Dunlop Sport Maxx Put to the Test

Dunlop’s new performance tyre, the Sport Maxx, has been put to the test through the ‘Performance Car of the Year’ programme. Hailed as “the toughest media evaluation programme of its kind,” the annual test, conducted by Car & Driving, the UKs motoring media agency, puts top performance vehicles and their tyres through a series of road and track tests all over Europe.

This year, the event elected to use Dunlop Sport Maxx as one of two tyres chosen for specific testing, fitting them to Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evo VIII 340. Organiser and Car & Driving MD Jonathan Crouch, commented: “Performance Car of the Year is as searching a test as you could devise, with over 3,000 miles of driving crammed into just five days. We visit the Luxembourg proving ground, then have two days of intensive road routes before visiting the world’s most dangerous and challenging racetrack, the Nurburgring Nordschliefe. The Mitsubishi we used for our tyre testing was one of the most significant cars in the group and was typical of the kind of model whose owners will be searching for the ultimate rubber. If the Sport Maxx is as good as Dunlop say it is, we felt we’d find out on this event. The opportunity to do so was too good to miss.

“We’d done a fair amount of research into the latest tyres available for performance cars, aware that the rubber we chose was going to be tested to the limit. Sport Maxx came highly recommended, using the same technology that in 2003 saw Dunlop win the most demanding race of them all, the Le Mans 24 hours. We also noted the fact that the same kind of technology has been used this season by Dunlop in the British Touring Car Championship – to universal acclaim from its participants.”

The Dunlop Sport Maxx is available in 32 sizes from 16 to 22 inch wheels, fitting the majority of high performance cars.