, a surprise result for the Korean brand considering the strong opposition. It tested well in every category, and somehow managed to stop 9 feet shorter than the next best in wet braking (places two to five were only covered by just 5 feet…)
Second place was awarded to the Michelin Pilot Super Sport. Nearly perfect in the dry, combined with a strong wet performance and good comfort meant it was a great all round choice for the BMW. Third place was the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2, which placed well in every category and perhaps an overly harsh fourth place for the Vredestein Ultrac Vorti, whos only weakness seemed to appear in the aquaplaning test.
Hankook Ventus S1 evo
275/35 R19
All discipline results (5)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6 |
| Wet | 8 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 6 |
| Noise | 6 |
Total: 32
Michelin Pilot Super Sport
275/35 R19
All discipline results (5)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7 |
| Wet | 5 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 4 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 27
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2
275/35 R19
All discipline results (5)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 5 |
| Wet | 6 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 6 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 28
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti
275/35 R19
All discipline results (5)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 7 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 4 |
| Noise | 6 |
Total: 31
Continental ContiSportContact 5 P
275/35 R19
All discipline results (5)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6 |
| Wet | 5 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 4 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 26
Nankang Noble Sport NS20
275/35 R19
All discipline results (5)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 3 |
| Wet | 4 |
| Comfort | 5 |
| Rolling Resistance | 4 |
| Noise | 6 |
Total: 22
Maxxis Victra Sport VS01
275/35 R19
All discipline results (5)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 4 |
| Wet | 1 |
| Comfort | 5 |
| Rolling Resistance | 6 |
| Noise | 6 |
Total: 22
The Hankook is already been replaced with the evo 2... Wasn't it the ventus S1 evo 2 that was testen?
It was likely due to the low volume size tested, they could only submit the S1 Evo.