Ultra High Performance Tire Tests

Following on from the fifty tire braking shootout, Auto Bild have more thoroughly tested the best twenty 245/45 R18 summer tires using a RWD BMW 5 Series.

The top three tires should come as no surprise, with Continental, Goodyear and Michelin proving to be the most rounded tires on test. 

The Continental Premium Contact 6 and Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 drew for first place. As we found with our video comparison, both the Continental and Goodyear tires offer sporty handling, good levels of comfort, and short wet braking. Both tires also topped the Wear testing, and thanks to a reasonable purchase price, offered some of the best value on test.

While ADAC doesn't provide its readers with raw data from their testing, their yearly tire tests are some of the most influential in the world. This year they've tested sixteen 225/40 R18 car tires, and twelve 235/55 R17 crossover SUV sizes. For the 225/40 R18 test, there are few surprises.

Continental and Michelin tie for first place with the PremiumContact 6 and Pilot Sport 4, two tires we've seen perform extremely well in all testing. It's worth noting that the Continental and Michelin both scored the same in the wear testing, once again showing Continental have got on top of wear.

Every year the German publication Auto Bild performs the industries most comprehensive tire test by putting a huge number of tires through wet and dry braking, to find the best twenty tires to progress through to a full tire test.

For the 2020 summer season, Auto Bild have tested fifty tires in 245/45 R18, which gives us an excellent overview of the UHP market for 2020.

In their second SUV / 4x4 all season tire test of 2019, Auto Bild have tested ten all season tires in 235/65 R17, and included the usual summer and winter tire as benchmarks.

For their third winter tire test of 2019, Auto Bild have stepped up the fun and fitted an Audi S5 with eleven sets of 255/35 R19 ultra high performance winter tires, and included the usual set of reference summer tires!

Following on from a win in Auto Express, the new Goodyear UltraGrip Performance+ takes its second win of 2019, once again proving to have a near flawless blend of qualities. Vredestein have also continued their run of good results with a very strong second place for the Wintrac Pro. This tire is significantly cheaper than the premium winter tires in the UK, so is probably the best choice if you need to save a few pounds.

It's winter testing time, and as always, Auto Bild are leading the way! Following on from the 53 winter tire shoot-out, Auto Bild have taken the top twenty 225/45 R17 tires through to the full test, along with a summer tire as reference. Each set of tires has been tested in the dry, wet and snow using a RWD BMW 1 Series, and Auto Bild are one of the few publications which test for wear. It's an exciting test! (if you're into tires...)

Earlier this year Auto Bild published their 2019 SUV all season tire test, using an Audi Q3 wearing the popular 235/55 R19 all season tire size.

As usual, all seven tire patterns were tested in the dry, wet and snow, and as a reference, Auto Bild included a premium summer and winter tire.

Auto Bild's second summer tire test of 2019 has tested eleven 245/45 R18 tire patterns using a BMW 5 Series. This tire and vehicle combination isn't an often tested setup, and has yielded some interesting results!

The Pirelli P Zero PZ4 (Sports Car variant) dominated the testing, with the shortest dry and wet braking, fastest wet handling lap and second fastest dry handling lap.

For 2019, Sport Auto Magazine has tested eight ultra high performance summer tires in 245/30 R20 using a Civic Type R.

Sadly the new Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport wasn't included in the test, and instead the twice replaced Asymmetric 2 was left representing Goodyear. This meant the Continental SportContact 6 and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S could fight it out for the top spot overall.

The 2019 Auto Bild AllRad SUV tire test tested ten 225/55 R17 tire patterns using BMW X3, covering dry, wet, gravel, mud and grass performance! 

As with other tests in 2019, the gap between the best and worst tires on test is getting ever smaller, and while the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 took another win, three tires were awarded the second place slot!

The Continental PremiumContact 6, Hankook Ventus Prime 3 and Nokian PowerProof all were deemed "exemplary" buy Auto Bild, with each tire having a slightly different balance of performance overall, but all equally as recommended.

This is going to be a long test! The German publication Auto Bild often perform the most thorough tire tests of any of the traditional publications, and 2019 is no exception. After taking fifty three 225/45 R17 tire patterns through wet and dry braking testing to establish the top twenty available in the market, Auto Bild have run the best of the 17" tires through an extremely thorough full test, and even included the often omitted wear test!

For the 2019 summer season Auto Zeitung have tested nine 235/45 R18 summer tires, and included the summer-bias all season Michelin CrossClimate.

The stand out performances go to the new Continental Premium Contact 6 and Michelin Primacy 4, both showing extremely well balanced test results, and also the new Maxxis Premitra HP5. The quality of Maxxis tires has quietly improving quickly over the past 12 months, and it's great to see the Premitra HP5 prove it's excellent price / performance ratio.

It's also worth noting, which the Michelin CrossClimate only finished seventh place overall, this is the only tire on test which has any sort of ability in the snow. The trade for snow performance is often dry grip, but the CrossClimate held its own in a full summer tire test, which makes it unique amongst all season tires.

Following on from the 195/65 R15 winter tire test, the excellent German publication Auto Bild have tested ten UHP winter tires in 245/45 R18.

The biggest shock in the test is the winner - it's the brand new Vredestein WinTrac Pro. This new tire from Vredestein proved to have Continental like qualities, displacing the Continental WinterContact TS850 P from it's usual top spot and performing well in the dry, wet and snow tests. The Continental WinterContact TS850 Pl, which has now been replaced by the Continental WinterContact TS860 S, proved that it's still a quality option and finished a very close second place.

The 11th July 2018 issue of Auto Express magazine tested ten 225/45 R17 summer tires, using a VW Golf at the Continental test facility in Uvalde, Texas. The end result was closer than ever, with the worst tire on test just 3.7% overall behind the test winner.

Sadly, this years Auto Review tire test is behind a paywall, but given the range of tires they tested, the overall results were worth covering.

They also made a rather interesting youtube video of the test, so if your Russian is up to scratch, follow this link.

The full results are on the AutoReview.Ru website, if you're a paying subscriber.

When it comes to trying new things in tire tests, the German publication Auto Bild leads the way, and with their latest SUV 4x4 all season tire tire test they are once again pushing new ground.

Not only do they test six all season tires in the SUV / 4x4 size of 235/60 R18 and include reference summer and winter tires, but they also include two all terrain (AT) off-road tires. These AT tires aren't specifically designed to work in snow and ice like the all season tires have been, instead they have a more off-road bias to their performance bend. Even with this added off-road performance, they still qualify as legal all season tires thanks to them being marked with the "three peaks mountain and snowflake" symbol.

As a result, the AT tires have a very different performance blend to the all season tires on test, and while their snow performance was surprisingly OK, this test shows how badly they perform on-road, specifically in the wet.

Read on for the full details! For reference, the two AT tires are the Yokohama Geolander AT G015, and the General Grabber AT3.

The 2018 Auto Motor Und Sport (AMS) summer performance tire test uses an Audi A3 to test eleven 225/45 R17 tire patterns.

As in previous years, AMS have included subjective handling data in their testing, which is important to help us understand how a tire feels. Even with this extra element of testing the winning tire was no surprise - the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 takes its eighth win out of eight tests thanks to a dominant performance in the dry and wet.

It's not often you see a tire test where the highest placed premium manufacturer is placed in fifth place, and often test winning Goodyear and Michelin brands are eighth and ninth respectively, but that's exactly what the 2018 ACE / GTU 235/45 R18 tire test shows.