Click here to read the intro from evo's 2011 winter tyre test

Click here to read the verdict from evo's 2011 winter tyre test

Snow Tests

Top five:

1. Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 2   (99.6%)

2. Continental ContiWinterContact TS 830 P (98.0%)

3. *Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D Succ (96.3%)

4. Michelin Alpin A4 (95.2%)

5. Pirelli Sottozero W240 Serie 2 (94.2%)

As you might expect, it’s the winter tyres that dominate the snow tests. These were conducted on a frozen lake and at Continental’s facility near the Arctic circle and included traction, braking, a free slalom for lateral grip and laps of a handling track. 

Topping the table, just ahead of the Continental, is the Goodyear which is first or second in all the tests. The all-season tyres trail the all the winter tyres apart from the Nankang but they are all vastly superior to the summer tyre, which took three-times longer than the best to stop from 25mph…

Wet Tests (sub 7deg C)

Top five:

1. Pirelli Sottozero W240 Serie 2 (96.9%)

2. Continental ContiWinterContact TS 830 P (96.6%)

3. Michelin Alpin A4 (95.6%)

4. Hankook Optimo 4S (94.5%)

5. Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 2 (94.3%)

The compound and tread design of winter and all-season tyres ios claimed to give them significant advantages over summer tyres on cold, wet asphalt. On a wet handling circuit a few degree off zero, we saw mixed results. The top five tyres, including the Hankook all-season, showed superior pace to the summer tyre but the summer was eighth fastest, out-performing the Nankang (winter) and Kumho (all-season). Braking from 50mph on wet, cold asphalt the summer tyre is dead last and 7m behind the best, but in the straight and curved aquaplane tests the wide-grooved summer tyre tops the tables. 

Dry Tests

Top five:

1. Continental ContiSportContact 3 (98.1%)

2. Vredestein Quatrac 3  (94.3%)

3. Continental ContiWinterContact TS 830 P (94.1%)

4. Hankook Optimo 4S  (93.2%)

5. *Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D Succ (93.0%)

As expected, the Continental summer tyre is fastest on the dry handling circuit and in dry braking. The margins, however, are not as big as you might expect - about 3 per cent over the next fastest on the circuit and about 10 per cent braking from 50mph. Next best In both cases was the all-season Vredestein, though the winter Continental wasn’t far behind.  However, the feel of the winter and all-season tyres was noticeably inferior to the summer tyre….

Subjective Tests

Top five

1. Continental ContiSportContact 3 (94.8%)

2. Michelin Alpin A4 (83.5%)

3. Vredestein Quatrac 3  (80.7%)

4. Pirelli Sottozero W240 Serie 2 (79.9%)

5. Continental ContiWinterContact TS 830 P (77.1%)

There was a distinct wooliness and a general lack of precision and bite to the winter and all-season tyres compared to the summer tyre. Even the best of them (not an all-season, as you might expect, but the winter Michelin) significantly and obviously degraded the dynamic precision of the test car on a dry road. There is no increase in road noise, though, and many are superior to the summer tyre in terms of ride comfort and quietness. 

Click here to read the intro from evo's 2011 winter tyre test

Click here to read the verdict from evo's 2011 winter tyre test