Last Updated: 02/11/98

Toyo Proxes T1 v Bridgestone Expedia S01 v Dunlop Sport SP8000 v Falken GRBeta v Fulda Y3000 v Goodyear Eagle F1 v Michelin Pilot HX MXM v Pirelli P-Zero Asimmetrico v Semperit Direction M800 v Yokohama A008P

From: Pasene R. Faifua 03/20/97
Rallye Racing, a German motorsports magazine conducted a Tyre Test using an Audi A4 1.8t Quattro with 205/55ZRx16 tyres on Goodyear's test track in Mireval, France.

The tests were divided into performance on wet and dry roads, rated in each category and given an overall score. To ensure balanced evaluation of categories pertaining to safety and control, points were based on both objective computer measurements and subjective impressions of the drivers. All tyres tested under same conditions.

Smaller points represent better results: 1/Very good 2/Good 3/Fair 4/Slightly poor 5/Poor.

Results of Rallye Racing Test:

In Wet Conditions -
                         T1    S01   SP8000   GRBeta   Y3000   F1     MXM   PZero   M800   A008P
Aquaplaning (straight)   2     3      2        4       2.5     1      2      1.5    1.5     4
Aquaplaning (curve)      1     3      2        3.5     2.5     1      2.5    4      1.5     4
ABS Braking              2     1.5    2        1.5     1.5     1      2      4      4       1.5
Circular Driving         1.5   1      4        3       2       1      2      3      4       3
Handling                 2     1      3        2       3       1      1.5    2.5    4       4

In Dry Conditions -
                     T1    S01   SP8000   GRBeta   Y3000   F1     MXM   PZero   M800   A008P
External Noise       1.5   2      2        1       2.5     1.5     2     1.5     2     1.5
Slalom               1     2.5    3        2.5     2.5     2.5     1     2.5     3     2
Handling             1     2.5    3        2       3       2       1     2       2.5   3.5
Comfort of Ride      2     3      2        2       2       2       1     3       1     2


Total Evaluation -

Toyo Proxes T1                 1
Bridgestone Expedia S01        2
Dunlop Sport SP8000            3
Falken GRBeta                  2
Fulda Y3000                    3+
Goodyear Eagle F1              1
Michelin HX MXM                1
Pirelli P-Zero Asimmetrico     3+
Semperit Direction M800        3
Yokohama A008P                 3

More Instrumented Tires Testing

From: Farzaan 12/09/96

I'm kind of jumping into the middle of this so I hope that I'm not repeating what someone else has done, but out here in Western Canada, I have a very good relationship with the local Pirelli distributor. Every year for the last couple of years (except this year), the local dealer has used my Talon (pretty much a race car) as a basis to test Pirelli tires against the competition. We used the g'analyst by Valentine as the measuring tool as well as light timers (same as used in auto-x). It's extremely accurate and repeatable. Anyhow, here are the results we got from the different tires we tested. I'll comment on feel and whatnot after the raw data.

All G-figures measured with a g'analyst made by Valentine and light timers. Skidpad was consistent from run to run, no temp changes, no surface changes. Controls were put into place to ensure that this had not changed significantly over the day.

Street compound:
Pirelli PZero           1.05g
Potenza S-02            1.03g
Dunlop SP8000           1.01g
Pirelli P700Z           0.98g
Yokohama AVS-II         0.95g
Potenza RE71            0.92g
Goodyear ZR50           0.91g
Goodyear GT+4           0.90g  (not bad for an OEM tire eh?)
Pirelli P210 Snow       0.80g

Race compound:
Hoosier Radial          1.29g
BFG R-1 230 compound    1.22g
Yokohama A008RS-II      1.12g

Keep in mind that the car was setup for racing, -3 degrees camber up front and -4 in the rear. The local dealer liked using my car because the AWD made it idiot proof to get consistent results. He also used his own car a BMW 535 for testing a non-optimal suspension setup car with the above tires. He did not test the Race Compound tires on his car.

Ok, I am going to ramble now a bit, so hopefully I can get the things we noticed across without blurring things up too bad :) See, I've already started!

The PZero was the fastest tire around the skidpad. It was also the most skittish one. The second you passed the limit, the car would lose grip instantly.

The S0-2 was the next. This is one awesome tire. Reasonably gradual break away, good ride quality, excellent grip and good wet weather holding. It had the best aquaplane resistance of the higher end tires tested.

For the lower cost, the Dunlop SP8000 was hard to fault. It had great stick, albeit with a lot more steering input and less communication from the steering wheel. With the Dunlops, it felt like the car wouldn't stick, but if you turned it in more, it just hung on and hung on. Because of the price and the numbers, I ended up buying Dunlops for both the Talon and my Porsche.

To give you an indication on how setup the car was, the stock tire registered at 0.90g (GT+4). A stock Talon that was driven by one of the dealers was run around the skidpad and registered 0.85g (GT+4).

The big surprise of the day was the P700Z. It kicked all of the high end tires butts on the BMW! It seems to work much better than the ultra high performance tires when the suspension is not optimal (ie, camber change, bushing deflection, etc.). The PZero was the worst on the BMW of the top three (S0-2, SP8000, PZero). It seems to require dead on alignment and suspension settings to maximize its use.

The Yokohama tires did poorly in this test and it was disappointing for me as I used to be a big Yoko fan. The AVS just was too hard of a tire to match the new big dogs. It had great response, but other than that, it got kicked pretty bad. The AVS tire felt very much like the Yoko RSII race tire, but the grip just wasn't there. (BTW - all tires were shaved so that there would be very little time needed for break in) The AVS was also horrible in the aquaplane test.

Another big surprise were the new generation race tires. All I can say is "WOW", they performed. The new Hoosier was outstanding. After a few laps around the skidpad, I had to stop because the oil pressure gauge was starting to go down from the g'forces. The Hoosier worked great on my car (this was also the tire we used when we raced the Talon and took four 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd and one 5th this year in the series). The R1 didn't feel like it was working well with the car setup (too much camber for it), but the numbers that came out were damn good. Maybe it was just a perception thing. The Yoko once again was outclassed and this year's Nationals showed that too.

[It is important to remember that each tire has an optimum suspension/chassis setup. Since it wasn't really practical for the tester to optimize his setup each time tires were changed, please keep the racing setup in mind. Ed.]