While ADAC doesn't provide its readers with raw data from their testing, their yearly tyre tests are some of the most influential in the world. This year they've tested sixteen 225/40 R18 car tyres, and twelve 235/55 R17 crossover SUV sizes. For the 225/40 R18 test, there are few surprises.
Continental and Michelin tie for first place with the PremiumContact 6 and Pilot Sport 4, two tyres we've historically seen perform extremely well in testing. It's worth noting that the Continental and Michelin both scored the same in the wear testing, again showing Continental have got on top of wear.
The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 and Maxxis Victra Sport 5 finish a tied third place overall. While it's not unusual to see the Goodyear near the top, the latest range of Maxxis tyres are proving to be really strong in testing.
The "best of the rest" spot was awarded to the Nexen N'Fera Sport, with tyres from Sava, Vredestein, Falken, Bridgestone, Kumho, Nokian, Pirelli and Toyo all close behind. The Pirelli in particular is an interesting result as it was the best in every category during dry testing, but still finished relatively poorly overall.
We'd also love to see more data from the wear testing, as most of the tyres on test were given the same scores, but we'll have to wait for the Auto Bild test due soon for actual numbers.
The full results are below, feel free to ask any questions in the comments, and be sure to come back to Tyre Reviews in the coming weeks for more of the latest summer tyre tests!
Update
We've been sent the actual wear figured, which sheds some light on the poor result for Pirelli overall. ADAC wear tested each set of tyres on the open road for 15,000 km then predicted the total mileage based on starting tread depth and remaining tread before 1.6mm.
Wear
Predicted tread life in KM
Higher is better ↑| Position / Tyre | Result | Gap to best |
|---|---|---|
| 39,600 KM | Best | |
| 39,200 KM | -400 KM | |
| 38,500 KM | -1,100 KM | |
| 38,200 KM | -1,400 KM | |
| 38,200 KM | -1,400 KM | |
| 36,800 KM | -2,800 KM | |
| 36,500 KM | -3,100 KM | |
| 36,100 KM | -3,500 KM | |
| 36,100 KM | -3,500 KM | |
| 36,100 KM | -3,500 KM | |
| 35,800 KM | -3,800 KM | |
| 33,700 KM | -5,900 KM | |
| 33,400 KM | -6,200 KM | |
| 28,200 KM | -11,400 KM | |
| 27,900 KM | -11,700 KM | |
| 25,500 KM | -14,100 KM |
The difference between best and worst was 35.6% (14,100 KM).
Results
ADAC applied the following score weighting to the overall results - Dry 20% / Wet 40% / Noise 10% / Fuel 10% / Wear 20%
Continental Premium Contact 6
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7.2 |
| Wet | 8.6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 7.8 |
| Noise | 4.8 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 7.8 |
Total: 44.2
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8.2 |
| Wet | 8 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8.2 |
| Noise | 6.2 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 7.8 |
Total: 46.4
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8.6 |
| Wet | 7.4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8.2 |
| Noise | 5.8 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 7.6 |
Total: 45.6
Maxxis Victra Sport 5
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 7.6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 7.2 |
| Noise | 6.4 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 7.6 |
Total: 44.8
Nexen N Fera Sport SU2
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7.6 |
| Wet | 6.8 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8.2 |
| Noise | 5.8 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 6.6 |
Total: 43
Sava Intensa UHP 2
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8.4 |
| Wet | 6.6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8.8 |
| Noise | 5.8 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 6.6 |
Total: 44.2
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7 |
| Wet | 6.6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 7.2 |
| Noise | 6.2 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 6.6 |
Total: 41.6
Falken Azenis FK510
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6.2 |
| Wet | 7.2 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8 |
| Noise | 6 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 6.2 |
Total: 41.6
Bridgestone Potenza S001
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8.6 |
| Wet | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 7.8 |
| Noise | 5 |
| Wear | 7 |
| Overall | 6 |
Total: 40.4
Kumho Ecsta PS71
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7.2 |
| Wet | 7.4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8 |
| Noise | 5.4 |
| Wear | 6 |
| Overall | 6 |
Total: 40
Nokian PowerProof
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7.2 |
| Wet | 7.2 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8 |
| Noise | 6.4 |
| Wear | 6 |
| Overall | 6 |
Total: 40.8
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 9.4 |
| Wet | 8.4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 6.6 |
| Noise | 6.2 |
| Wear | 6 |
| Overall | 6 |
Total: 42.6
Toyo Proxes Sport
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 6.4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8 |
| Noise | 6.2 |
| Wear | 6 |
| Overall | 6 |
Total: 40.6
Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 5.8 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8.4 |
| Noise | 5.2 |
| Wear | 7 |
| Overall | 5.8 |
Total: 40.2
Cooper Zeon CS Sport
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 5.4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 7 |
| Noise | 5.6 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 5.4 |
Total: 39.4
Rotalla RU01 S Pace
225/40 R18
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6.2 |
| Wet | 4.8 |
| Rolling Resistance | 8.8 |
| Noise | 6.4 |
| Wear | 8 |
| Overall | 4.8 |
Total: 39
Maybe no big deal, but could you please check some figures for wear? Regarding ADAC, it should look like this:
Toyo 28 600 -> 33 400
Bridgestone33 400 -> 33 700
Hankook33 700 -> 35 800
Rotalla35 800 -> 36 100
Thank you for the correction, it is a big deal, not sure how that happen!
Hello there, congrats for your great work. I own a Fiesta ST180. Tyre from factory were Bridgestone 0050. Great steering wheel feel, average in wet, noisy and low comfort. Do you believe that it will worth the change to Asymmetric 5 or Conti PC6 or it will be a disappointment like when I turned to Continental Sport Contact 5?
Thank you in advance for your answer.
The PC6 is a much better steering tyre than the SC5 so there's hope yet.That said, some of the re050s feel great, but like you said, poor grip
According to the photos they show, it looks like they tested the Pirelli PZ4.
You are correct, I just can't update it right now due to travelling
And I believe that Michelin won by a small margin but won. Both weighted and unweighted. https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
ADAC have them joint top overall, and the press releases from Conti and Michelin both indicate top positions. I've given up trying to work out some of the scoring systems when we don't get to see the data!
Could you please check again the Pirelli score - i just checked it on my side and I can't get 6 overall score with any meaningful weight.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
https://www.adac.de/rund-um... should help your understanding
ADAC use a school-note system. When one rating is worse than 2.6 (for example in wear, Pirelli with 3.0) the overall grade can´t be better than 2.6. In this case, the Pirelli was downgraded because the 3.0 note in wear, the overall is also a 3.0.
And if you do the same with the pirelli, the result is 7.72 and not 6. It seems that wear is more important than 20% that Adac claims. Otherwise the results don't make any sense. For example Nexen vs Nokian.
How many % you weight the wear?, just from my curiosity.
If the overall scores seem normal to you, then I'll pass. You can share with us, any further information you may have about the way Adac calculates the final score.