Update 21st May 2021: Amended the rolling resistance data to be more accurate.
We've taken 14 of the best ultra high performance summer tires in the very popular 225/40 R18 tire size, and we've tested the dry and wet handling, the dry and wet braking ability, aquaplaning resistance, the noise levels and the rolling resistance of these tires, to work out exactly what tire is best at what!
On test are some of the very best tires on market, and where possible we've included both the UHP and UUHP segment. This means we have the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 AND Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 AND the F1 SuperSport, plus it's the first time we're is testing the Pirelli P Zero PZ4, and, amongst all the other tires on test, the brand new Bridgestone Potenza Sport.
The test vehicle is a trusty VW Golf GTI, which while is a little generic, is a really good platform to run this program on.
Dry
The only tires in the 97 seconds range were the as Altenzo and Avon. Both these tires felt fine on the warm up laps, but as the tires got warm the grip dropped off quite quickly which resulted in a lot of understeer. Neither felt particularly sporty, but neither had bad handling, just a lack of grip.
Next up in the 96 second range were GT Radial, Nokian and Hankook. The GT Radial was an enjoyable tire to drive, it felt rounded and had the best steering of the three, it just didn't have the grip, where as the Nokian and Hankook both felt a little vague through the front of the car, gave you understeer, and didn't enjoy being hot.
The 95s is where it gets really competitive, with Falken, Goodyear, Vredestein and Pirelli all within a second of each other! The Falken was a very pleasant tire, good steering response and well balanced, just, lacking a bit of feedback through the wheel.
The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 subjectively felt quite sporty, had a stable balance and good braking and turning, however it did feel a little traction limited out of the slower corners, robbing it of a few precious tenths.
The Vredestein was another tire to have direct precise steering with good grip, and felt sporty right up until the limit where it would leave you wanting a bit more information. It was one of the most stable tires in the test in terms of heat, and while track wear doesn't really correlate with road wear, it was also one of the freshest looking tires when it came off the car at the end of the test.
The Pirelli P Zero PZ4 was a fast, direct steering, well weighted, and felt really good when cornering. It did seem to struggle with the heat a little more than some, but it was a really impressive handling tire.
The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 and Continental PremiumContact 6 placed fourth and third. There was no denying the Michelins grip, but it felt a little numb compared to the Goodyear, Pirelli and Continental, however it was stable in it's lap time and gave you lots of confidence to push on.
The Continental was the fastest of the UHP tires, and exceptionally sporty feeling, it also had a stellar first lap pace, but then seemed to struggle with the heat a little more than others so laps two and three were slower.
The top three tires in dry handling were the UUHP tires, and while it was so exceptionally close between the Bridgestone and Michelin in time, there were some subjective differences worth noting. The Michelin wasn't quite as direct as the other two UUHP rivals to steer, but still very direct and enjoyable to drive. The Bridgestone felt meatier and more like a track tire than a road tire, and once hot it was very good laterally, feeling more like a track compound.
As for the Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport, it was tire that was hard to fault in the dry. It's steering speed and feel was up there with the Bridgestone, and while it didn't quite feel as precise on centre, it was still exceptional, AND it seemed to cope with the heat the best of the three, with very little drop in time.
Dry Handling
Spread: 4.05 s (4.3%)|Avg: 95.63 s
Dry handling time in seconds (Lower is better)
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
93.92 s
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
94.34 s
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
94.42 s
Continental Premium Contact 6
94.83 s
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
94.87 s
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
95.17 s
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
95.52 s
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
95.87 s
Falken Azenis FK510
95.91 s
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
96.04 s
Nokian PowerProof
96.17 s
GT Radial SportActive 2
96.19 s
Avon ZV7
97.61 s
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
97.97 s
Dry Braking
Spread: 5.90 M (17.8%)|Avg: 34.93 M
Dry braking in meters (100 - 1 km/h) (Lower is better)
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
33.18 M
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
33.34 M
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
33.40 M
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
33.57 M
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
33.93 M
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
34.17 M
Continental Premium Contact 6
34.27 M
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
34.27 M
Nokian PowerProof
34.62 M
Falken Azenis FK510
34.69 M
GT Radial SportActive 2
36.73 M
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
36.81 M
Avon ZV7
36.93 M
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
39.08 M
Wet
Like in the dry the Altenzo was the slowest tire on test, just with a bigger margin in the wet. Again, there wasn't anything particularly terrible about the balance of the tire, it just lacked grip in all directions, but as the cheapest tire here that's not unexpected, as wet grip is the main area cheap tires struggle with.
