Max Performance Tyre Tests

Below is the data from the Die-Reifen summer performance tyre test which tested eight popular summer tyres in 225/40 R18 using a VW Golf GTI.

It's the second test for the new Pirelli P Zero PZ5, and the second win! This years Auto Express summer tyre test has tested nine popular summer tyres in 225/40 R18, with some rather interesting results.

Tire Rack are on a mission this year to test more tyres than anyone has before, which is very exciting. Their summer performance tyre test has tested eleven of the most popular tyres in 275/35 R19 using their new BMW M2 test vehicle.

Autobild Sports have tested seven premium and budget offerings in a staggered fitment of 245/35 R20 front and 295/30 R20 rear. Using a Lotus Emira as their test vehicle, Auto Bild Sportscars put these high-performance tyres through their paces across dry and wet conditions to determine which delivers the best balance for demanding sports car applications.

In the most comprehensive motorcycle tyre comparison test ever conducted by PS Magazine, twelve high-performance motorcycle tyres went head-to-head to answer a fundamental question: how close can everyday sport tyres get to specialized hypersport rubber when pushed to their limits?

There's a new tyre on the market aiming to be the best of the best performance summer tyres. The Pirelli P Zero PZ5 is designed to take on the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, Continental SportContact 7, Bridgestone Potenza Sport, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 and more, but can the latest UUHP summer tyre on the market really move the game on in both handling AND grip? There's only one way to find out - testing!

To find out if the new PZ5 is as good as Pirelli claim, I have tested it against all the tyres mentioned above, and the Falken Azenis FK520 and a budget tyre. I've put all seven sets of tyres through dry and wet testing, and I've looked into the noise, comfort and rolling resistance levels of each set of tyres to ensure you have all the information needed to make the correct purchase decision. 

Autobild Sports Cars tests are usually nice and simple. Fast car, the best of the UUHP tyres, put them together and see what's best.

Thankfully, in the strange year of 2025 testing, Autobild have kept that formula and tested eight performance summer tyres in 245/35 R19 using an Audi TTS.

As this is a nice and simple test, we'll let the data do the talking.

The 2025 Sport Auto UUHP tyre test is the first to test the new Falken Azenis RS820!

The test used a G series BMW M4 with 275/35 R19 front and 285/30 R20 rear tyre sizes. Sport Auto evaluated four performance tyres: Continental SportContact 7, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, Falken Azenis RS 820, and the BMW OE-marked Pirelli P Zero (PZ4*). Testing covered wet and dry braking, handling, aquaplaning resistance, and rolling resistance.

Following on from the 52 set braking shootout, the full Autobild summer tyre test has taken the best twenty tyres to the full set of testing, with some interesting highlights!

There are two interesting stories. Firstly, is the rise of the Chinese tyres, with both Linglong and Sailun performing really well in the grip tests. Does this mean Chinese tyres are now fighting with the premium manufacturers? Well, sort of.

The 2025 Auto Zeitung summer tyre test has tested ten ultra high performance 225/45 R18 patterns in the dry and wet, and this year included wear!

The wear test has added some interesting highlights, which we'll discuss below.

The 2025 ADAC summer tyre test has been published, and it follows this years trend of testing in the sporty 225/40 R18 tyre size!

As always with ADAC they sadly don't give us all the data for the test, but they do give us some interesting insights, including wear, and they do a great job summarising each tyres performance overall.

So it begins, the 2025 summer tyre test season is upon is, and it's going to be an interesting year!

To start things off, Autobild have published their annual 52 tyre shootout, where they test the wet and dry braking of pretty much every tyre they can get their hands on to work out the best 20 to take through to the full tyre test.

Top Tyre Review has put six Asian-market ultra-high performance tyres through a comprehensive test for 2024/25. The lineup includes five standard UHP tyres - Continental MaxContact MC7, Michelin Pilot Sport 5, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6, Toyo Proxes TR1, and the Chinese-made RoadX RXMotion U11. Adding an interesting comparison, Hankook's EV-focused iON evo was included to see how a dedicated electric vehicle tyre performs against traditional UHP options.

This is the data from the 2024 EVO Summer Tyre Test.

Every year Autobild Sports Cars aims to go big, and this year they've literally have, testing UUHP summer tyres! In search for the sportiest performance tyre, they used a Mercedes AMG test vehicle which is fitted with 265/35 R19 front and 295/30 R20 rear tyres.

As usual the excellent drivers at AutoBild put seven sets of UUHP / maximum performance tyres to the test in the dry and wet, as well as testing the rolling resistance and noise levels of the tyres.

It's a good bunch of tyres, and includes the brand new Vredestein Ultrac Pro (which replaces the Ultrac Vorti) against the very best in the category.

The first summer tyre test of 2023 has been published, the Gute Fahrt / ACE Europe UHP tyre test in the popular 235/35 R19 size using a Golf GTI.

Unfortunately the details of the test are somewhat limited, and this isn't a test that shares any data or percentage results. Instead they use a positive or negative scoring system, which really doesn't satisfy our geeky desire for data, so this write up will be limited.

For 2021 EVO magazine tested nine sets of UHP / UUHP tyres in the popular 225/40 R18 size. That size in particular offers some interesting issues as companies like Bridgestone and Goodyear offer their UUHP products in that size, but companies like Continental and Michelin do not.  

The test was conducted using an Audi S3 which has a haldex type based four wheel drive system, which is fairly uncommon in tyre testing. EVO spend a lot of time rating the subjective handling, noise and comfort of  the tyres on the road and track, which means they put more score weighting on subjective data than any other publication. This makes the results really interesting for those of us who enjoy driving.

Michelin and BMW spent over 2.5 years making the perfect tyre for the new G80 BMW M3 and G82 BMW M4. Here's all the work and changes that went into the project!

For summer 2022, Sport Auto tested four sets of UHP tyres, three sets of UUHP and three semi set of slick track day tyres, all in the popular 235/35 R19 size! This is of course very interesting, and in parts a little confusing! 

As the Tyre Reviews database doesn't yet have the ability to deal with different types of tyres in the same test gracefully, we'll run over the results below before presenting all the data.

It's the 2022 Tyre Reviews Ultra-Ultra High Performance Summer Tyre Test! You can watch the video here, or scroll down for the full write up and data!

In this tyre test, I'll be testing ten of the most popular ultra-ultra high performance tyres on the market to find out exactly what tyre is best at what.