The rubber rankings

The time has come to "change shoes" on your favourite car into summer rubber. The cast or stamped wheel rims have been inspected, washed and are ready to take new tyres. And here, as always, a few questions crop up — which summer tyre maker actually produces the best product, and which figures are worth paying attention to? Answering these questions is the job of the numerous summer tyre tests run by various media outlets and dealerships, aimed at making information accessible to the consumer and stoking their interest in a purchase.

As a rule, two tests are run to compare summer tyres — a dry-road test and a wet-road trial. The dry-road test assesses: - handling — measured as the time taken to cover a set distance.

• braking distance covered at a set speed (100 km/h is taken as the standard).
• rolling noise.
• rolling resistance.

The wet-road trial typically covers these tests: - handling.

• the circular track — the time to complete a circle of a set diameter (usually 60 m).
• traction — acceleration time on a wet road (the time to cover the first 60 m of the distance is measured).
• braking point.
• aquaplaning figures (the speed at which it begins when driving in a straight line, and lateral acceleration when cornering).

Tyres of the same size are chosen for the test and, crucially, with the same speed rating. This condition has to be met because high-speed and low-speed tyres are typically made from different materials and tread-manufacturing technologies, which fundamentally affects how the tyre behaves on the road. Though, of course, that doesn't stop tests featuring the leading brands from also throwing in some newcomer with a higher speed rating, just to highlight the advantages of experience and technology. It's especially worth noting that truck tyres and off-roader tyres are best tested in separate categories.

So, the summer season of 2010. Based on the results of several tests run by different publications, across various sizes and speed ratings, the top spots once again went to the well-known brands, which was, admittedly, an entirely predictable result.

Beyond all praise, and ahead of every competitor, the leader turned out to be Pirelli tyres, showing excellent road grip and superb dynamic and braking qualities. Not even the raised noise level and high rolling resistance could spoil the impression.

Next came Bridgestone and Continental tyres, trailing the leader by only a small margin. Incidentally, elevated rolling noise and a lack of cushioning are a shared shortcoming of the leading group's tyres.

And finally, the next two spots went to Dunlop and GoodYear tyres, losing out to the leaders on a longer wet-road braking distance. Toyo, Matador, Michelin and Kumho tyres also took part in the ranking. The clear outsiders in this unofficial contest turned out to be Kumho and Matador tyres, which closed out the list. Their dynamic and braking qualities proved far too weak next to the leaders.