MOTOR Tyre Test 2019: Finding Australia's best performance tyre

Eight of the hottest new performance tyres race the clock (or tape measure) in five gruelling disciplines. WhichCar finds out how they rank

Axed. The looks on everyone’s faces said it all, they were shocked, but understanding. Barely halfway through the annual MOTOR Tyre Test, Editor DC called it. It was time to pack up and go home; WhichCar was wasting its time.

The weather was out of their control, you see, and they couldn’t do the Tyre Test indoors – not easily, anyway. So what you’ll read is not the fruit of their first attempt at Tyre Test 2019, but rather their second, as the first attempt at MOTOR’s annual rubber ring Olympics was sadly rained out.

It wasn’t just that they didn’t want to get wet, but that the inclement weather was starting to affect their precious data in unpredictable ways. The MOTOR Tyre Test, carefully honed into its current format since 2001, is Australia’s longest continuously running and most trusted independent media tyre evaluation, and with the integrity of this test firmly in mind, they were not going to publish data that they were not 100 per cent satisfied with.

Therefore they cut their losses and regrouped for round two – that being Sydney Dragway (the battleground), Warren Luff (the hotshoe), a Peugeot 308 GTi and eight new performance tyre patterns to be put through five testing disciplines, three dry and two wet, and then would come a whole lotta number crunching.

Sydney Dragway, 7.30am, it was 17 degrees Celsius, damp, and incredibly foggy, but it was not raining. Score.

Some of the various crews involved in making the tyre test run smoothly had already arrived, including the team from JAX Tyres, as the MOTOR hire car rolled into one of the large car parks near Sydney Dragway. That car park was soon scattered with cones and turned into a small motorkhana course (this will be explained later), while the surface was still damp from the previous cold, drizzly night.

Not far away there was another area set aside for wet testing, sprinklers were at the ready to keep the surface saturated. Finally, a couple of hundred metres away was the prepared surface of the drag strip, with cones arranged for a slalom and dry brake test. If it were viable to do the tyre test indoors, they would have, but Sydney Dragway was the next best thing.

Graciously supplied by France’s own ‘lion brand’, a Peugeot 308 GTi served as the test car for this year’s big event. Wearing the control tyres upon arrival, the GTi was joined by a backup car, which primarily existed to lend its wheels to make the job faster and easier for the pit crew. An extra set of wheels meant another set of tyres could be ready before the car came back in to swap over.

With 200kW and 330Nm, a six-speed manual gearbox, and a 1205kg kerb weight, the GTi proved to be an exciting enough car to watch (and photograph), with its playful chassis providing plenty of opportunities for Luffy to cock a wheel. His only complaint about the car was that it didn’t have a racing seat, but a seat designed for comfort. It turned out that MOTOR’s Tyre Test required a well-bolstered seat.

The 308 GTi firmly ticked all the other boxes though, those being some serious braking hardware (monster 380mm front discs and four-piston Alcon callipers; 268mm, single-piston rear), essential for repeatability; ESP that could be fully deactivated; a front limited-slip differential; and slightly stiffened suspension offering some very tight body control. WhichCar had driven the 308 GTi on track at several other MOTOR tests and came away impressed with its ‘track-ability’ and longevity.

That its 19 by 9.0-inch wheels were shod with stock 235/35 ZR19 tyres – a very common fitment these days – also helped. The OE tyres were Michelin Pilot Super Sports.

It shaped up as a battle between four heavyweights, one brand wanting to play with the big boys, and two budget options testing their mettle at the same time.

While the big news was the appearance of the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, after its very notable absence last year, it had to face the reigning champion, the excellent Continental SportContact 6. The hot new Bridgestone Potenza S007A was trying to cause an upset; while the sizzling Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersports was included in the test, too. The venerable Pirelli P-Zero, ever the dark horse, was entered into this ring as well.

All these brands have won the MOTOR Tyre Test before at some, or numerous, points in this shootout’s 17-year history. With a price not too far off the aforementioned group, the Maxxis Victra Sport 5 wanted to be taken seriously.

Meanwhile those curious about a cheaper set of rubber could keep an eye on affordable patterns in the form of the HiFly HF805 Challenge DSRT and Infinity Ecomax. Brands like Dunlop, Hankook, Toyo and Yokohama were the notable absentees this year. It’s important to note it’s a risky business handing tyres over for an independent test like this, so credit to those who did.

