Tuesday 28th January 2003

Autocar Tyre Test

A Mondeo beating an M3 round a wet track?!

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[rob.ellis]

A guy in my office has just bought an M3. I forwarded the link to this story to him.. otherwise he's going to be a bit confused as to why all those mundano's are chasing him 'round wet roundabouts

[gilese]

From my own experience I found that although Pirellis were good when new, like most Italian things their faculties wither rapidly with time. Personaly I have always been impressed with euro Bridgestones and Yokahamas.

[Farmer]

Had PZero Rossos as standard fit on my Diesel Pug and they were superb in all conditions even when nearly worn out . but the complete set were worn out after 12000 miles most of which were spent trundling my wife to and from work , so imagine how they'd last on an M3 .....scary !!!

[dern]

My mates are constantly taking the p*ss out of our family mondeo (rightly so, obviously) but it is surprisingly competant for a big old estate car and extremely cheap to buy and run. Could never quite see the point of spending money on faster more expensive to run estate such as the volvos or the audis when you could spend that extra cash on your own toys rather than waste it on an unappreciative family

Regards,

Mark

[cockers]

No comment on the tyres, but someone should point out that Micheldever is nowhere near Salisbury - it's between Basingstoke and Winchester.

[jumjum]

I doubt thier credibility somewhat.

A Ford Focus ST170 can pull
0.85g on a 200ft Skidpan wearing
Continental ContiSportContact;
215/45R-17 87W tyres.
A Bmw M3 coupe pulled 0.91g on a 200ft Skid pan wearing
Michelin Pilot Sport;
225/45ZR-18 f,
255/40ZR-18 r.

I can't find a test for the modeo 1.8 on 205/55vr16s but I would imagine that it has less grip than the Focus St170 (which actually grips amazingly well in its class at 0.85g)on its 215/45 17s.

Although the Mondeo is a fine handling car and the fact that the wet circuit they used was small and quite twisty, I can't see the Mondeo beating the M3, despite what they write I would still think the M3 would have had more grip through the bends and with the traction control on the M3 would still be able to lay down enough of its 343bhp to wipe the floor with the 120 odd bhp Mondeo.

The article is far too vague really.

I would like to have seen the statistical data including the lap times and performance of the different drivers on the different tyres in the test.

I thought they might have measured the grip available before Breakaway in the wet and the dry, outwith the track time testing , ie. you know the contis are good for .Xg the michs for .Yg etc before traction is lost. This would give an idea of the physical limits of the tyre when fitted to the car, this would have been an interesting control to measure against the performance of the drivers in thier lap times.

I am surprised Bridgestone declined the test, I have been interested to see how thier S03s compared on the M3.

As mentioned above they should have tested the effects of wear on the tyres, how well they performed at different times of their lives, very important for those of us who are going to have the tyres for thousands of miles.


It was amazing plug for Pirelli (win both classes !) and Micheldever tyres.

[jay_z]

Seems like "The Ultimate Driving Machine" aint so ultimate after all.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to read an artical like this. Oh how I laughed.

I seem to recall a similar outcome on the Top Gear test track. The Mondeo was I believe a full 2 seconds a lap quicker than anything else (BMW included).

EVO are also running an ST220 longterm test car, and in the last report it seemed to hold its own pretty well against the M3.

I honestly don't know why people rip the s**t out of the Mondeo as much as they do. It really is a fantastic, capable car.

I for one, am not ashamed to admit to owning one.

It SUCH a shame other drivers can't see passed their own noses because of badge snobbery - How sad is that

[daver]

"Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to read an artical like this. Oh how I laughed."

And that wouldn't be a case of inverted snobbery atall?

I had a Mondeo as a company car once. The 2.0 Zetec I think it was - and the engine really was surprisingly good. The rest of the car was not though - which is why I bought a secondhand 3-Series for work purposes when I took the allowance instead.

[jay_z]

Daver:

I wouldn't consider myself to be a snob of any descrption, inverted or otherwise.

I don't want to get into any kind of "My cars better than yours" slanggin match. Each to their own!!!

Just trying to make a case for a car which seems to get a lot of flack for little or no other reason than it's a Ford.

So what was actually wrong with the rest of your Mondeo?

>> Edited by jay_z on Wednesday 29th January 15:25

[daver]

Nothing was spectacularly wrong with it. Nothing (engine already excepted) was outstandingly good about it either though. It was just another front wheel drive, grey-interiored repmobile. Not the sort of thing that gets the average PistonHeader's pulse going.

When it comes down to it, any prevailing "all Fords are crap" public sentiment is probably matched only by the negativity expressed for all things BMW.

If the any of the guys at the Pirelli test had been offered a free choice of either the M3 or the Mondeo to take home at the end of the day, I think we know which way they'd have all gone though.