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2015 European Tire Test 205/55 R16

Jonathan Benson
Data analyzed and reviewed by Jonathan Benson
9 min read Updated
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Discussion

10 comments
  1. Thinking out Loud archived

    Surprised the Goodyear EfficientGrip beat the Conti Premium contact.... I found the Conti to be a very good handling tire in all conditions albeit a little noisy on less than perfect road surfaces. I replaced them with Goodyear EfficientGrip's as it was cheaper and being promoted with a free insurance and felt the adverse handling effect (It was more comfy and quiet though). if you driving a FWD with some grunt the Conti is the better option.

    #2237
  2. Fred archived

    Never trust German tests. They are all biased and corrupted. These days all German tests are sponsorred. It's the same with rating agencies such as Moodys or S&P. Companies buy these ratings.

    #2065
  3. 4cvg archived

    When the PC5 was released, your article on that release showed an official Continental "spider" chart comparing it to the PC2 & to the EC5. The PC5 & EC5 were superior to the PC2 in almost every respect & the only differences on the chart were that the PC5 was markedly better in wet braking & the EC5 in rolling resistance. That chart's claims contradict this test. Some of the detail of the tire test show, from the wet tests, the following point scores (lower is better):
    - wet braking: PC5 2.3 & EC5 3.2 (as expected);
    - longitudinal aquaplaning: 2.3 & 3 (perhaps not a surprise although the correlation of such scores with wet braking is not always high); but then we get bewildering disparities as follows:
    - cornering aquaplaning: 2.5 & 3.5;
    - handling: 1.9 & 3.1;
    - tranverse stability: 2.0 & 3.5.

    On the basis of the chart, these results are bizarre. Perhaps it's due to the rumoured re-compounding of the PC5 to improve wet grip. Or, as such a spread is what one would expect, perhaps Continental are to be condemned for a false PC5 release chart.

    #1425
    1. TireReviews 4cvg archived

      There's no chance Conti would have released a false release chart, especially as at the launch we drove on previous variants of both the PC and EC as a comparison.

      Tires are incredibly complex, what's better in one size and on one vehicle might not be the same in a different tire size on a different vehicle. When you combine this with the fact they're being constantly updated during their life cycle for improved performance, it's not overly suspicious that a spider diagram from 3 years ago is slightly out of date.

      http://www.tirereviews.co.u...

      #1426
      1. 4cvg TireReviews archived

        Thanks for the response; I'm aware of all of that but it's a pretty radical reshaping.'slightly' seems inapt!?!
        Relatedly,I do wish that more tire tests would include just superseded tires (still sold & available in the relevant size & themselves presumably recompounded over time). In this context, the inclusion of a PC2 would have been interesting (a tire I much like).
        It would be interesting to hear if your impressions at the time on the test vehicles bore out the spider chart on wet grip.

        #1427
  4. dufonrafal . archived

    The Primacy 3 has 9 in the dry. Like the CPC5 no?

    #1364
    1. TireReviews dufonrafal . archived

      We translate from adac, they have the full data.

      #1365
      1. dufonrafal . TireReviews archived

        I know, and the Primacy 3 has 9 in the dry "the best score" with the CPC5. ;)

        And there is a test in a smaller size no?

        #1366
        1. TireReviews dufonrafal . archived

          Sorry, yes you're absolutely right. Updated :)

          There is a 185/60 R14 test too, we will publish the results this week :)

          #1367