Summer Passenger Car Tyre Tests

For the 2021 ADAC summer tyre tests, the German organisation selected the popular 205/55 R16 and 225/50 R17 summer tyre sizes.

As usual with ADAC tests there is little raw data provided, instead the testers grading each tyre with a score, but this year we do get wear data (below) and even some of the testers subjective thoughts on the tyres, which is an excellent addition.

Without fail, each year German publication Auto Bild provides the most comprehensive overview of the summer tyre market by testing a huge amount of tyres ability in the dry and wet, in order to work out which twenty tyres deserve to be tested in their full summer tyre test.

For 2021, Auto Bild have tested 53 tyres in the most popular tyre size in Europe, 205/55 R16.

All 53 sets of tyres have their wet and dry braking results below, with the shortest 20 combined braking distances progressing to the full test, which will be on the website shortly.

The 2021 summer tyre test season is kicking off early, with the excellent team at Auto Zeitung publishing their 10 set 225/40 R18 summer tyre test during February!

As this test is out so early in the season, it means the testing would have been completed in late 2020, which means it's missing the new Bridgestone Potenza Sport, but it's still an excellent start to the year as AZ always dig into the subjectiveness of the tyres, covering dry handling, wet handling and comfort!

All testing was carried out using a Seat Leon FR, and the popular 225/40 R18 UHP tyre size should cover many mid-sized sporty cars, including the ever popular VW Golf, the front of a BMW 1 Series, the Audi TT and many other vehicles.

Every year, the British publication EVO Magazine conduct a UHP summer tyre test, with this years test covering the hugely popular 235/35 R19 tyre size, on a VW Golf GTI. This year, due to travel restrictions, the handling testing was conducted at MIRA in the UK, rather than the Continental facility in Germany.

The EVO summer tyre tests are particularly interesting as they're one of the few publications to really dig into the subjective handling of each tyre on test, as what good is a fast tyre if it's no fun to drive? This means, much like our own tests, the EVO test can help you understand which tyre will give you not just the best grip, but the most driving enjoyment too.

This year Auto Express have tested ten 205/55 R16 summer tyres using a VW Golf. You can be forgiven if this setup sounds similar, as it's almost the same test as the Tyre Reviews 16" summer tyre test.

As eight of the ten tyres on test match tyres we used in our test, but the overall results differ in places, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look into what's different, and why that might be.

Do you want to know what tyre is best for every day, real world driving? In this test we take eleven of the very best 205/55 R16 tyres on the market, plus a well regarded budget tyre, to see exactly what tyre performs best in the dry, wet, comfort, noise and rolling resistance tests!

The Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport RS, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R and Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R are regarded as three of the fastest road-legal track day tyres in the world. To find out which of these three semi slick tyres reigns supreme, I've borrowed a 991.2 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and have use of Michelin's tyre test facility in central France to run my own testing program.

Not being satisfied with just running dry handling, I'm going to test the tyres in wet handling, dry and wet braking, and of course the all important dry handling, to find out which tyre is fastest in which conditions.

Tyre testing is incredibly complicated to conduct, and one of the most difficult parts of testing is good repeatability.

Take for example wet braking. To get the wet braking distance of a tyre, you don't just do the braking run once, you do it 6-8 times, delete the outliers then average out the results. Even on the most expensive test facilities in the world, with the most perfect sprinkler systems and perfect tarmac, you rarely get the same distance twice as there are so many variables, which means when you use a less than state of the art facility, results can be surprising.

This brings us on to this test by the Italian publication "al volante". 

Here at Tyre Reviews, we receive many different questions about tyres, but one question that comes up more than most asks if modern retreaded tyres, sometimes called "retread" or "remoulds", any good?

While we've not been able to test ourselves, tests from many years ago indicate that retreaded tyres don't perform as well as even a budget tyre. Car tyres typically aren't designed to be retreaded (commercial bus and lorry tyres are), so the retreading process can leave you with not only poor performance, but a product that could be classified as unsafe.

