Best tyres for...
Discussion
One of our cars will soon need some new tyres. It's a small town car with 185/55R15.
The car is used a lot on country lanes and much of the year (all except summer) it has to contend with wet corners, lightly-mud-smeared corners and wet-leaf-covered corners.
The current Conti Eco Contact leave a lot to be desired on those roads and even at quite slow speeds can end up unexpectedly sliding sideways.
I had given thought to all-season tyres such as Michelin Cross Climate but I'm not convinced that they would be significantly better, since it's neither snow nor cold weather that cause the majority of the problems.
My current thinking, within the limitations of tyres available in the size I need, is perhaps Conti Premium Contact (instead of Eco Contact).
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks,
R
The car is used a lot on country lanes and much of the year (all except summer) it has to contend with wet corners, lightly-mud-smeared corners and wet-leaf-covered corners.
The current Conti Eco Contact leave a lot to be desired on those roads and even at quite slow speeds can end up unexpectedly sliding sideways.
I had given thought to all-season tyres such as Michelin Cross Climate but I'm not convinced that they would be significantly better, since it's neither snow nor cold weather that cause the majority of the problems.
My current thinking, within the limitations of tyres available in the size I need, is perhaps Conti Premium Contact (instead of Eco Contact).
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks,
R
There are two types of tyre grip.
Physical, and chemical.
In addition to this there is a third cause of loss of grip, aquaplaning.
Most high performance tyres lean very heavily on chemical grip and strong aquaplaning resistance. Modern high performance rubber allows this. Eco tyres use special formulation that allows low rolling resistance and still has good chemical grip. It actually works surprisingly well.
The optimum design for this is essentially a laterally banded grooved tyre. This also offers low noise and rolling resistance, but has little mechanical grip.
https://www.carid.com/images/continental/continent...
HOWEVER
If you have conditions that impair the chemical grip of the tyres, then modern high performance tyres go to hell. Snow, slush, mud on the road, gravel, leaves, even the oily slickness you get after rain on asphalt that has been dry and sunny for a while. Braking and acceleration are heavily impacted as they have less old fashioned mechanical grip.
In these conditions modern cross climate tyres offer great advantages. They have abundant mechanical grip, and are also self cleaning, using the action of compression and rotation of the blocks to remove crud from the tyres, something a banded tyre cannot do. They have also solved the chemical issues so that work well in all temperatures. There is no free lunch, there is a very slight noise and economy penalty.
If you are regularly booting it down an autobahn at 100mh + then a modern high performance tyres is mandatory.
If you are on a motorway all your life, or in a big town again, modern high performance all the way.
However if you are in a rural area, and regularly travel badly made roads with crap all over them, then cross climates are in my opinion a much better choice of tyres due to huge grip advantages when you really need it.
Physical, and chemical.
In addition to this there is a third cause of loss of grip, aquaplaning.
Most high performance tyres lean very heavily on chemical grip and strong aquaplaning resistance. Modern high performance rubber allows this. Eco tyres use special formulation that allows low rolling resistance and still has good chemical grip. It actually works surprisingly well.
The optimum design for this is essentially a laterally banded grooved tyre. This also offers low noise and rolling resistance, but has little mechanical grip.
https://www.carid.com/images/continental/continent...
HOWEVER
If you have conditions that impair the chemical grip of the tyres, then modern high performance tyres go to hell. Snow, slush, mud on the road, gravel, leaves, even the oily slickness you get after rain on asphalt that has been dry and sunny for a while. Braking and acceleration are heavily impacted as they have less old fashioned mechanical grip.
In these conditions modern cross climate tyres offer great advantages. They have abundant mechanical grip, and are also self cleaning, using the action of compression and rotation of the blocks to remove crud from the tyres, something a banded tyre cannot do. They have also solved the chemical issues so that work well in all temperatures. There is no free lunch, there is a very slight noise and economy penalty.
If you are regularly booting it down an autobahn at 100mh + then a modern high performance tyres is mandatory.
If you are on a motorway all your life, or in a big town again, modern high performance all the way.
However if you are in a rural area, and regularly travel badly made roads with crap all over them, then cross climates are in my opinion a much better choice of tyres due to huge grip advantages when you really need it.