The next two tires in the 66's were the Avon and Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport, and while they had similar times they had very different driving qualities. The Avon was a well mannered tire with gentle understeer, just limited grip especially on the brakes, where as the F1 SuperSport had direct steering and great feedback, but struggled a little with aquaplaning, especially on the rear which led to oversteer.
The rest of the tires were extremely close in terms of lap time.
The Nokian and Vredestein were pretty much tied, with both tires lacking a bit of grip and feedback through the wheel, though the Vredestein suffered with understeer and the Nokian slightly oversteer.
The Michelin Pilot Sport 4S was the nicest of the three uuhp tires in terms of balance, but like all the UUHP tires it aquaplaned more than the UHP tires on the lap making an ultimate lap time difficult, but the grip was good.
The Continental PremiumContact 6 once again felt sporty and direct with good levels of grip, and on a similar lap time was the Hankook Ventus S1 Evo3, which dominated in the wet braking test, but felt weaker laterally and like in the dry, had an understeer balance.
The new GT Radial was more impressive in wet handling than it was wet braking, having no issues with the deeper water on the wet handling lap which certainly helped it's overall lap time.
The Falken and Asymmetric 5 were opposing styles on a similar time. The Falken felt more sporty than when tested in other sizes, with quick direction changes on the front axle, but the rear couldn't keep up so you were fighting oversteer, whereas the Asymmetric 5 was a very well balanced tire, giving you good grip and predictable handling in all directions..
Like in the dry, the Pirelli P Zero PZ4 was a joy to drive in the wet. Good traction, sharp on the front, the only negative point was on this Golf it liked to oversteer more than understeer.
Second place was taken by the new Bridgestone Potenza Sport, the fastest of the UUHP tires and almost the fastest of all the tires. The compound on this tire feels a bit like a track day tire, it needed a few laps to get some heat into it, and it struggled with aquaplaning more than any other tire, but when it was in contact with the surface it had excellent levels of grip.
And finally, with a similar time but delivering it in a totally opposite way, was the Michelin Pilot Sport 4. This tire didn't feel that sporty, but what it did was deliver a safe, understeer primary balance that gave you a lot of confidence to drive quickly and safely.
Wet Handling
Spread: 4.54 s (7%)|Avg: 65.56 s
Wet handling time in seconds (Lower is better)
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
64.46 s
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
64.53 s
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
64.84 s
Falken Azenis FK510
65.17 s
GT Radial SportActive 2
65.20 s
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
65.20 s
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
65.23 s
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
65.23 s
Continental Premium Contact 6
65.30 s
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
65.59 s
Nokian PowerProof
65.63 s
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
66.20 s
Avon ZV7
66.20 s
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
69.00 s
Hankook really did have this much of an advantage during wet braking, it was tested three times to be sure!
Wet Braking
Spread: 10.39 M (33.9%)|Avg: 35.86 M
Wet braking in meters (80 - 1 km/h) (Lower is better)
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
30.67 M
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
33.71 M
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
34.29 M
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
34.79 M
Falken Azenis FK510
34.82 M
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
35.08 M
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
35.52 M
Continental Premium Contact 6
35.86 M
Avon ZV7
36.13 M
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
36.60 M
Nokian PowerProof
37.04 M
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
38.09 M
GT Radial SportActive 2
38.31 M
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
41.06 M
The GT Radial had an impressive pair of aquaplaning results.
