Winter Ultra High Performance Tire Tests

Winter tires can be a problem in the UK. Mainland Europe are very good at putting smaller wheels and tires on, but in the UK where even the most modest town hatchback is being fitted with 17 or 18 inch wheels as standard, and performance car now being fitted with 19 or even 20 inch wheels, finding a test covering larger winter wheel sizes can be difficult.

Fortunately Auto Bild Sportscars is there to offer us some guidance for the 2014 season, and have tested 235/35 R19 winter tires on a BMW M135i. Sadly, they only managed to find six patterns to test, compared to fifty in their 205/55 R16 tests, but it gives us a good indication of what winter tires are like in larger sizes.

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It's the test we look forward to all year, the Auto Bild winter tire shootout. 

2014 sees Auto Bild testing fifty different winter tires in 225/50 R17. As usual, they test all fifty tires in wet braking from 50 mph, then take the top twenty through to a snow braking test from 31mph. The top fifteen from this test then go on to the full winter tire test, where Auto Bild crown the best winter tire of 2014. 

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Nine different performance winter tires on an F10 3 Series in 225/50 R17 have been put through their paces by Auto Bild magazine.
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225/50 R17, a BMW 3 Series and 8 sets of the latest winter tires summarise the 2013 Auto Motor Und Sport winter tire test.


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Just because your car runs wide, low profile wheels and tires, it doesn't mean it shouldn't work in the snow. Modern winter tires are now made in extremely wide sizes, and can totally transform RWD cars such as a BMW 3 Series from an unusable drive way ordainment, to king of the roads in poor conditions.
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Winter tires shouldn't mean limited performance, and many modern winter tires are rated up to V which means they're safe to run at 149mph for extended periods.

To test nine of the best, Auto Bild equipped a Golf GTI with the recommended 225/45 R17 winter tire size in V rating, and subjected them to handling, braking and comfort tests in the dry, wet and snowy conditions.
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As proven in many a video, buying a 4x4 doesn't necessarily mean good winter performance. A good all wheel drive system can offer better traction than a 2wd car, however once moving if the 4x4 is on standard summer tires it will only be able to steer and brake as well as any other vehicle on the road.
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We might be well into the winter tire season, but this excellent winter tire test from Auto Motor und Sport was too good to ignore.

Covering 14 of the leading winter tires in 205/55 R16, AMS puts them through their paces with the typical thoroughness of a German magazine.
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With wheel sizes steadily increasing, 225/45 R17 is fast becoming the most popular tire size for the average car. With this in mind, Sport Auto have tested 5 high performance winter tires in 225/45 R17 on a rear wheel drive BMW 3 Series to see which tire combines best snow characteristics, with an all round sporty dry and wet performance.

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Auto Express, the pillar of the UK automotive magazine scene, has just released its second ever winter tire test.

Read on for the full winter test!
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Due to two unusually harsh winters, interest in winter, or cold weather tires has never been higher in the UK. The benefits are now being understood - while winter tires naturally work wonders in snow, they also work extremely well any time the average temperature is below 7c, often out performing summer tires even in the dry. During early morning commutes, where the road temperature is around freezing they can offer noticeable more grip than a summer tire in the same conditions, allowing you to make progress safely, and can stop over 5 meters shorter than the equivalent summer tire from 62mph.

Read on for our 2011 winter tire buying guide!
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Winter tires are a hot subject at the moment, with new tests being released weekly. Usually winter tire tests focus on the smaller tire sizes winter tires are often used in, meaning if you drive a performance car and are interested in ultra high performance winter tires you have to hope the tires tested in the smaller sizes have the same attributes in the larger sizes.

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It might still be August, but after an unusually snowy start to 2010 talk has already turned to winter tires in the UK.

While we're waiting for the magazines to put together their 2010 winter tire tests, here's one of the more interesting articles from 2009. This test is particularly good as it uses a powerful RWD car (Mercedes SLK350) which wears relatively wide 225/45 r17 performance tires.

Each of the 8 tires were tested in the snow, on wet roads and in the dry with the scoring emphasis bias towards wet weather and snow performance (these are winter tires after all!)

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The Continental Winter Contact TS 830 once again proves it's the snow king, scoring a massive 98 points out of the possible 100 in the snow tests. It also proves extremely strong in both the wet and dry road tests, meaning it really is a tire you could use all year round. The Goodyear Dunlop brands have placed second and third respectively with the Goodyear Ultra Grip Perf 2 proving the strongest tire in the wet and the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D a good all round scorer.
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