Australia’s Motor magazine has tested eight 19-inch tires on wet and dry pavements.

List of models tested:

• Bridgestone Potenza S007A
• Continental SportContact 6
• Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
• Hifly HF805
• Infinity Ecomax
• Maxxis Victra Sport 5
• Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
• Pirelli P Zero

Australia’s Motor Magazine has been conducting its tire tests since 2001, and this year the test involved eight competing tires of different price brackets. The tests were carried out on Sydney Dragway race track using a Peugeot 308 GTi, the experts comparing the tires in five disciplines — three dry, two wet.

The tests were carried out at Sydney Dragway using a Peugeot 308 GTi.

This time around, the tests involved four tires from the big brands, one brand that wanted to be counted in the top league, and two budget tires. The current champion of the Australian tests is Continental SportContact 6, that is going to be rivaled by Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S, recently-launched Goodyear F1 Eagle SuperSport, and the previous-generation Pirelli P Zero. All of these brands had scored a victory in the tests conducted by this Australian publication at least once.

Slightly less expensive are Maxxis tires that strive to compete with the world’s best, and, in order to understand what kind of performance can be delivered by the economy-segment tires, the organizers added Hifly and Infinity tires to the competition list. The 2019 test did not include such tires as Dunlop, Hankook, Toyo and Yokohama, and the experts mentioned that not all of the tire makers agree to send their products to independent tests.

The tests were started in the morning, on pavement still moist from the morning fog, at a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius. The tests involved control tires that were used to evaluate the changes in the test conditions, such as humidity of the pavement, etc. Due to the fact that the temperature was gradually rising, just as the traction delivered by the tires, there were adjustments made to the calculations in order to compensate for the changes.

The first test each tire had to conquer was the dry slalom, a line of cones which the pilot approached at 60km/h before weaving through each «gate» to the end of the line. This was done five times, with the best and worst times from beginning to the slalom’s end being disregarded to avoid including outliers in the final results. The middle three results were then averaged. Despite Sydney Dragway’s grippy surface, the early morning moisture sticks around long enough to noticeably affect the earlier tires’ times in the running order. While the first control runs averaged out to 10.7 seconds for the pilot to traverse the slalom, the last set worked out to 10.37 seconds.

Test discipline: Dry slalom

Although the Bridgestones set the fastest time, they also had the advantage of running late in the day when the surface was warmer and drier. After running the data through the formula, the Michelins come out on top, with Bridgestones only scoring the fourth place. The Maxxis only fell only slightly short of their world-famous rivals, while the inexpensive Hifly and Infinity came later with not a catastrophic yet still a clear split.

The second part of the tests involved evaluating the tires’ braking performance on dry pavement. The dry braking test consisted of a gate approach at 115km/h to ensure the specialized VBOX equipment only records consistent deceleration from 100km/h to 0km/h. The control runs for this test showed that the later runs were actually the runs with the disadvantage, as the increasingly hot surface on the strip and the «tired» brakes led to a decline in the ability for the test car to slow down, therefore, the results had to be adjusted again. The Continental tires, which were tested last, originally scored the fourth place but after the data was run through the formula, they came out the best.

Test discipline: Dry braking

The discipline called «Motorkhana» involved testing the tires on a track that imitated various kinds of turns, and the tires were to show the best accelerating and decelerating performance, as well as good lateral stability. Three laps of the course were hand-timed, with the total of three laps providing a total time.

Between the big brands this year, it came down to tenths, rather than seconds, to decide the winner, and the first place was ultimately scored by the Michelins that got ahead of the Continentals by 0.3 seconds. Due to the fact that the conditions kept changing, the results were changed accordingly, and Michelin stayed at the top, while Continental dropped down to the fifth place. On the whole, all of the competing tires showed great results, with only two cheap models lagging behind.

Test discipline: Motorkhana

In the section with sprinklers, the braking distance was measured from 80 km/h, and here the experts were in for a surprise — Continental, which in the previous tests always quickly and confidently stopped the car on wet pavement (and won the last year’s test thanks to that), was outstripped by four competitors at once this time around, with the first place unexpectedly scored by Maxxis that outdid all the premium-class tires.