Straight Aqua
Spread: 12.20 Km/H (15.1%)|Avg: 74.81 Km/H
Float Speed in Km/H (Higher is better)
GT Radial SportActive 2
80.90 Km/H
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
78.50 Km/H
Continental Premium Contact 6
77.90 Km/H
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
77.40 Km/H
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
76.70 Km/H
Falken Azenis FK510
75.80 Km/H
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
75.00 Km/H
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
74.10 Km/H
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
74.00 Km/H
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
73.40 Km/H
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
72.30 Km/H
Nokian PowerProof
72.10 Km/H
Avon ZV7
70.60 Km/H
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
68.70 Km/H
Curved Aquaplaning
Spread: 0.70 m/sec2 (29.2%)|Avg: 2.07 m/sec2
Remaining lateral acceleration (Higher is better)
GT Radial SportActive 2
2.40 m/sec2
Continental Premium Contact 6
2.30 m/sec2
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
2.23 m/sec2
Falken Azenis FK510
2.20 m/sec2
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
2.20 m/sec2
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
2.18 m/sec2
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
2.10 m/sec2
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
2.07 m/sec2
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
2.00 m/sec2
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
1.93 m/sec2
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
1.90 m/sec2
Avon ZV7
1.90 m/sec2
Nokian PowerProof
1.90 m/sec2
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
1.70 m/sec2
Environment
The lower cost tires had the lowest external noise, with the Pirelli managing to combine sporty handling with low noise levels better than any other tire.
Noise
Spread: 4.00 dB (5.8%)|Avg: 71.28 dB
External noise in dB (Lower is better)
GT Radial SportActive 2
69.50 dB
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
70.20 dB
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
70.50 dB
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
70.80 dB
Avon ZV7
70.80 dB
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
71.10 dB
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
71.20 dB
Falken Azenis FK510
71.30 dB
Nokian PowerProof
71.30 dB
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
71.50 dB
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
71.70 dB
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
72.20 dB
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
72.30 dB
Continental Premium Contact 6
73.50 dB
The cheapest tire on test, the Altenzo, had the lowest rolling resistance, with the UUHP tires unable to match the best of the UHP tires.
Rolling Resistance
Spread: 2.63 kg / t (37.3%)|Avg: 8.92 kg / t
Rolling resistance in kg t (Lower is better)
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
7.05 kg / t
Nokian PowerProof
8.44 kg / t
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
8.48 kg / t
GT Radial SportActive 2
8.55 kg / t
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
8.56 kg / t
Avon ZV7
8.66 kg / t
Continental Premium Contact 6
8.84 kg / t
Falken Azenis FK510
9.10 kg / t
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
9.31 kg / t
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
9.44 kg / t
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
9.47 kg / t
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus
9.62 kg / t
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
9.67 kg / t
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
9.68 kg / t
Unsurprisingly we find the best tires on test also being some of the most expensive, with only Goodyear bucking the trend with the great value Asymmetric 5.
Price
Spread: 49.28 (106.6%)|Avg: 74.56
Price in local currency (Lower is better)
Altenzo Sports Comforter +
46.22
GT Radial SportActive 2
63.99
Avon ZV7
67.20
Falken Azenis FK510
68.40
Nokian PowerProof
69.40
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
72.70
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
75.70
Bridgestone Potenza Sport
78.20
Continental Premium Contact 6
79.70
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
81.10
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
82.70
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
88.50
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
95.50
Results
Please note: For the final results, the UHP tires are separated from the UUHP tires (see video), however due to website limitations, they are all included in the same results below. Please keep this in mind when viewing the final results.
Excellent rounded tire with almost no weakness, excellent grip in the dry and wet, short braking distances and safe balance.
Not the most sporty feeling of the UHP tires.
