GokuSSJ4
03-21-2005, 02:36 PM
I was a little bored during the Sepang F1 race, so I decided to analyze the data from a tire test just published in Super Street magazine and some time before in Eurotuner mag. The test is interesting because the drivers were amazingly enough Will Turner and Don Salama of Turner Motorsports and World Challenge fame, so you can imagine they wrung those little black gumballs as hard as they could.
The test was conducted at the Tirerack facility using their identical BMW 330Ci cars and 17x8 wheels with a 225/45/17 tire size across the board. I am always interested in comparative testing as no opinions are required, people are un-biased and you get comparable hard data, in this case for 12 of the best street tires available. Now I don't plan on replacing my Hoosiers with these, but I am always looking for tires for my street cars, and I always want to know which the best are. Plus a rain tire is always needed, and my Yoko's are worn out.
I thought I would chart the data from the magazine to get a better idea of the variation, and draw my own conclusions about which are the best tires. I also ranked the tires in two ways, one as the magazine did it, with 12 points for a best in class and 1 point for a worst in class (12 tires), and one with an old F1 style point system, where 1st is 10 points and 2nd is 6 points, 3rd to 6th is 4 to 1 point to see if there was a difference in the ranking by awarding proportionately more points to the podium finishers.
Here is the data: (sorry the Imagestation images come out at half size)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p908b87e7c7cab39a929f909d6098f376/f4c48af6.jpg
Rank Ordinals, points as in magazine
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/pc69d316bd06d9b8d37638a842b904c25/f4c48afb.jpg
Rank ordinals, old F1 style
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p28c6dd4792820116fcba1336a3203729/f4c48b0d.jpg
Dry lap time
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p97fc292e0e0006f2631121329aa7f7d5/f4c48b05.jpg
Wet lap time (same scale as for dry lap time to compare)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p9ed11e4ccc7e54a502dfc39eaedafa52/f4c48b07.jpg
Dry skidpad
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p0f84f37f1abbc5481454fa31f12d59f4/f4c48b0b.jpg
Wet skidpad
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p843c080cd354360a133a4a7b9c4610ee/f4c48b01.jpg
Dry braking
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p963759bac7f2e5e71070a79da5074852/f4c48b13.jpg
Wet braking
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p08f0403e2a830c99cf0ed4f6411d0f60/f4c48b16.jpg
Dry slalom
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p997f68ce4ad8b5ad5dbe707f54ccc98e/f4c48af8.jpg
Wet slalom
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p9ba64165fad1ec1d21d5df7576ed47cb/f4c48afe.jpg
So any way you look at it, if you count all the data, the Michelin PS2 is the best tire. It scored three 1st places, two 2nds and two 3rds. It gets first place in both ranking methods.
If you just care about the dry performance, the B.F. Goodrich T/A KD is the best overall. It is made by Michelin. If you count just the wet, the Michelin PS2 is the best with the Goodyear F1 GS-D3 a very, very close second. The best dry lap time went to the Azenis, by a hair, with a time of 29.448 while the T/A KD's time was 29.474. Not sure that is a repeatable difference, as 0.026 seconds is pretty small.
One of the more telling things I saw was that the best wet tire, the Michelin PS2 also had the 3rd fastest dry laptime, at 29.537, just 0.09 seconds slower than the Azenis. If you look at the dry laptime chart, you will ee that the top three tires are in a group by themselves.
Using the standard ranking, the order is Michelin PS2, Azenis RT-215, Goodyear F1-GS, with the B.F. Goodrich T/A KD.
Using the old F1 ranking, the order is Michelin PS2, a tie for 2nd between the Goodyear F1 GS-D3 and the B.F. Goodrich T/A KD, with the Azenis in 4th.
The worst tire is the Yokohama AVS sport, any way you look at it. That is funny because I saw the editor of Grassroots Motorsports the other day say how much he liked them on his own car on a Speed Channel program. Just shows why I like instrumented testing rather than opinions!
You can form your own opinions, but I thought it was telling that the F1 race today was won by Michelin, and they make the best dry tire and wet tire in this test. I also love my Michelin Sport Cups on the track, as they are just as fast as my Hoosiers, and they last much longer. Michelins cost, but it seems you get what you pay for.
