You don’t need us to tell you that tires play an important role in how a vehicle drives. And as modern performance cars continue to push the limits of adhesion, so too do their tires. Performance tires are growing ever more popular, as a set could potentially enhance the handling, cornering, and overall control of a car. Such tires are typically low-profile, made with stiffer sidewalls and large block treads.

While performance tires were initially used prominently for motorsports, manufacturers have passed down this DNA into the ones worn by production vehicles as well, with factory-fitted performance tires being a common trait in sports cars, SUVs, and luxury vehicles. Recently, the Tyre Reviews Youtube Channel released a video on their pick of top performance tires of 2021.

Jonathan Benson reets the audience at the Goodyear testing facility in the south of France to put a total of fourteen different performance tires which will be categorized into UHP (ultra-high performance) and UUHP (ultra-ultra- high performance) across an 18inch tire size platform, with the testing weapon of choice being the VW Golf GTI.

Dry Handling and Braking

The slowest tires in this round happened to be the Avon and the Altenzo, both taking around 97 seconds to push the Golf around the track, with understeer being the main issue. For UHP tires, the Continental PremiumContact 6 was the quickest, completing its lap in 94.83 seconds. The UUHP segment was much more competitive, with all three contenders staying under the 94.5-second mark. Still, Goodyear’s Eagle F1 SuperSport showed the most consistency, with a final time of 93.92 seconds around the lap.

Dry braking, however, saw the UHP tires fight back against the presumably superior UUHPs. The 100-1 Km/h test saw the Pirelli P Zero PZ4 from the UHP segment snatching second place, not far behind the Pilot Sport 4 by Michelin. The weakest UUHP tire was the Goodyear, which only managed to cling to 6th place.

Read: Tires From Recycled Plastic Bottles Inches Closer Thanks To Michelin 

Wet Handling and Braking

Wet handling is one of the more important areas where a performance tire needs to impress. Safety is one of the significant beneficial factors of performance tires, and the ideal choice would be exceptional on wet roads.

Bet you didn’t see this coming, but the only UUHP tire in the top three was the Bridgestone Potenza Sport. But once again, it was Michelin who claimed gold with their Pilot Sport 4, completing the wet lap in just 64.46 seconds, up seven positions from the UUSP Pilot Sport 4S. The Avon and Altenzo were last once again, which isn’t surprising considering they are budget-oriented tires. However, Benson mentioned that they still didn’t just feel like a regular old cheap tire.

For wet braking, Tyre Reviews claimed to do 10 brake checks on each set of tires to factor variables such as wind speed and ABS pressure, giving an overall result. The top three positions were all taken by UHP tires, with Hankook leading the pack by far.

Overall

Tyre Reviews spent the final quarter of their reviews factoring in factors such as external tire noise and rolling resistance and deciding a winner on overall performance. First place was ultimately shared among Goodyear’s Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 and Michelin’s Pilot Sport 4, which were declared the best overall performance tires.