01 - Bridgestone Potenza S007A
Origin: Japan
Treadwear Rating: 240
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y

02 - Continental SportContact 6
Origin: Czech Republic
Treadwear Rating: 240
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y

03 - Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport
Origin: Germany
Treadwear Rating: 240
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y

04 - HiFly HF805 Challenger DSRT
Origin: China
Treadwear Rating: 280
Load & Speed Rating: 91W

05 - Infinity Ecomax
Origin: China
Treadwear Rating: 280
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y

06 - Maxxis Victra Sport 5
Origin: China
Treadwear Rating: 320
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y

07 - Michelin Pilot Sport 4S
Origin: France
Treadwear Rating: 300
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y

08 - Pirelli P Zero
Origin: Italy
Treadwear Rating: 220
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y

The MOTOR Tyre Testing Process

This is where the fun started. The course cones were set up, the majority of the tyres had arrived and were accounted for, the JAX Tyres crew had sorted out a temporary workspace, and gun driver Warren Luff was comfortable in the 308 GTi. The day could kick off.

Tyre pressures were checked at 35psi cold, according to the Pug’s tyre placard. Once the fog cleared, 8:25am marked the first run, to set times with the control tyre across the five exercises and, theoretically, setting the data point for what would be the most disadvantaged runs of the day due to a still-damp surface and an ambient temp of 19 degrees, which was still rising.

The first four tyres on the competitor list made their runs, with the JAX team using a second set of the same wheels to get a new set ready while Luffy ran each tyre make through the five exercises. After the first half, another control run was set to see how variables such as surface moisture and brake wear might have been affecting the tyres’ results.

The second half of the pack underwent its runs and then the last control run set the endpoint for variable adjustment, which later had an equation applied to work out the scores. More on that later.

Warren Luff: The Driver

Tyre testing is all about controlling the variables, and this one we’re very confident has things under control – Warren Luff. Our go-to tyre tester for more than 10 years now, Luff is also the go-to man for the nation’s top motorsport outfits.

A two-time winner of the Sandown 500 (2012 and 2016), Luff is back in the enduro role for Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2019 where he will chase down that elusive Bathurst 1000 win (having finished on the podium more times than he’d like to be reminded). When he’s not also racing in Carrera Cup or coaching drivers, Luff is tearing about Movie World at his ‘day job’ running the stunt show.

What separates a professional driver from a very good amateur is the ability to consistently extract the absolute maximum from the car, and tyre – no matter the course, demands or conditions – and Luffy is a perfect example of this. Frankly, with his experience of road-based performance tyres, and road-going new performance vehicles, we wouldn’t have any other driver behind the wheel.

Racelogic VBOX: The Equipment

All competition runs were recorded with Racelogic VBOX GPS timing hardware and later closely verified against the secondary data collected on the day. Racelogic equipment has been used by the magazine, on their Tyre Test for years, as well as for all other major tests where accuracy and reliability of data is paramount, and they swear by it.

The Maths Explained

To make sure that the running order of the tyre test didn’t give an advantage to the tyres running in the drier or warmer weather conditions, or those that ran while the car was at its strongest, a linear regression formula was applied to the control tyre runs to find out how external factors could have affected the results.

For example, if the control tyres ran faster as the day went on, it meant the last competitor’s tyres had an advantage. The linear regression formula essentially applies a handicap to each tyre, based on how the control tyre would run at that time. This creates results based on each tyre running in the same conditions, and leaves little room for ‘what if this tyre ran first?’ scenarios.

Controlling The Variables

As stated earlier, this test was as accurate as it could have been, but the results were still prone to non-controllable factors. The control tyres and the linear regression formula were the best defence against data anomalies like weather and vehicle fatigue, but there were still a few other elements to consider.

For example, it was difficult to keep the wet testing surface at the exact same level of saturation for the entire day, but the trend of the raw results indicated that the sun’s decision to appear in the late morning and warm the surface up was the biggest impact on wet brake testing performance.

Finally, Luffy is still a human. It’d be near impossible to find anyone more suited to the job given his experience and ability to nail run times down to the tenth repeatedly, but nobody’s entirely perfect. Not even Luffy... just don’t tell him!

