We're a little bit late with this one, as it's likely the UK has had most of its bad weather for winter 2017/18, however we can't resist covering a winter ultra high performance tire test, especially when they use a RWD Toyota GT86 as the test car!
For this test, Sport Auto magazine fitted the GT86 with ten different patterns of 225/40 R18 sports winter tires, and put the tires through the normal dry, wet and snow testing.
Snow
Looking at the snow braking and snow handling tests, no tire dominated. The Hankook Winter I*Cept Evo 2 won the snow braking test but could only manage fifth in snow handling, while the Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 won the snow handling tests but could only manage sixth during snow braking testing! The Continental WinterContact TS850 P, which has now been replaced buy the WinterContact TS860 S, had the best overall result finishing in the top three in both tests. The Nankang SV2 proved to be the weakest in both snow tests.
Snow Braking
Snow braking in feet
relative index, 100 = best in test ↑| Position / Tire | Result |
|---|---|
| 100 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 98 % | |
| 97 % | |
| 97 % | |
| 96 % | |
| 94 % | |
| 93 % | |
| 88 % | |
| 88 % |
The difference between best and worst was 12%.
Snow Handling
Snow handling average speed
relative index, 100 = best in test ↑| Position / Tire | Result |
|---|---|
| 100 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 98 % | |
| 98 % | |
| 95 % | |
| 92 % | |
| 92 % | |
| 91 % |
The difference between best and worst was 9%.
Wet
During wet testing, the Continental once again proved to be amongst the best along with the Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 and Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 dominating the top three. The Toyo Snowprox S954 had an extremely poor result, finishing in last place by quite a margin.
Wet Braking
Wet braking in feet
relative index, 100 = best in test ↑| Position / Tire | Result |
|---|---|
| 100 % | |
| 100 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 98 % | |
| 97 % | |
| 97 % | |
| 92 % | |
| 90 % | |
| 90 % | |
| 88 % |
The difference between best and worst was 12%.
Wet Handling
Wet Handling Average Speed
relative index, 100 = best in test ↑| Position / Tire | Result |
|---|---|
| 100 % | |
| 100 % | |
| 100 % | |
| 100 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 96 % | |
| 95 % | |
| 95 % | |
| 93 % |
The difference between best and worst was 7%.
Dry
As with the snow testing, the best dry braking tire didn't do well during the dry handling test, and the best dry handling tire was the worst dry braking tire! While this is unusual for dry testing and might highlight the difference between FWD and RWD for winter tires, there were two brands which managed to score consistently - the Nokian WR A4 and Toyo Snowprox S954 finished top three for both tests.
Dry Braking
Dry braking in feet
relative index, 100 = best in test ↑| Position / Tire | Result |
|---|---|
| 100 % | |
| 98 % | |
| 96 % | |
| 96 % | |
| 95 % | |
| 95 % | |
| 95 % | |
| 95 % | |
| 94 % | |
| 93 % |
The difference between best and worst was 7%.
Dry Handling
Dry Handling Average Speed
relative index, 100 = best in test ↑| Position / Tire | Result |
|---|---|
| 100 % | |
| 100 % | |
| 100 % | |
| 100 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 99 % | |
| 98 % | |
| 98 % | |
| 97 % |
All the tires in the Dry Handling test finished less than 3% apart.
Results
The limited coverage of the full results are below, please see the Sport Auto article for the full test data.
Continental WinterContact TS 850 P
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen 1
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Michelin Pilot Alpin 4
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Hankook Winter i cept evo2
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Yokohama W drive V905
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Nokian WR A4
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Cooper Weather Master SA2+
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Nankang SV2
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Toyo Snowprox S954
225/40 R18
All discipline results (8)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Subjective | — |
| Comfort | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
I feel an utter disappointment with Nokian WR4!!
Both the "2017 Sport Auto Winter Tire Test" & "AMS Performance 18 inch Winter Tire Test" were right on the spot with the scores.
The WR4 are horrible on the wet surfaces!! I have a TT Mk3 and driving it on a highway at any levels of rain is utter horror show. I constantly get the feeling that the car is "floating" (aquaplaning). Overtaking anyone on a wet road is like driving on ice. Even on the dry surfaces, the tires seem to force the car to "wander". You have to constantly make small steering wheel adjustments in order to have the car go straight. At first I thought that this was due to possible road imperfections" but now I know better.
VERDICT: "Not recommended"
Since people rarely drive fast & crazy during the winter, I recommend any other tire. They might be good on dry, however in most places winter is mostly wet and icy than just being outright cold and dry. Get a tire with good wet & snow stats.
There's a mistake. This is the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4, not the Alpin 4. These are two entirely different tires.
Thanks for letting me know, I'll get that updated now.
Edit - we had the PA4 listed all along!
I have the Toyo in its second (winter)year now (done approx 25k km), and can't really say they're -that- bad in the wet, but they aren't great either. Dry is pretty good.
In snow I think they lose grip too quickly. A couple of weeks ago we finally had some deep snow and these certainly can't beat Goodyear and Vredestein. The little snow I had when I placed the review was nothing compared to a couple of weeks ago. In deep snow and sludge these tires are simply disappointing.
The abysmal result in the wet here, should be for snow (in my opinion). Since I have never felt like I lacked grip in the wet, while I have had that feeling in snow, that I simply couldn't follow others because of understeer.
(Fwd 205 wide)
Worth keeping in mind snow performance drops off quite a lot with wear, and after 25k on a set of winters the driven wheel tires must be getting rather tired! But you are right, they're no match for the best premium tires available.
I have swapped them from front to rear. Those which were at the front in 2016-2017 winter, are at the back in this 2017-2018 winter. So the wear should become pretty even now.
But I see I in my logs ll mad a mistake with the amount of kms.. I thought I had swapped at 202k, but that was a service interval..
Winter 2016-2017 started at 27-10-2016 at 183k and ended at 193k at 28-2-2017.
Winter 2017-2018 started at 29-11-2017 at 211.500 and I'm at 218k now.. so 16,500km.
Also just checked the wear. Wear is 6.4mm left at the front, 6.1 at the rear. Which isn't too bad..