2017 Auto Express Summer Tyre Test

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Continental Premium Contact 5 Hankook Ventus Prime 3 K125
Dry Braking	Continental Premium Contact 5
Wear	Continental Premium Contact 5

The excellent 2017 Auto Express summer tyre test has just been published! This year Auto Express tested eleven 205/55 R16 tyre sizes, ranging from the premium end of the market to the budget end.

This year's winner is the Continental Premium Contact 5. This tyre has always tested well, but with the newer Premium Contact 6 having already been on the market for 6 months at time of test, it would have been interesting to see just how well the latest version of the Premium Contact range would have scored.

Positions two and three were taken by the Dunlop Sport BluResponse and Bridgestone Turanza T001 EVO. The Dunlop aced the dry testing and finished just 0.5% behind the Continental overall, whereas Bridgestone have upped their wet weather performance for the T001 EVO, finishing only 0.1% further back.

The entire test was separated by just 6.2% overall, which highlights how the gap between the budget tyres and premium tyres is still closing. As a cavveat, it's worth keeping in mind the last placed budget Syron tyre needed over 10 meters further to stop in the wet, and over 5 meters in the dry when compared to the best on test, that's the difference between stopping safely, and a very big crash.

As always with the Auto Express tests, we recommend heading over to the excellent Auto Express website for the full results of the test, as we've only summarised the basic information below.