This year, Sport Auto have tested seven different UHP winter tyres in 235/35 R19, on a VW Golf R.
Snow
Testing in Northern Finland for snow performance, the Pirelli won the snow tests with a precise steering response, quick lap time and solid traction and braking results. Other tyres stopped slightly quicker, but they lacked the Pirellis speed and balance during the other tests. Continental was the second best in test, winning braking and placing well in all the other tests, and the Michelin had an equally strong showing to third. The budget tyres from Star Performer and Nankang found themselves outclassed by the premium brands in the snow, finishing at, or near the bottom in all four tests.
Wet
For wet and dry testing, Sport Auto moved to Germany. Wet braking was dominated by Michelin, but with the budget Star Performer a surprise second place narrowly beating Continental, which rounded out the top three.
Wet cornering was similarly surprising, with Continental moving up to the top spot, star performer staying second and Vredestein taking third place. While the raw numbers showed the Star Performer to be up there with the Continental, the subjective balance was far more difficult to manage than the premium winner, with the car switching to sudden oversteer with the budget tyre, where the Continental offered safe, gradual understeer.
Dry
The dry performance was again dominated by Continental, winning three of the four tests. Star Performer have proven you can make a winter tyre work in two of the three categories, but it's very rare to find one tyre at the front of all the dry, wet and snow testing. Somehow, Continental have managed this with the TS850P.
Endurance testing
One test we've not seen before was a high speed rig test. VW tyre standards require tyres endure 10 minutes of running at 174 mph, so Sport Auto setup a rig with -3 negative camber (higher than the specification) and started running the tyres at 168 mph for 10 minutes. All tyres managed this, but when increased to the required 174 mph the Nankang and Star Performer tyres failed almost immediately. The Continental, Michelin, Nokian and Pirelli were fine up until 199 mph, and the Vredestein survived for 10 minutes at 205 mph!
Results
Continental WinterContact TS 850 P
235/35 R19
All discipline results (6)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Michelin Pilot Alpin 4
235/35 R19
All discipline results (6)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3
235/35 R19
All discipline results (6)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Vredestein Wintrac xtreme S
235/35 R19
All discipline results (6)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Nokian WR D4
235/35 R19
All discipline results (6)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Star Performer SPTS AS
235/35 R19
All discipline results (6)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
Nankang Activa SV 55
235/35 R19
All discipline results (6)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Noise | — |
| Overall | — |
You say that the TS850P is 2nd on snow, but with 8.6 and "low lateral stability" he's more like 4th for me:
Pirelli 9.3
Michelin 9
Nokian 8.8
Continental 8.6
So, where is the mistake?
The difference seems to be the magazine weighting, which is probably based on percentage from best, where we based our overview from the 4 categories of snow tests and prioritised braking.
Braking: Conti, Michelin, Nokian, Vred
Cornering: Pirelli, Conti, Michelin, Nokian
Traction: Vred, Conti, Pirelli, Nokian
Handling: Michelin, Pirelli, Conti, Nokian