The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 is a tire with almost no weaknesses, it has excellent grip in all conditions, good aquaplaning resistance, and a low noise. The only negative is that it's not the most responsive of tires during the dry handling test.
Excellent rounded tire with almost no weakness, sporty handling in the dry and wet, very short wet braking, very high aquaplaning resistance.
Average external noise.
The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 is a tire with almost no weaknesses, it has excellent grip in the dry and wet, sporty handling, excellent aquaplaning resistance and low rolling resistance.
Extremely rounded UUHP tire with the shortest dry braking distances, excellent aquaplaning resistance, good levels of comfort and lowest rolling resistance of the UUHP tires.
Not as dynamic handling as the other two UUHP tires in this test.
The Michelin Pilot Sport 4S is an extremely rounded UUHP tire, offering the most complete blend of qualities. The trade off for all these qualities seems to be in dry handling, where it doesn't feel the most sporty of tires.
Sporty handling tire with excellent steering response and feedback, very quick in the dry and wet with short braking distances.
Low aquaplaning resistance, oversteer balance in wet handling.
The new Bridgestone Potenza Sport at times feels like a track tire for the road. The grip levels are extremely high and when the tire is warm, the grip incredible. The low starting tread depth makes it difficult in the wet due to high levels of aquaplaning, however the grip is impressive when in contact with the road.
Shortest wet braking distance, very short dry braking, safe wet handling balance, low rolling resistance.
Understeer balance in the dry, average aquaplaning performance.
The new specification Hankook Ventus S1 Evo3 is the wet braking master, stopping the car significantly shorter than any other tire on test. This braking advantage does seem to have come at the slight expense of handling, with the tire slower to react and understeer balance in the dry and wet.
Truly a road tire you can use on track, excellent dynamic steering with quick reactions and good feedback, and very good heat resistance for a road tire.
Oversteer wet handling balance, long wet braking distances, high external pass by noise, high rolling resistance.
The Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport was the master of the dry handling lap, offering the best steering response and good feedback. Unfortunately in this 18" size, the F1SS didn't has as much wet performance as tested in other sizes.
Dynamic handling with an excellent performance in the dry and wet, low levels of noise.
Average aquaplaning performance.
The Pirelli P Zero PZ4 is a rare tire that seems to blend good grip in the dry and wet, sporty handling, low rolling resistance and good levels of comfort. IF this tire had slightly better aquaplaning resistance it would have been in the top group.
Sporty dry handling with the fastest dry lap time, short dry braking, excellent aquaplaning resistance.
Highest pass by noise on test, average wet handling lap time.
The Continental PremiumContact 6 further cements the theory that it should have been named the SportContact 6, with the fastest dry handling lap, best in category steering response and precision, and short dry braking. Sadly, this comes at the expense of NVH.
Best straight and curved aquaplaning, lowest noise on test, stable wet handling with good levels of grip, sporty handling in the dry, low rolling resistance.
Long wet braking, average grip in the dry.
The new GT Radial SportActive 2 is a good improvement over the SportActive, with very high aquaplaning resistance, very low noise, and good handling in the dry and wet. Unfortunately the tire has extended wet braking distances.
Stable dry handling with good steering feel and low wear on track.
Long wet braking distances, low grip in wet handling, highest rolling resistance on test.
The new Vredestein Ultrac Vorti+ had extremely stable dry handling times with good steering and very good heat resistance. Sadly that seemed to hamper it in the wet, where it couldn't match the best on test.
Lowest rolling resistance on test, quiet pass by noise, low purchase price.
Extremely long wet and dry braking, lowest grip in handling tests with understeer balance, weak aquaplaning resistance.
The Altenzo SportComforter+ is the first time we've seen Altenzo in a test which should be commended. It is by far the cheapest tire on test, and while it couldn't match the rest of the tires in the grip test, it gives Altenzo a base of very low fuel use and low noise to build on and improve in the future.