JAX Tyres: The Pit Crew

It turns out tyres make an incredibly loud ‘pop’ sound when they’re seated onto a wheel. Anyone who had never been present at a MOTOR Tyre Test, or a tyre workshop, wouldn’t know how loud it is, but the JAX Tyres team is so used to it they don’t even flinch anymore.

We can’t say the same for the rest of us. Not only did the loud noises not scare them, but also the JAX crew was made up of professionals who totally knew their stuff, and made 44 wheel changes look like an absolute breeze. We owe them a big thanks for their help at the Tyre Tests over the past couple of decades. To make the process even smoother, Eagle SMF joined JAX with their tyre-changing equipment on hand.

Make sure you head over to jaxtyres.com.au or give them a bell on 1300 367 897 next time you’re after a set of shoes for your ride.

The Five Test Disciplines

All of the exercises were completed in the same order for each tyre, with the car’s electronic assistance off, its drive settings set to Sport mode, and as per Luff’s personal comfort requirements, the air-conditioning set to 18 degrees Celsius.

In the interests of transparency, the running order of the tyres was as follows: control, Goodyear, Pirelli, HiFly, Michelin, control, Maxxis, Infinity, Bridgestone, Continental, and then a final control run.

The tests were completed in the same order each time, so by the time each tyre had reached the wet lateral G test it had already been through the wars.

It should be noted that the reason for not including a dry lateral G score was that the data tends to spike, and can’t be read accurately without the risk of including anomalies.

Dry Slalom

The first test each tyre had to conquer was the dry slalom, a fairly self-explanatory line of cones, which Luffy approached at 60km/h before weaving through each ‘gate’ to the end of the line. This was done five times, with the best and worst times from the beginning to the end of the slalom being disregarded to avoid including outliers in the final results. The middle three results were then averaged.

Despite Sydney Dragway’s grippy surface, the early morning moisture stuck around long enough to noticeably affect the earlier tyres’ times in the running order. The first control runs averaged out to 10.7sec for Luffy to traverse the slalom, while the second set worked out to a 10.43, and the last to 10.37.

Although the Bridgestones set the fastest time on the day, they also had the advantage of running late in the day when the surface was warmer and drier. After running the data through our formula, the Michelins come out on top after tying for second with the Continentals in the raw data. The Continentals ran last, with the best weather conditions, so they copped a penalty from the formula and landed mid-pack.

HiFly and Infinity produced times about a half-second slower than the next-best tyre, the Maxxis Victra, even after the linear regression was applied. It wasn’t a terrible result, but there was a clear split.

Dry Braking

Conducted after the first, third, and fifth slalom runs to give the brakes a chance to cool, the dry braking test consisted of a gate approach at 115km/h to ensure the VBOX only recorded consistent deceleration from 100km/h to 0km/h. The three distances recorded, down to the centimetre, were averaged to provide the score for each tyre.

The control runs for this test showed that the later runs were actually the runs with the disadvantage, as the increasingly hot surface on the strip, and slowly wearing brakes led to a decline in the ability of the GTi to pull up.

The Continentals put in a valiant effort, just missing out on the podium for this exercise in the raw data. Since they ran last, however, it was the adverse testing environment that initially stole the win away. Luckily for the Contis, the linear regression formula set the record straight.

Dry Motorkhana

The “road course” was a small track laid out with cones to incorporate as many varied corners as possible, with a couple of places for different braking and acceleration techniques to be used. It wasn’t Phillip Island but it was laid out in a way to test the lateral ability of the tyres in very slow and medium-speed corners. Three laps of the course were hand-timed, with the total of the three laps providing the total time. These times were later verified against VBOX data.

Between the big brands this year, it came down to tenths, rather than seconds, to decide the winner. The times recorded on the day put the Michelins ahead by almost three tenths, with the Continentals in second and the Bridgestones just two hundredths shy of that.

The mid-pack was all within a single tenth, with the Infinity and HiFly around three whole seconds slower to bring up the rear. After the linear regression was applied, the Michelins kept the top rung, but the Continentals running last put the German brand at an advantage on the day, so the maths wasn’t on its side later on.

