New Asian tires make good impression
MarkDarren.com PHOTO
What's the best tire for driving in rainy, spring weather?
A multi-brand distributer of tires from all over the world asked my favourite question: Would you like to test some tires?
Does The Tire Guy like abusing rubber and attacking cones? Well, yes!
The focus this time though was the new tire brands coming out of eastern Asia, with some control tires from the market leaders.
The company in question, Dynamic Tire Corp., carries many brands and is considering expanding its lineup of imports for the Canadian marketplace. They distribute everything from auto tires to huge off-road rubber for earth-moving equipment.
Dynamic Tire marketing director Renzo Castagna asked just how good are some of the new tires coming out of less well known countries compared to the big established brands.
Dynamic Tire would sponsor the testing and I would run it. They would observe. They were literally on the sidelines watching as my team and I ran three BMW 3-series cars through a series of tests on Mosport’s skid pad, an adjacent giant concrete parking area and a short public road loop.
The distributor wanted some specific tests, ones that would show the tires’ overall abilities, both when driven hard on a track segment and cruising on public roads.
We decided on a skid pad (dry and wet) to show us ultimate sustained cornering grip; emergency braking from 80 km/h (dry and wet), a noise test at 80 km/h; a high speed slalom (dry and wet), to show how well the tires’ ultimate grip could be used to change directions in a hurry, and finally a loop on public roads. The road loop had speeds up to 80 km/h, went over four types of asphalt — some old, some new — and a section of broken road with some patches.
We looked at six brands of high-performance all-season tires. The size was a fairly common in higher end sedans, P225/45R17. The tires from the biggies came from Michelin of France and Bridgestone of Japan to the up-and-comers — Hankook and Falken from Korea — to the new boys on the block: Sailun from China and Champiro from Indonesia. Tire longevity was not a part of this test, for obvious reasons.
One of the plans was to see if there really is a qualitative and quantitative difference in handling and grip levels or was the public perception of differences between established brands and newcomer brands just that, perceptions. One of the issues facing new tires coming to market is the question of: “if it is not from one of the main brands, how good can it be?”
There is also the negative publicity of major tire recalls in the U.S. and massive fines against importers of defective tires from China. This has had serious sales implications against tires from China. Add the fact that many small retailers are importing containers of tires from China for direct sales. Many of these tires do not even have DOT approval numbers, nor any other countries’ tire approval certification. Many of these tires are junk and when the retail consumer finds that out, there is no help from the retailer, or the store is gone.
Add the fact that most of these “grey market” tires are of the econo sedan sizings, people have the perception that these countries make just cheap, small, non-speed rated junk. As a result you have a very distrusting public about tires from Asia, especially China.
For this test, the Chinese products used were high-end tires suitable for sports sedans (BMW, Audi, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz) and they were imported properly with all suitable approvals from government bodies. So these tires are very saleable and can find shelf space if they perform well.
My choice of test vehicles was obvious: sports sedans to me mean BMW. To me, it is the ultimate testing machine. In a sedan, nothing tells you what is happening at the road/tire interface better than a BMW, as far as I’m concerned.
The BMW Canada press office managed to find us two 328Xi’s and a 323i to be available for our test day. They performed flawlessly under heavy driving conditions, full throttle to full brake to full throttle, all day long.
Six sets of wheels for the test tires were loaned by “Wheels for Less” in Woodbridge.
To gather data, I did not want to go by feel alone. I went to Ilker Starck at the Sports Car Boutique in Thornhill, who is the Canadian distributorship for Race Logic. He provided three PBox data acquisition units. They are the state of the art: an accelerometer combined with GPS that samples and records what the car is doing 10 times per second. These units would give us speed, stopping distance, stopping time, g-loads and more.
Last, to get all six sets of tires run through each of the three cars would be a major time crunch. We wanted multiple data sets so the numbers would be fair, not influenced by driver ability, fatigue or the car’s fatigue. I recruited five fellow high-performance driving instructors to push the cars and tires to the limits. Gerry Low, Malcolm Elston, Scot MacKenzie, Keith McIntosh, and James Mewett all have many years of driving, instructing and testing experience. Additionally, they all have finely tuned and calibrated butts, for the subjective road-test evaluations.
The test results were closer than one might have thought.
Michelin Pilot Sport A/S
The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S is marketed as “the right tire changes everything.” It places its aim not as the ultimate in everything but the ultimate in safety, drivability and controllability. That explains its 3rd rating on the dry skidpad, on the wet skidpad it moves up to number 2. Its dry braking (6th) is actually not as good as when the pavement is wet (2nd).
In the slalom it again ranks 3rd in grip by time, but 2nd when measured by g-load. That shows that while this tire does not have the ultimate grip (3rd), all the grip it has can be used (2nd). In the wet it moves up to 2nd place in both categories, reinforcing the fact the Michelins are safe in the wet, the number 1 concern in all driver surveys.
On the track, it places 4th, not where its name would have you believe it belongs. On the street though, in subjective driving evaluations, it scores a 2nd. The Michelin is a premium priced tire. List price $282, estimated selling price is $242.