Naturally in the past few years there have been improvements in the car retreading process, and one brand in particular, King Meiler, has established a name for itself as "the" retreading brand.

To find out whether a modern retread can match a premium, or even a budget tyre, the Polish magazine "Motor" have tested the King Meiler HPZ against the premium Continental PremiumContact 6, and a much cheaper Debica Presto HP.

If you like detailed and confusing tyre tests, you're in for a treat! The 2020 Sport Auto tyre test has tested ten 245/35 R19 tyres, using a Mercedes AMG A45 S, and is confusingly amazing!

Why is this confusing? Well, they've tested three different types of tyres in the single test! The first group is the more "regular" ultra high performance tyres, which includes the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5, Nokian PowerProof, Vredestein Ultrac Vorti, Toyo Proxes Sport, and strangely, the Continental SportContact 6. They've also tested two "UUHP" tyres, the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S and the new Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport (which is the group we believe the Continental SportContact 6 should be included in as the PremiumContact 6 is the rival to the Asymmetric 5), and three track day tyres, the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, the unreleased Bridgestone Potenza S007 RS, and the Giti GitiSport GTR3.

Each year, the wonderful Swedish publication Teknikens Värld performs a summer tyre test in Sweden. Their 2020 test covers ten 225/50 R17 summer tyres, including the first test of the brand new Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2!

The unique Swedishness of the test means they don't perform dry handling, but instead the "moose test" which involves a sharp lane change at speed. Sadly, we can't database this, but you can see the results of the test in the commentary at the bottom of the page.

The 2020 Auto Motor und Sport summer tyre test tested eleven 225/45 R18 ultra high performance tyres using a BMW 3 Series.

While the group overall was extremely close, the winning Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 and second placed Michelin Pilot Sport 4 were almost inseparable overall, with the Goodyear narrowly taking the overall win.

Ultra high performance tyre tests always make us happy, and Auto Bild do some of the best. For 2020, AutoBild have tested nine sports tyres in the staggered 245/35 R19 and 265/35 R19 sizes using a Mercedes Benz C63 AMG.

Like our UHP tyre test in 2019, Auto Bild have tested the very three best UHP tyres on the market, the Continental SportContact 6, Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport, and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, along with some of the other well know UHP tyres from Hankook, Vredestein, Falken and other brands.

Following on from the fifty tyre braking shootout, Auto Bild have more thoroughly tested the best twenty 245/45 R18 summer tyres using a RWD BMW 5 Series.

The top three tyres should come as no surprise, with Continental, Goodyear and Michelin proving to be the most rounded tyres on test. 

The Continental Premium Contact 6 and Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 drew for first place. As we found with our video comparison, both the Continental and Goodyear tyres offer sporty handling, good levels of comfort, and short wet braking. Both tyres also topped the Wear testing, and thanks to a reasonable purchase price, offered some of the best value on test.

The 2020 Auto Zeitung summer tyre test has been published, and as usual they've tested a really interesting mix of twenty tyres in the popular 225/50 R17 size.

As 225/50 R17 tyres generally bias towards comfort rather than outright sporty performance, AZ tested with the new brand BMW 3 Series, and performed the usual array of  thirteen dry, wet, comfort and economy tests.

The talented guys at ACE Europe have just released their first summer tyre test for 2020, and interestingly they've tested nine 215/55 R17 summer tyres from the mid range sector of the market!

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 seen perform extremely well in all testing. It's worth noting that the Continental and Michelin both scored the same in the wear testing, once again showing Continental have got on top of wear.

Every year the German publication Auto Bild performs the industries most comprehensive tyre test by putting a huge number of tyres through wet and dry braking, to find the best twenty tyres to progress through to a full tyre test.

For the 2020 summer season, Auto Bild have tested fifty tyres in 245/45 R18, which gives us an excellent overview of the UHP market for 2020.