V8RX7 said:
Ron99 said:
Unfortunately a lot of the 'best' tyres aren't available in the size I need. 
Are they in 195/50/15 it's a far more common size and generally cheaper too plus a smidge more gripI can find Michelin Cross Climate, Conti All Season, Bridgestone Weather Control and Yokohama All-Weather in that size, but 'sporty' tyres (which still look 'grippy') are harder to find.
Edited by Ron99 on Friday 2nd August 10:29
ExPat2B said:
Perfect explanation
This is what you're looking for; Crossclimates or anything that has mechanical grip.As has been said, modern summer tyres (ContiSport, for example) work excellently on a dry road, but as soon as there is something between the road and the tyre, not so much.
Perfect example of this would be the muddy car park at Brands hatch - Summer tyres that are excellent on the road just spin on top of the mud (as the friend who was pushing found out!
), whilst those with winter tyres / crossclimates have mechanical bite that allows them to get moving.fellows4 said:
Lots of people will recommend Uniroyal Rainsport 3. Never ran them myself, but might want to check out the reviews.
I'm guessing you run a Fiat 500 or newer KA?Put a set of Rainsport 3 on the wifes Fiat 500 and they transformed the car. Nice feel and very good in the wet - as expected! Having said this the 500 always feels more surefooted on its Pirelli winters.
Rainsport 3 gets my vote for sure.
CharlieAlphaMike said:
I appreciate what you say but the difference between a 185/55/15 and a 195/50/15 tyre will be negligible (-1% diameter difference so well within the accepted +/-3%). If it opens up more choices, then maybe it's worth considering?
But if it's not listed in the owners manual, where do I stand with insurance?Manual says:
165/65R14
185/55R15
195/45R16
However, I would be wary of upsizing to 195/45R16 because it will have less sidewall therefore more prone to damage from the potholes, craters etc.
When I had a Swift Sport, I asked my insurer about changing the wheels from 17" to 16" (16" is on many mid-spec Swifts) to allow more sidewall for better pothole resistance but my insurer said 'No'.
Edited by Ron99 on Friday 2nd August 10:35
fellows4 said:
Lots of people will recommend Uniroyal Rainsport 3. Never ran them myself, but might want to check out the reviews.
I’ve had them a few times on the Saab, great tyre & pretty cheap, but the side walls are very (very) soft. I took a chunk out of one sidewall when I drove over a big stone. They were excellent in the wet though, decent enough dry but I fitted a set of PS4’s when I had the extra cash and they were miles better in every way....more £££ though!Ron99 said:
V8RX7 said:
Ron99 said:
Unfortunately a lot of the 'best' tyres aren't available in the size I need.
Are they in 195/50/15 it's a far more common size and generally cheaper too plus a smidge more gripKrikkit said:
Not necessarily - a 195/50 tyre is <2% difference in rolling radius, and a much more common and easy to find size. Why can't you use it?
It's not a size listed in the owners manual and I can easily source the 185/55R15 which the car came with, so I assume 195s would be an undeclared modification, or my insurer would simply say 'No'.Ron99 said:
But if it's not listed in the owners manual, where do I stand with insurance?
Manual says:
165/65R14
185/55R15
195/45R16
However, I would be wary of upsizing to 195/45R16 because it will have less sidewall therefore more prone to damage from the potholes, craters etc.
When I had a Swift Sport, I asked my insurer about changing the wheels from 17" to 16" (16" is on many mid-spec Swifts) to allow more sidewall for better pothole resistance but my insurer said 'No'.
If you were downgrading to say 155 you'd have a point but upgrading by 10mm in width to get better tyres... I'd love to see how anyone could object to that particularly when 195 is mentioned (albeit it in the 16")Manual says:
165/65R14
185/55R15
195/45R16
However, I would be wary of upsizing to 195/45R16 because it will have less sidewall therefore more prone to damage from the potholes, craters etc.
When I had a Swift Sport, I asked my insurer about changing the wheels from 17" to 16" (16" is on many mid-spec Swifts) to allow more sidewall for better pothole resistance but my insurer said 'No'.
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