Wet Braking

Like dry braking, but with water. On a different surface, away from the strip, the sprinklers keep a section of tarmac wet for Luffy to approach in the GTi at just above 85km/h to ensure the VBOX provided a clear 80-0 km/h figure. As with the dry test, three runs were averaged to provide a representative result.

There was a rather hefty shock when the wet testing data was being compiled, particularly the braking. In recent years, Continental’s entry into the tyre test had dominated the wet performance. The SportContact 6 won last year due to this, while also maintaining decent performance in the other tests.

This year, the Maxxis was on top, even in the raw data. There had been the same result during the Tyre Test ‘Attempt One’ about a month prior, but it was dismissed as inclement weather affecting the data. It turns out, that was wrong. The Victra Sport 5 is excellent when it comes to wet braking.

Interestingly, the first control run ended with a stopping average of approximately 3.5 metres longer than the other, later, two, which both averaged 26.4m. This meant that all the tyres that ran in the second half, and potentially, even some from the first half had roughly similar chances of performing at their best.

Wet Lateral G

On a small, wet, oval course, Luffy approached a corner at 40km/h in second gear, and performed a 180-degree turn, before turning around and doing the same thing in the other direction. Three right turns, and three left turns with consistent steering and smooth throttle to avoid inducing a false G-force peak. The raw information was used, and the two outliers (highest and lowest readings) were removed before averaging the rest.

While 1G is a significant force, its actual numerical value is low, and most tyres’ average maximums were within 0.1G of each other. Even tighter were the top four, in the raw data, the top quartet (Potenza, SportContact 6, Eagle F1, and Pilot Sport respectively) were all within a 0.00375G range. The advantage afforded to tyres that ran later in the day resulted in what you see in the final table, thanks to the linear regression formula.

MOTOR Tyre Test 2019: Summary

The winner of each exercise was awarded a score of ‘1’, down to ‘8’ for the last place-getter. As is clear in the case of the Michelins, consistently being placed on the podium is almost guaranteed to secure a win, and that’s why the Pilot Sport 4S was this year’s Tyre Test champ. Excellent cornering in the dry, the ability to overcome wet surfaces, and the ability to pull up quickly earned it the top spot.

Goodyear’s very new tyre came close to a win before it had even made it to the market, but second place in a test like this is proof the F1 Supersport is a top-notch bit of rubber.

The mid-pack is where the real tension is, however, with four excellent tyres being almost equal and vying for third place. The Victra’s superior braking ability was its only standout, but it was enough to equal the Potenza on the podium. The lack of a podium spot should absolutely not rule out Pirelli and Continental from your shopping list.

Continental’s superior wet performance won it the gong last year. It seems the opposition has caught up, and that can only be good when you’re shopping for rubber.

MOTOR Tyre Test 2019 Results

*Prices listed are a guide only. Contact your local dealer. Prices are correct as of June 2019

MOTOR Tyre Test 2019: The Numbers

Michelin Pilot Sport 4S review: Winner

Origin: France
Treadwear Rating: 300
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y
Slalom results: 10.2sec (1st)
Dry braking: 34.93m (3rd)
Motorkhana: 76.97sec (1st)
Wet Braking: 23.95m (2nd)
Wet Lateral G: 1.0184G (2nd)

Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport review: 2nd Place

Origin: Germany
Treadwear Rating: 240
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y
Slalom results: 10.25sec (2nd)
Dry braking: 36.43m (6th)
Motorkhana: 77.25sec (2nd)
Wet Braking: 24.16m (3rd)
Wet Lateral G: 1.0221G (1st)

Bridgestone Potenza S007A review: Joint 3rd Place

Origin: Japan
Treadwear Rating: 240
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y
Slalom results: 10.31sec (4th)
Dry braking: 34.14m (2nd)
Motorkhana: 77.91sec (4th)
Wet Braking: 24.96m (6th)
Wet Lateral G: 1.0175G (3rd)

Maxxis Victra Sport 5 review: Joint 3rd Place

Origin: China
Treadwear Rating: 320
Load & Speed Rating: 91Y
Slalom results: 10.45sec (6th)
Dry braking: 35.45m (4th)
Motorkhana: 78.05sec (6th)
Wet Braking: 23.79m (1st)
Wet Lateral G: 1.0111G (5th)