| Test Summary | |
| Wet Braking |
Yokohama Advan Sport V105 Vredestein Ultrac Vorti |
| Dry Braking |
Continental Sport Contact 5 |
| Wear |
Continental Sport Contact 5 |
| Rolling Resistance |
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 |
| Noise |
Hankook Ventus S1 evo2 |
| Snow Handling |
Continental Sport Contact 5 |
We look forward to the EVO test every year, not because they test unique sizes, or use special vehicles - in fact this year they've used the generic Golf GTI running 225/40 R18 tyres, but because EVO dedicate over 40% of their scoring to subjective feel, and weight the results in order of performance traits such as lap times, giving criteria such as comfort a lower overall impact. This makes the tyre tests particularly relevant to those of us who love the feel of driving, rather than outright objective measurements.
Testing at Pirelli's Vizzola facility near Milan, Italy, EVO subjected ten of the best 225/40 R18 tyres available today to the usual mix of dry, wet and comfort tests.
The Top Three
Regular readers of the site are unlikely to be surprised at the winning tyre… once again Continental have taken the top spot with the Sport Contact 5, thanks to a supreme wet performance, taking the fastest wet lap and best subjective score.
While the number one position was unsurprising, the second placed tyre is a little more interesting. Yokohama, with the Advan V105S finished just 0.1% behind Continental overall, thanks to class leading dry weather lap times and feel, with third place going to Pirelli, which has recently made a comeback with an updated P Zero tyre.
The Rest
Fourth to sixth positions finished just 1.2% apart. The Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymmetric 2 narrowly beat the Vredestin Ultrac Vorti thanks to a good overall performance, where the Vredestein could only excel in the dry, and Dunlop took sixth with the Sport Maxx RT, doing well, but not excelling in all areas.
Hankook disappointed in the wet to finish seventh, and the Michelin struggled in the dry to finish eighth. The nomination of the RE002 was a brave move by Bridgestone, but it ultimately failed to work, finishing in ninth place, and Toyo showed that a low price doesn't always pay, finishing last in nine of the twelve tests, and last overall.
The Future
TyreReviews knows of three changes to the above tyres worth looking out for in the next few months. The Continental Sport Contact 6 is already out on the new Civic Type R, and will be launched officially next month, and both Goodyear and Michelin are due to replace the tyres tested in this test in 2016. The rumour is the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 will include a lot of technology from the excellent Michelin Pilot Super Sport, which will make the 2016 EVO tyre test far more interesting.
The Results
Below are the full results. Please note, we've not included aquaplaning scores, or applied any weighting, so make sure you pick up a copy of EVO issue 213 (October 2015) for the test in its full glory. Also we entered the EVO road route test as "comfort", but EVO took into account comfort, noise and steering feel while testing on the road.
