C&D Dec 2005 Tire review
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 5:18 pm
Check out the full article here.
Third Place - Yokohama Advan Neova AD07
0512_tires_yoko.jpgOn dry pavement, the Yokohama tires put the BMW cars in a position to go fastest through our tests. Check the results. With the Yokos at all corners, the BMW was fastest on the dry autocross, and they provided the shortest stopping distance by a significant margin.
Geswein knew the Yoko was a grippy tire before its results were posted. "Grip is way up," he commented after a run. He also noted that grip level stayed consistent even when the tire was sliding. In the dry, it performed a lot like the BFGoodrich, but the Yokohama is also pretty good in the wet.
Of all the tires, Geswein thought the Yokohama and the BFG g-Force rewarded aggressive driving because the two had a wide plateau of grip versus slip angle. That means if you enter a corner a little too fast and begin sliding, the Yokohama recovers quickly and in some sense covers up your mistakes.
The behavior in the wet was a little more toward the slippery end of the scale, but we could push the Yokohama hard and not feel as if we were on the verge of a sudden spinout. This combination of outstanding dry performance and more-than-passable wet performance makes the Yokohama a very alluring product. If you're looking to cut the quickest lap times while using a street tire, this is the one to have. Bring money: They're $175 apiece.
Second Place - Continental ContiSportContact 2
0512_tires_conti.jpgWhen we tabulated the results and found the Continental in second place, we went back and checked our math. During three days of testing, our subjective impressions didn't lead us to believe that the Continental was a second-place tire, but when we added the scores, that's where it landed.
It simply didn't feel as sporty as some of the other performers—the Yokohama and the Michelin, for two—but thanks in part to the wide channels in its treads that shed water well, this tire was very good in the wet, placing second in the wet autocross test and skidpad measurements.
On dry surfaces, the Conti never rose above third from last among 11 tires. It felt soft and imprecise, two qualities not in the vocabularies of performance tires. Geswein grouped it with the other "dull and disconnected" tires.
So how, then, did it land in second place? There simply weren't huge gaps in the percentage differences among all the tires in dry situations. For example, the last-place tire was within 10 percent of the best tire. But in the wet, the spread from best to worst was 15 percent, which made for a larger point spread. Plus, the Continental had a 280 tread-wear grade that was the highest for this test, and its $146 price was a few dollars below the average cost.
First Place - Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3
0512_tires_goodyear.jpgAs an all-around high-performance tire, you can't beat this Goodyear. It was the best performer in all three wet-track tests and was very competent in the dry. It generated 0.94 g on the dry skidpad, only 0.01 g off the first-place BFGoodrich and tied with the Yokohama and Hankook.
The Goodyear gripped so well that you might not have been certain the road was wet, and it lost traction in a gentle, predictable manner. It held onto the wet track with 0.82 g of stick, an impressive figure considering the worst tire in that test made only 0.67 g.
The Eagle F1 got a lot of favorable comments. In the wet, Geswein called it "direct"—a way of saying the tire provided clear signals about its contact with the pavement.
There were tires that performed better in the dry, but the Eagle wasn't far off. It was a little less precise than the BFG and Yokohama on a dry track, but not by much. And like the Continental, the Goodyear had a high 280 tread-wear grade. At $145 each, it's $34 cheaper than the most expensive tire here.
One thing to keep in mind about the imprints we carefully obtained is that a tire's contact patch changes dramatically as it is loaded, so these prints are not accurate representations of the amount of rubber that each tire puts on the road while cornering or braking.
I'm REALLY thinking about picking up some of the Yokohama Advan Neova AD07's...
Third Place - Yokohama Advan Neova AD07
0512_tires_yoko.jpgOn dry pavement, the Yokohama tires put the BMW cars in a position to go fastest through our tests. Check the results. With the Yokos at all corners, the BMW was fastest on the dry autocross, and they provided the shortest stopping distance by a significant margin.
Geswein knew the Yoko was a grippy tire before its results were posted. "Grip is way up," he commented after a run. He also noted that grip level stayed consistent even when the tire was sliding. In the dry, it performed a lot like the BFGoodrich, but the Yokohama is also pretty good in the wet.
Of all the tires, Geswein thought the Yokohama and the BFG g-Force rewarded aggressive driving because the two had a wide plateau of grip versus slip angle. That means if you enter a corner a little too fast and begin sliding, the Yokohama recovers quickly and in some sense covers up your mistakes.
The behavior in the wet was a little more toward the slippery end of the scale, but we could push the Yokohama hard and not feel as if we were on the verge of a sudden spinout. This combination of outstanding dry performance and more-than-passable wet performance makes the Yokohama a very alluring product. If you're looking to cut the quickest lap times while using a street tire, this is the one to have. Bring money: They're $175 apiece.
Second Place - Continental ContiSportContact 2
0512_tires_conti.jpgWhen we tabulated the results and found the Continental in second place, we went back and checked our math. During three days of testing, our subjective impressions didn't lead us to believe that the Continental was a second-place tire, but when we added the scores, that's where it landed.
It simply didn't feel as sporty as some of the other performers—the Yokohama and the Michelin, for two—but thanks in part to the wide channels in its treads that shed water well, this tire was very good in the wet, placing second in the wet autocross test and skidpad measurements.
On dry surfaces, the Conti never rose above third from last among 11 tires. It felt soft and imprecise, two qualities not in the vocabularies of performance tires. Geswein grouped it with the other "dull and disconnected" tires.
So how, then, did it land in second place? There simply weren't huge gaps in the percentage differences among all the tires in dry situations. For example, the last-place tire was within 10 percent of the best tire. But in the wet, the spread from best to worst was 15 percent, which made for a larger point spread. Plus, the Continental had a 280 tread-wear grade that was the highest for this test, and its $146 price was a few dollars below the average cost.
First Place - Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3
0512_tires_goodyear.jpgAs an all-around high-performance tire, you can't beat this Goodyear. It was the best performer in all three wet-track tests and was very competent in the dry. It generated 0.94 g on the dry skidpad, only 0.01 g off the first-place BFGoodrich and tied with the Yokohama and Hankook.
The Goodyear gripped so well that you might not have been certain the road was wet, and it lost traction in a gentle, predictable manner. It held onto the wet track with 0.82 g of stick, an impressive figure considering the worst tire in that test made only 0.67 g.
The Eagle F1 got a lot of favorable comments. In the wet, Geswein called it "direct"—a way of saying the tire provided clear signals about its contact with the pavement.
There were tires that performed better in the dry, but the Eagle wasn't far off. It was a little less precise than the BFG and Yokohama on a dry track, but not by much. And like the Continental, the Goodyear had a high 280 tread-wear grade. At $145 each, it's $34 cheaper than the most expensive tire here.
One thing to keep in mind about the imprints we carefully obtained is that a tire's contact patch changes dramatically as it is loaded, so these prints are not accurate representations of the amount of rubber that each tire puts on the road while cornering or braking.
I'm REALLY thinking about picking up some of the Yokohama Advan Neova AD07's...