I was also quite surprised at how close the tires are in some of the dry tests, and how different they are in the wet. In the dry, it is like splitting hairs, but in the wet there is a wide difference in performance. I will be buying a Michelin product soon (too bad they don't come in 15" sizes). Feel free to draw your own conclusions, and may the grip be with you.
The test was conducted at the Tirerack facility using their identical BMW 330Ci cars and 17x8 wheels with a 225/45/17 tire size across the board. I am always interested in comparative testing as no opinions are required, people are un-biased and you get comparable hard data, in this case for 12 of the best street tires available. Now I don't plan on replacing my Hoosiers with these, but I am always looking for tires for my street cars, and I always want to know which the best are. Plus a rain tire is always needed, and my Yoko's are worn out.
I thought I would chart the data from the magazine to get a better idea of the variation, and draw my own conclusions about which are the best tires. I also ranked the tires in two ways, one as the magazine did it, with 12 points for a best in class and 1 point for a worst in class (12 tires), and one with an old F1 style point system, where 1st is 10 points and 2nd is 6 points, 3rd to 6th is 4 to 1 point to see if there was a difference in the ranking by awarding proportionately more points to the podium finishers.
Here is the data: (sorry the Imagestation images come out at half size)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p908b87e7c7cab39a929f909d6098f376/f4c48af6.jpg
Rank Ordinals, points as in magazine
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/pc69d316bd06d9b8d37638a842b904c25/f4c48afb.jpg
Rank ordinals, old F1 style
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p28c6dd4792820116fcba1336a3203729/f4c48b0d.jpg
Dry lap time
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p97fc292e0e0006f2631121329aa7f7d5/f4c48b05.jpg
Wet lap time (same scale as for dry lap time to compare)
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p9ed11e4ccc7e54a502dfc39eaedafa52/f4c48b07.jpg
Dry skidpad
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p0f84f37f1abbc5481454fa31f12d59f4/f4c48b0b.jpg
Wet skidpad
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p843c080cd354360a133a4a7b9c4610ee/f4c48b01.jpg
Dry braking
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p963759bac7f2e5e71070a79da5074852/f4c48b13.jpg
Wet braking
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p08f0403e2a830c99cf0ed4f6411d0f60/f4c48b16.jpg
Dry slalom
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p997f68ce4ad8b5ad5dbe707f54ccc98e/f4c48af8.jpg
Wet slalom
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid161/p9ba64165fad1ec1d21d5df7576ed47cb/f4c48afe.jpg
So any way you look at it, if you count all the data, the Michelin PS2 is the best tire. It scored three 1st places, two 2nds and two 3rds. It gets first place in both ranking methods.
If you just care about the dry performance, the B.F. Goodrich T/A KD is the best overall. It is made by Michelin. If you count just the wet, the Michelin PS2 is the best with the Goodyear F1 GS-D3 a very, very close second. The best dry lap time went to the Azenis, by a hair, with a time of 29.448 while the T/A KD's time was 29.474. Not sure that is a repeatable difference, as 0.026 seconds is pretty small.
One of the more telling things I saw was that the best wet tire, the Michelin PS2 also had the 3rd fastest dry laptime, at 29.537, just 0.09 seconds slower than the Azenis. If you look at the dry laptime chart, you will ee that the top three tires are in a group by themselves.
Using the standard ranking, the order is Michelin PS2, Azenis RT-215, Goodyear F1-GS, with the B.F. Goodrich T/A KD.
Using the old F1 ranking, the order is Michelin PS2, a tie for 2nd between the Goodyear F1 GS-D3 and the B.F. Goodrich T/A KD, with the Azenis in 4th.
The worst tire is the Yokohama AVS sport, any way you look at it. That is funny because I saw the editor of Grassroots Motorsports the other day say how much he liked them on his own car on a Speed Channel program. Just shows why I like instrumented testing rather than opinions!
You can form your own opinions, but I thought it was telling that the F1 race today was won by Michelin, and they make the best dry tire and wet tire in this test. I also love my Michelin Sport Cups on the track, as they are just as fast as my Hoosiers, and they last much longer. Michelins cost, but it seems you get what you pay for.
I was also quite surprised at how close the tires are in some of the dry tests, and how different they are in the wet. In the dry, it is like splitting hairs, but in the wet there is a wide difference in performance. I will be buying a Michelin product soon (too bad they don't come in 15" sizes). Feel free to draw your own conclusions, and may the grip be with you.