New issue of Evo - Winter Tyre Test

#Chri5#

#Chri5#

#Chri5#

Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2003
Posts
7,457
Location
Shropshire
The new issue of Evo landed on my doormat over the weekend and there's a new tyre test which compares a Conti Sport Contact (v3 IIRC), against some all-round tyres (a Vredstein and another) and specific winter tyres (Conti Winter Contact and others)

I don't have the magazine to hand, but IIRC they went off to a testing ground in Scandinavia and ran dry / wet / snow tests (lap times, braking distances etc). I remember the car (though I forget what they used!) with the summer CSCs on couldn't set a lap time for the snow test as it couldn't get up the hill at the start of the circuit...
 
Shame they haven't included the Falken Eurowinter HS-439 that I've just had delivered today :( was rather hoping to get some actual evidence that they are good or just average winter tyres.

It is interesting to see that the Continental winter tyre won the review at the Continental testing grounds ;) It would have been nice to see how the Continental WinterContact compared to the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3.
 
Would you mind scanning the article and uploading it?

I have a set of Conti winter contacts ready in my garage. :p
 
It seemed a bit of an odd test, I only skimmed it briefly but they seemed pretty keen on winter tyres despite them being shown to be crap in the dry and mediocre in the wet. I've no doubt they're great in the snow but unless it is actually snowy they weren't all that great?
 
burns said:
It seemed a bit of an odd test, I only skimmed it briefly but they seemed pretty keen on winter tyres despite them being shown to be crap in the dry and mediocre in the wet. I've no doubt they're great in the snow but unless it is actually snowy they weren't all that great?
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Which just goes to back Fox's point up completely, i'm sure he'll be satisfied with the result :p
 
I'm fairly certain I'm going to grab 4 x TS830s, but would certainly like to see the test and see what they say. Please do upload if you can.
 
Something that gets completely ignored when conversations about winter tyres comes around is that nobody ever said winter tyres were no good in the snow. They are far better than all rounders or summer tyres, clearly.

Its just, in this country, where it snows rarely, for a day or 2, is it really worth the added expense and so so dry/wet performance to ensure that on that off chance that it snows you will be able to get to work?

I can put the figures up now....

Edit: No I wont, I have NO IDEA how they have come to the final percentages?!? Its not an average of them all. Anyone read it got any ideas?
 
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Skeeter said:
Something that gets completely ignored when conversations about winter tyres comes around is that nobody ever said winter tyres were no good in the snow. They are far better than all rounders or summer tyres, clearly.

Its just, in this country, where it snows rarely, for a day or 2, is it really worth the added expense and so so dry/wet performance to ensure that on that off chance that it snows you will be able to get to work?
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I think what gets missed more is the fact that when you are scraping the ice off your windscreen for the ## time there is quite often a similar amount of ice on the road. This was my main reason for getting a set and it isn't all about 2 days of snow.

I'm sure it will be like the last test where people will quote the stopping distances on a dry road at 4'C as a reason why they are crap and people who are trying to justify getting them (like me) will quote the massively different stopping distances on ice. At the end of the... who really cares, just do what ever you feel happiest doing. I think very few people will give two hoots if OMFG FOX HAS BEEN PROVEN RIGHT! or not :confused:
 
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lordrobs said:
I think what gets missed more is the fact that when you are scraping the ice off your windscreen for the ## time there is quite often a similar amount of ice on the road. This was my main reason for getting a set and it isn't all about 2 days of snow.
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Ice on a the windscreen forms far easier than on roads.

You have pretty much cancelled out gains by buying the Wan Li of winter tyres anyway :p
 
Its not really an extra expense to have a set of winter tyres as your summer tyres will last twice as long.

I have to change my tyres by law and it makes a huge difference.
 
[TW]Fox;20269169 said:
Ice on a the windscreen forms far easier than on roads.

You have pretty much cancelled out gains by buying the Wan Li of winter tyres anyway :p
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Thanks for the science lesson correcting my poorly made point and if you say so.
 
Fox, I'm guessing you haven't read the article? I am completely confused as to how they have come to the final figures :confused:. Someone skilled in vehicle comparison stats needs to explain them to me.
 
Skeeter said:
Fox, I'm guessing you haven't read the article? I am completely confused as to how they have come to the final figures :confused:. Someone skilled in vehicle comparison stats needs to explain them to me.
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Nope, won't be able to read it till next week. I am guessing its like that other test where the summer tyre performs very well in wet and dry at cold temps, beating most winter tyres, but is dire in snow leading them to conclude winter tyres are the second coming of Jesus and we should all replace our UHP tyres with random ditchfinder's with 'winter' written on the side?
 
Nah, not that, literally the figures make no sense to me. They have percentages for Wet, Dry, Snow and Subjective, and then an overall percentage, but I cant see how they have come to the overall percentage. Its not the average of the 4 individual percentages.
 
The last one I read weighted snow performance more heavily so the Premium Contact came last despite winning in the dry and coming iirc second in the wet..
 
I can'f find any mention of weighting. They say the scores are worth 25% each.

For example, the figures for the Winter Conti's are:

Snow 98.0%
Wet 96.6%
Dry 94.1%
Subj 77.1%

The average of all of those is 91.45%, or 91.5%, but the overall figure they have is 90.5%

:confused:
 
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