Click here to read the intro from evo's front-drive tyre test

Click here to read the verdict from evo's front-drive tyre test

Wet handling

Looking and feeling very much like a sodden, puddled B-road, the 1.8km (1.1 mile) wet handling circuit feels like an authentic test. There’s a good variety of quick and slow corners and some tricky transitions that do a great job of revealing a tyre’s full performance. As usual, we conducted the tests with the car’s stability and traction control systems switched off to make the tyres work as hard as possible.

The tyres were scored on lap time (the average of four laps) and subjectively, the rated parameters including steering feel, turn-in, traction and confidence. Lateral G was calculated from laps of a wetted asphalt circle with an inside radius of 60m (197ft).

Top threes

Lap times
1 Continental, 81.3sec = 100%
2 Goodyear, 82.6sec = 98.4%
3= Bridgestone, 84.3sec = 96.4%
3= Dunlop, 84.3sec = 96.4%

Lateral G
1 Continental, 0.941 = 100%
2 Goodyear, 0.888 = 94.3%
3 Pirelli, 0.882 = 93.7%

Subjective
1 Goodyear, 60 points = 100%
2 Continental, 59 points = 98.3%
3 Pirelli, 58 points = 96.6%

Aquaplaning

We used two tests to measure a tyre’s ability to clear water, one longitudinal and one lateral. For the straight-line test a special rail-guided Golf was driven into 7mm of water on its left-hand side at a range of speeds and then accelerated hard until the slip compared with the right-hand tyre exceeded 15 per cent. For the curved test the Mégane was driven around a large-radius circle into 6mm of water at speeds between 65 and 90kph (40 and 56mph) and the residual lateral acceleration recorded and plotted.

Straight line
1 Continental, 77.0kph = 100%
2 Bridgestone, 76.7kph = 99.6%
3 Goodyear, 74.6kph = 98.8%

Curved
1 Continental, 3.78m/sec2 = 100%
2 Bridgestone, 3.77m/sec2 = 99.7%
3 Goodyear, 3.73m/sec2 = 98.7%

Braking

You might only creep up on the absolute cornering grip of your tyres, but on those rare occasions when you have to make an emergency stop you’ll call on every last grain of their braking performance, and it’s never more crucial than on a rain-soaked road. We measured the distance to come to a stop from 50mph on a consistently wetted surface, with anti-lock engaged. The dry braking test measures the distance to stop from 60mph and here the Continental tops the table on 33.0m (108.3ft).

Wet
1 Goodyear, 36.3m = 100%
2 Bridgestone, 36.6m = 99.2%
3 Pirelli, 36.8m = 98.6%

Dry
1 Continental, 33.0m = 100%
2 Pirelli, 33.9m = 97.3%
3 Michelin, 34.1m = 96.8%

Dry handling

We set our own lines around the dry handling course, starting with a wonderful sequence of ever-tightening corners, the first with a tip-in speed of around 80mph, to test how precisely each tyre can trace the ideal line. A 180 degree-plus left on rougher asphalt followed, exposing turn-in, lateral grip and then traction on the exit. The final sequence was a tight, second-gear left-right chicane, testing the tyre’s ability to change direction swiftly and its ability to hook up when loaded with maximum torque in second gear. We took the average time of three laps for each tyre and scored each for turn-in, grip, composure, traction, steering feel and confidence. We also ran them around a dry circle to measure their lateral G.

Lap times
1 Michelin, 58.4sec = 100%
2 Continental, 58.7sec = 99.4%
3 Hankook, 58.9sec = 99.1%

Lateral G
1 Continental, 1.000G = 100%
2 Hankook, 0.993G = 99.3%
3 Dunlop, 0.986 = 98.6%

Subjective
1 Continental, 50 points = 100%
2 Michelin, 48 points = 96%
3= Pirelli, 47 points = 94%
3= Toyo, 47 points = 94%

Road route

Our road route allowed calmer assessment of the subtleties and refinement of the tyres, taking into account steering feel and feedback, noise, and ride comfort. It took in a variety of surfaces at different speeds, allowing overall feel and balance to be considered too.

1= Pirelli, 70 points = 100%
1= Continental, 70 points = 100%
3 Goodyear, 69 points = 98.6%

Click here to read the intro from evo's front-drive tyre test

Click here to read the verdict from evo's front-drive tyre test