2015 Auto Bild Performance Winter Tyre Test

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Dunlop Winter Sport 5 Continental WinterContact TS 850 P Horizon Polar Star 5
Dry Braking	Dunlop Winter Sport 5
Wet Handling	Dunlop Winter Sport 5 Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3 Michelin Pilot Alpin 4
Rolling Resistance	Continental WinterContact TS 850 P
Noise	Continental WinterContact TS 850 P Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 Hankook Winter i cept evo2
Snow Handling	Vredestein Wintrac xtreme S Horizon Polar Star 5

Most winter tyre tests cover sizes up to 16 inch wheels, as these are by far the most common winter tyre sizes fitted across Europe. Unfortunately, if you're looking to keep your performance car mobile over winter, these tests are largely useless as a reference, as tyre patterns and performances can drastically change as the sizes increase.

Luckily Auto Bild Sportscars have us covered with their latest ultra high performance winter tyre test. Auto Bild have taken eight UHP winter tyres in 225/40 R18 and tested them on a RWD Mercedes C Class across the usual range of snow, wet and dry tests and have included a summer tyre as reference.

Snow

During the snow tests the results were close, and the top places varied. The Nokian offered the best snow braking, the Pirelli was the fastest over a lap and the Michelin offered the best traction. All the winter tyres vastly out performed the summer tyre, which was unable to complete a snow handling lap, and stopped the Mercedes test car in 38.3 meters compared to 22.5 meters for the worst winter tyre on test (Horizon) and 20.5 meters for the best on test (Nokian)

Wet

Under wet testing, the summer tyre regained some points, winning the wet braking, handling and wet circle tests. The margin was greatest in wet handling, where the summer tyre had an average speed of 86.5 kph and the best winter (Dunlop) could only manage 83.2 kph. Under wet braking the margins were closer, with the Continental and Dunlop winter tyres stopping just 1.4 meters behind the summer tyre from 50 mph and the Dunlop and Pirelli beating the summer tyre under the straight line aquaplaning test.

Dry

Again in the dry handling and braking tests, the summer tyre showed its strengths. While the best winter tyre (Continental) could keep close to the summer tyre during dry handling, the dry braking test once again showed where siped tyres lose out, with the test winning Dunlop taking 43.5 meters to stop the car from 60 mph, compared to 36.3 meters for the summer tyre.

Results