Test discipline: Wet braking

The lateral stability on wet pavement was evaluated on a small oval-shaped track, and the experts were measuring the maximum acceleration in cornering. The difference between the big brands were minimum, with the budget tires predictably scoring the last places.

Test discipline: Lateral Stability

In each of the disciplines, the absolute winner got a 1, and the loser an 8; Michelin becoming the best in the overall standing, scoring the top place on the podium in all the five tests. Michelin tires ensure crisp steering response on dry pavement, and easily handle the wet road surface, and they scored a well-deserved victory. The second line in the tournament bracket was scored by Goodyear, which by the test date were not even launched on the Australian market, these two followed by four tire models with virtually the same results, so it can be said that all the four of them deserved bronze. A special mention must be given to Maxxis that was able to score such great results thanks to its outstanding braking performance on wet pavement. The fifth place was shared by Pirelli, a brand with a long history, and Continental that used to outstrip its rivals in terms of wet braking but now falling short even in this specific test. The cheap tires could not hold their own against the big brands. Therefore, the whole intrigue boiled down to whether Infinity could outstrip Hifly at least in one discipline — and, yes, it was able to do that once.

Test Results

Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S

Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport

Bridgestone Potenza S007A

3 place: Bridgestone Potenza S007A.
Positive: Short braking distance on dry pavement. Excellent lateral stability in the wet. Negative: Relatively long braking distance on wet pavement.

Test Disciplines	Results	Points	Place
Slalom	10,31 s	4	4
Dry Braking	34,14 m	2	2
Motorkhana	77,91 s	5	4
Wet Braking	24,96 m	6	6
Wet Lateral G	1,0175 g	3	3
FINAL GRADE		20

Maxxis Victra Sport 5

4 place: Maxxis Victra Sport 5.
Positive: The shortest braking distance on wet pavement. Negative: Relatively weak grip on dry pavement. 

Test Disciplines	Results	Points	Place
Slalom	10,45 s	6	6
Dry Braking	35,45 m	4	4
Motorkhana	78,05 s	4	6
Wet Braking	23,79 m	1	1
Wet Lateral G	1,0111 g	5	5
FINAL GRADE		20

Continental SportContact 6

5 place: Continental SportContact 6.
Positive: The shortest braking distance on dry pavement. Negative: Relatively long braking distance on wet pavement.

Test Disciplines	Results	Points	Place
Slalom	10,37 s	5	5
Dry Braking	33,98 m	1	1
Motorkhana	77,93 s	6	5
Wet Braking	24,46 m	5	5
Wet Lateral G	1,0151 g	4	4
FINAL GRADE		21

Pirelli P Zero

6 place: Pirelli P Zero.
Positive: Generally good results (but the tires are inferior to the new competitors).

Test Disciplines	Results	Points	Place
Slalom	10,28 s	3	3
Dry Braking	35,87 m	5	5
Motorkhana	77,50 s	3	3
Wet Braking	24,42 m	4	4
Wet Lateral G	1,0040 g	6	6
FINAL GRADE		21

Hifly HF805

7 place: Hifly HF805.
Negative: Relatively weak grip on dry and wet pavement.

Test Disciplines	Results	Points	Place
Slalom	11,02 s	7	7
Dry Braking	38,66 m	7	7
Motorkhana	80,68 s	7	7
Wet Braking	27,35 m	7	7
Wet Lateral G	0,9040 g	8	8
FINAL GRADE		36

Infinity Ecomax

8 place: Infinity Ecomax.
Negative: Relatively weak grip on dry and wet pavement.

Test Disciplines	Results	Points	Place
Slalom	11,04 s	8	8
Dry Braking	39,27 m	8	8
Motorkhana	81,07 s	8	8
Wet Braking	27,86 m	8	8
Wet Lateral G	0,9360 g	7	7
FINAL GRADE		39

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