Bridgestone RE-960 A/S
Bridgestone markets tires as “it’s Bridgestone or it’s nothing.” Sort of an ultimatum to the rest of the tire industry, and the company certainly produces a new tire for every market niche that comes along. But can being “all things to all people” produce a tire that wins in every class? Common sense says no, and that is shown in this test.
In the dry skidpad, this premium priced tire came 5th, dry braking it scored 4th. In the dry slalom it ranked a dismal 6th by g-load but moved up to 2nd when controllability was factored in. It’s a tire that does not have ultimate grip, but all the grip it has can be used all of the time.
In the wet its ratings improve. Wet braking rates it 1st, so it can stop in a hurry, but in the wet slalom it moves down to 5th place. This tire’s tread just moves around too much to effectively change direction in a hurry. Its overall track rating of 5th and street rating of 6th shows that this tire just tries too hard and at a premium price. List price is $400, estimated selling price is $240.
Hankook Ventus V4 ES
The Hankook Ventus V4 ES is marketed as a semi-performance tire. Their “V” series is the premium end of the scale but still many percentage points below the price of the big boys. Hankook is number 7 in the world market and is aggressively trying to move up in Canada.
On the skidpad, this tire is in the middle of the pack, 3rd in the dry and 4th in the wet. Braking numbers are exactly the same. The dry slalom shows a split personality; it comes 1st by g-load but only 6th in timed results. This is a tire that can grip but not in a hurry; it needs to get used to the idea of hard cornering before it gets down to work. In the wet slalom, it ranks 3rd for g-load and 3rd for time. Clearly the lowered speeds in the wet let this tire get used to the idea of hard cornering.
Overall in the track part of the ratings, it came in 1st, mostly due to its excellent feedback through steering and brake pedal. This is a tire that keeps the driver in the loop and that made it the drivers’ favourite. However, all that short, sharp stiff messaging from the track dropped it to 5th on the street test. List price is $279, estimated selling price is $170.
Sailun Atrezzo Z4+AS
The Sailun Atrezzo Z4+AS seems to have Michelin in its design sights. It comes in 1st in ride quality. Everyone praised its gentle ride: tied for 1st in lack of road noise and 3rd in bump absorbing. These are all Michelin strengths.
The Atrezzo has a very sporty aggressive looking tread pattern. But the tire is not a sports tire: it came 5th in the dry and 6th in the wet on the skidpad. Taken on their own, its .833 g-number is quite good. The tire’s tread was just too soft to maintain any high grip load as it heated up. In fact it was better at .840 in the wet, the water probably cooling the tread. In the dry, it was possible to see the hot rubber coming off the tire.
The skidpad was also not kind to this tire with ratings of 3rd in the dry by time and 6th by g-load. This tire is very easy to control. In the wet, not so much, rated at 6th. It just had too much tread squirm.
On the track, it was rated 6th. But for the street, its many good qualities pulled it up to a very solid 3rd place overall, just a hair off first place. At the right retail price, it is a winner among people wanting Michelin-like characteristics. List price is $125, estimated selling price is $96.
Falken Ziex ZE912
The Falken Ziex ZE912 is billed as “the spirit of all season driving.” Falken focuses on its many motorsport activities and sponsorships, especially among the tuner crowd. Motorsport is what Falken is all about: motorsport tires at a reduced price point.
So it comes as no surprise that the Falken ranked 1st on the dry skidpad and the dry slalom. However, just add water and it slips to 5th place. Dry braking ranks 2nd behind the Champiro. On the dry slalom it pulled 1st by g-load but 4th when it had to change direction. This tire grips when it has a chance to get a sidewall set. Again add water and it moves down to 2nd by g-load and 5th by time. It lacks wet controllability.
Its very sporting nature made it a hit with our test drivers, who rated it 2nd on the track part of the test and it came 1st on the street rating, in spite of not winning the road noise and the street handling part of the evaluation. This tire is a contender at the right price. List price is $256, estimated selling price is $140.
GT Champiro
The Champiro GT is another of the Southeast Asian products starting to appear here regularly in discount tire shops. The surprise is that this tire scored 1st place finishes in wet skidpad, dry braking, and wet slalom. Its overall track rating was 3rd, pulled down by average scores in wet braking (3rd) and dry slalom (3rd).
Several drivers liked this tire very much as a perfect compromise between street and occasional track or autocross. It felt fast, but in actual fact it came 3rd in track ratings and 4th in street ratings. The tire was very easy to drive and get the maximum without working hard at the steering wheel. That’s its major appeal.
It has no major vices and no major wins, but it is extremely user friendly tire when driven smoothly. When muscled past its comfort zone, it takes offence and gives up trying. This tire could be a good seller to the right customer. List price is $147, estimated selling price is $125.
Freelance tire specialist John Mahler can be reached at
Woman's win over Honda opens door to mileage claim free-for-all
Video: Chevrolet Sonic a small car with a big car price
These four affordable, mid-size SUVs are worth a look
