Testing in 225/45 R17, the GTU test is the first test to include the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3,Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2, Falken Azenis FK510,Toyo Proxes T1 Sport+ and GT Radial SportActive amongst the fourteen tyres tested! Sadly, the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 was absent from the test, but we can't have everything at once.
How did the new tyres perform?
There will be some disappointed faces at Goodyear Dunlop, as the aging Continental Sport Contact 5 once again won the test. It beat the second placed Goodyear in the wet largely thanks to exceptional wet braking, it proved to be slightly stronger in the dry, and matched the comfort and noise results. The only area the new Goodyear beat the Continental was rolling resistance, where both the new Goodyear and Dunlop provided extremely impressive rolling resistance scores. The Dunlop almost matched the Goodyear test for test, and the Pirelli P Zero exactly matched the Dunlop to finish joint third.
As disappointed as Goodyear and Dunlop might feel, the results across the top four tests were extremely close and could easily change order in a different test size, or using a different vehicle, there's hope yet that someone will take the challenge to Continental!
Falken will be happy in fourth, with the new Azenis FK510 finishing "best of the rest", beating the well respected Nokian zLine to fifth place, and finishing well ahead of its direct new rival, the Toyo T1 Sport+ which could only manage tenth overall. The Falken looks to be a bit of a performance bargin, as at 300 euros per set, they're one of the cheapest tyres on test.
Amongst the established tyres there was little to report. Bridgestone narrowly beat Michelin, but both companies submitted premium touring tyres which compared to the ultra high performance tyres submitted by the top four brands seems a little curious.
GT Radial was the best of the Chinese brands, but with a set of the new Sport Active now costing 315 euros compared to the Linglong at 220 euros, the extra cost of the tyre struggles to justify the small improvement in performance.
Price vs Performance
The other point GTU felt it needed to make was the price / performance trade still present when tyre shopping. The test winning Continental were priced at 390 euros per set, and while the Westlake tyres were nearly half the price at 210 euros, they also scored zero points in wet braking and were deemed too dangerous to use on the road.
