magazine and website tyre tests, independent tyre tests, manufacturer tyre tests
Apollo has commented on the recent positive results achieved by its Alnac 4G All Season tyre in the recent Auto Bild Allrad test. The tyre was ranked first in the mass premium category (second overall), offering superior performance and value for money.
Apollo Tyres says the Vredestein Quatrac 5’s victory in the all-season tyre test published by Auto Bild Allrad this month shows the level of research and testing it puts into the development of its products. In its test of six size 215/65 R15 SUV tyres, the German motoring magazine described the Vredestein Quatrac 5 as “outstanding in the snow” while demonstrating “respectable grip on dry and wet roads” and “very low rolling resistance”. With a score of 2618 N (Newton) traction on snow, the Vredestein all-season product was judged to be “virtually on par with genuine winter tyres.”
All-season tyres are presented as an alternative to the fitment of separate summer and winter tyres, and this product segment is gaining popularity with British motorists who don’t consider a dedicated winter solution necessary but nevertheless like the idea of extra security when the mercury drops. Yet, as is the case with many things in life, the situation with all-season tyres isn’t as straightforward as it appears at first glance.
Half a dozen all-season SUV tyres have been evaluated in the latest test published by German magazine Auto Bild Allrad (issue 8/2015). The size 215/65 R16H/V tyres were fitted to a VW Tiguan for testing on dry, wet and snow-covered road surfaces, with equal points given for performance in each of the three criteria.
The team at Auto Express recently headed to Texas to evaluate 11 European market tyres at Continental’s Uvalde proving ground. The size 225/45R17 tyres were tested against ten criteria that covered wet and dry performance, rolling resistance and comfort. The result? Continental’s ContiSportContact 5 was voted King of the Hill in the Lone Star State.
German tyre maker Continental has shared its view on the comparative test of ten budget SUV tyres conducted by Auto Bild Allrad magazine. The tyre maker sees the test – which used its ContiCrossContact UHP as a reference tyre – as confirmation of its product’s clear superiority. In a press release, Continental comments: “None of the tested models matched the Continental tyre, which was utilised as reference tyre, in safety-relevant performance. Once again, the Far Eastern products possessed significant weaknesses.”
The Dunlop Sport BluResponse, and the ContiWinterContact TS850 have been named winners in the latest Auto Express Product Awards. Detailed in the latest June Special of the UK’s best-selling motoring weekly, product experts Henry Willis and Kim Adams wrote that its summer tyre winner – the Sport BluResponse – “has clearly been designed with EU tyre labels in mind [with highly rated fuel efficiency and wet grip characteristics]… Yet Dunlop engineers haven’t ignored other performance attributes,” with the tyre achieving “six top-three places” in Auto Express’ nine testing categories. The winter tyre winner – the ContiWinterContact TS850 – was lauded for its all-round ability, having been bested by competitors in snow track testing. Conti’s tyre was rated highly for achieving highly in the “conflicting demands” of wet grip and braking, and low rolling resistance.
Pirelli’s Cinturato P7 Blue has won the summer tyre test conducted by Russia’s Za Rulem magazine. Meaning ‘Behind the Wheels,’ the magazine is a popular monthly publication in Russia focussing on cars and the automotive industry.
German magazine Auto Bild Allrad has published a summer tyre test for compact SUVs. Ten size 235/55 R17H/V/W tyres were tested on a VW Tiguan, and what sets this test apart from others is that all candidates come from either the People’s Republic of China or Taiwan. While all tested tyres delivered performance below the Continental CrossContact UHP reference tyre, the Goodride SA-37 Sport, Infinity Enviro, Delinte Thunder D7, Sonar SX-9, Star Performer SUV-1 and Nankang NK Comfort NK 605 were all rated ‘satisfactory’.
The latest issue of Germany’s sport auto magazine (5/2015) has published a test of road-legal size 235/35 R19 91Y semi-slicks. Three candidates were mounted on a VW Golf R and evaluated under a range of motorsport-oriented criteria. In contrast to the weighting system commonly seen in tyre tests, dry road surface criteria contributed 70 per cent to the sport auto test’s total score, while wet surface criteria only carried 20 per cent and environmental factors ten per cent. The clear test winner was the ‘particularly recommended’ Pirelli PZero Trofeo R, which finished ahead of two ‘recommended’ tyres, the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 and Dunlop SportMaxx Race.
More than a dozen organisations and motoring publications across Europe have put a host of summer tyres to the test in recent times, and Goodyear points out that one particular tyre regularly gained positive results. In these comparative evaluation of various tyre sizes, which were conducted between May and November 2014 and published from February 2015 onwards, the Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance secured a number of podium places, three of them on the top step.
This one almost slipped through under the Tyrepress.com radar – in late February, Gute Fahrt – a German magazine dedicated to the Volkswagen and Audi brands – put ten summer tyres to the test. An Audi A3 and VW Golf were used to evaluate the size 225/45 R17 tyres at Pirelli’s Vizzola test facility in Italy. The result? Three tyres – the Dunlop SP SportMaxx RT, Hankook Ventus S1 evo2 and Pirelli Cinturato P7 Blue ended the test with exactly the same number of points and a rating of ‘very good’, and were named joint winners.
Vredestein representatives are highlighting the results the brand’s summer tyres have achieved in recent independent tyre tests. The Vredestein Sportrac 5 and Vredestein Ultrac Vorti were rated highly in various independent European tyre tests across dry handling, sound level and fuel consumption tests.
German car magazine Auto Bild, the German and Austrian automobile clubs ADAC and ÖAMTC, and the consumer organisation Stiftung Warentest subjected the all-round model Vredestein Sportrac 5 and the Ultra High Performance tyre Vredestein Ultrac Vorti to their multipurpose testing programmes.
The Zeetex brand has celebrated what it sees as a significant step forward in the recent Auto Bild magazine summer tyre test. The independent test rated 53 tyres based on their dry and wet braking distances, with the top 18 put forward to a “final”, at which point the magazine tested a range of characteristics: noise, mileage, fuel economy, handling, and braking efficiency on dry and wet surfaces. The Zeetex ZT 1000 was the cheapest tyre to make the final.
The most recent issue of German motoring publication Auto Zeitung contains the results of its size 215/65 R16 H/V SUV tyre test. Nine tyres were fitted to a VW Tiguan 2.0 TSI and evaluated for their performance on wet, dry and off-road surfaces and well as for comfort, noise and rolling resistance; Auto Zeitung voted the Goodyear EfficientGrip SUV its test winner.
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