Upstart fights it out for ultra-high performance

Hankook Ventus challenges leader Yokohama Advan

Nov 14, 2009

Special to the Star

As the fall weather chills the tarmac, things are heating up in the ring between an old champion and a new upstart to the Canadian tire market.

Both Yokohama and Hankook have introduced tires in the ultra-high-performance category, hoping you'll order them and be ready for spring. Both of these tires are far from compatible with cold weather.

Yokohama's Advan Neova AD08 is aiming to take again the crown for extreme summer tires. Its previous-generation Neova, the AD07, was overtaken by Bridgestone's RE-11.

Now, young Korean contender Hankook wants to make a name with a splash in the UHP tire market by releasing the Ventus V12 evo. It wants to show it can make a serious tire for Porsche, BMW or Jaguar. It wants to show it has sparred in the tuner-market sizes and come out on top. It's so sure it is right, it has opened a 120,000 square-foot warehouse in Brampton to keep the supply chain flowing.

The previous Yoko Neova was such a great tire, I was loath to drive on anything else. It had great dry grip, absolute predictability, good wet traction, reasonable ride and, most important, didn't seem to wear. Even on the track, the Neova resisted wear as heat cycles came and went – unusual for a tire that could run with some R-compounds (street-legal race tires) on the track.

HANKOOK VENTUS V12 EVO

While Hankook is not that well known in Canada, it is the seventh- largest tire manufacturer in the world. It invests five per cent of revenues in research and development, while supplying OE tires in Europe and North America as well as Korea. In short, it is a company that punches above its weight.

The Ventus V12 evo is designed to combine comfort and control in dry and wet road conditions. This tire is directional (must be installed to rotate in one direction) with big rain grooves. It features a continuous centre rib for straight line stability and braking control. The shoulder blocks are wide and continue around the tire with just minor grooves to maximize dry cornering.

Like every big tire company, Hankook has acronyms for tire features, but the most important one may be HPSR (High Tg Polymer and Specific Resin) compound. This is Hankook's way of binding the various rubber, silica and carbon black components in the tread to create an extra wet traction. Two steel belts and a nylon overlay under the tread ensure an unusually even weight distribution contact patch. Additionally, a two-layer rayon carcass sandwiches hard rubber in the sidewall between the body cord plies to help resist distortion at high speeds and while cornering.

YOKOHAMA ADVAN NEOVA AD08

"Nowhere in the automotive world is technology evolving faster than in the development of the ultra-high performance tires," says Jonathan Karelse, Yokohama marketing manager. It seems consumers are willing to pay for the latest tire technology.

Starting with an incredibly stiff carcass the new Neova uses the usual steel and nylon belts and then goes the extra mile with steel inserts in the sidewalls for more stiffness. This is a first in my experience. They then add their nanotechnology compound. Nanotechnology refers to components engineered at one nanometre or less, which is one billionth of a metre. This technology binds chains of molecules together. With this process, Yokohama creates better molecular chains of extra-fine grade silica and combines them with the chains of super-fine polymers.

The mix produces a tread compound that is very flexible and highly durable, a contradiction in terms for most rubber. And this rubber is very dense: it yields a contact area five to 10 per cent greater without increasing tread size. This elegant engineering results in a tire with razor-sharp steering response, of the kind only offered by race tires.

The Neova is chockablock with little design tweaks: curved centre rib (makes faster reaction to steering), tiny slits in the groove walls (they are stress relief points when the rubber is squished), curved outer rib walls (reduces uneven wear) and extra-wide channels for water.

ON THE TARMAC

The Yokohama was tested on a Porsche, Mitsubishi and Audi. The tire's leech-like grip came with a very pleasant ride quality. The Neova was supersensitive to the driver's foot, easy to control through a big wide slalom arc. In braking, the Neova dug in and just hung on for super quick short stops.

The Hankook was sampled on a Mustang GT riding on 20-inch wheels through a very tight autocross course. The fact that the Mustang needed a rest before the Ventus V12 tires speaks well for the abuse this newest Hankook can take. The front tires were still intact with no feathering or chunking along the edges and the V8 torque had not brutalized the rears.

The Yokohama is intended to excel at the extreme edge of the performance envelope, and it does. The Hankook aims at the middle of the performance segment and scores a TKO as a top-three contender in every aspect of testing, wet and dry, with others of its class.

Canadian prices on the Yokohama were not available yet.

Email tire questions to John Mahler at thetireguy_1 @ hotmail.com. Please include vehicle's make, model and year, tire brand and size, as well as your name, address and phone number.

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Toronto Star