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V-Speed Rated High Performance All-Season Tires
Vehicles used:
2003 BMW 330Ci
The practice of drivers with sporty coupes & sedans replacing their vehicle's Original Equipment tires (often three-season summer performance or touring tires) with High Performance All-Season tires designed to cope with the driving conditions found in all four seasons is not new.
Nor is the High Performance All-Season tire category. But with the proliferation of new & unique tire sizes, as well as a growing number of higher performance sports coupes & sedans, has come a need for High Performance All-Season tires with speed ratings beyond the traditional H-speed rating found on most tires in this category. To accommodate this, several tire manufacturers have exp&ed existing H-speed rated tire lines to include V-speed ratings for the sizes typically found on these faster vehicles.
These V-speed rated versions usually do not move up to the Ultra High Performance All-Season category because their design foundation & overall performance level is still based on the other core sizes that are positioned in the High Performance All-Season category. With this evolution of both H- & V-speed rated tires fitting in the High Performance All-Season category, a Z-speed rating (including W- & Y-rated tires) & additional h&ling performance is needed to gain placement in the Ultra-High Performance All-Season category. It's important to remember that a speed rating is not a "performance rating," but rather a rating of the tire's maximum sustainable speed under controlled laboratory conditions.
To find out how several of these V-speed rated High Performance All-Season tires performed, Tire Rack team conducted a Real World Road Ride & Performance Track Drive, comparing the BFGoodrich Traction T/A (V), Bridgestone Potenza RE950 (V) & Yokohama AVID V4s. We used 2003 BMW 330Ci coupes, & installed 225/50R16 tires, which is a common Plus Zero size upgrade from BMW's "st&ard model" tire size (205/55-16) The tires were mounted on 16x7.5" AT Italia Type 5 wheels specially designed to clear the larger front brakes on some of the E46 chassis BMWs, like the 330Ci. Our evaluation used new, full tread depth tires.
We also included a fourth, 2003 BMW 330Ci fitted with the Original Equipment 205/50R17 Goodyear Eagle RS-A High Performance All-Season tires mounted on factory 17x7.0" wheels. We have included this vehicle/tire combination as a control in other tire evaluations, & have found it to be a good tire category benchmark to compare against.
The Goodyear RS-A is a High Performance All-Season tire produced with several speed ratings & in a wide variety of sizes. Its design is heavily influenced by its use as an Original Equipment tire by BMW, Volkswagen, General Motors, Chrysler & others. The Eagle RS-A features a subtle asymmetric tread design with larger tread elements in the outside shoulder intended to deliver more responsive h&ling, cornering, & steering. Smaller tread blocks on the inside shoulder combined with wide tread & lateral grooves are intended to enhance wet & snow traction.
Out on the road, the Eagle RS-A exhibited good road manners, providing levels of ride comfort & road noise that were appropriate for tires in the High Performance All-Season tire category. The larger wheel diameter & lower-profile size of the Original Equipment Eagle RS-A helped provide good steering response, & a reasonable level of overall road h&ling.
On the track in the dry, the Eagle RS-A offered responsive h&ling that was appropriate for tires in the High Performance All-Season tire category, but wasn't quite able to match the quicker lap times of the other three tires in this test.
Under wet conditions, the Eagle RS-A High Performance All-Season tire felt responsive (aided by its lower profile, 17" size), but was not able to match the grip levels or lap times of the BFGoodrich Traction T/A or Bridgestone Potenza RE950 tires.
Belonging to BFGoodrich's Traction T/A family, the H- & V-speed rated Traction T/A radials are sporty, durable & attractively priced High Performance All-Season tires, developed to blend good treadwear, responsive h&ling & dependable traction on dry & wet roads, as well as in light snow.
On the outside, the Traction T/A features a silica-enhanced tread compound molded into a size-specific, directional tread design that features large independent tread blocks (185 & 195mm section width sizes use a "5-rib" design while 205mm & wider sizes have a "6-rib" design). Large tread blocks provide stability on dry roads while the directional design helps pump water through the tire's footprint to increase hydroplaning resistance & wet traction. Lateral grooves & sipes in each tread block increase the number of biting edges to enhance wet road & light snow traction.
The Traction T/A H- & V-speed rated versions feature twin, high-tensile steel belts reinforced by BFGoodrich's Equal Tension Containment (ETEC) system that uses spirally wrapped nylon to provide high-speed durability with even ride quality. This tire also features g-Wedge sidewall stabilizers to enhance steering response & cornering stability.
Our evaluation used the V-speed rated version with the 6-rib tread pattern. During the road portion of the evaluation, our team found the Traction T/A to be responsive & nimble. There was a modest tradeoff compared to the other tires in this evaluation, with ride comfort of the Traction T/A feeling slightly firmer than the others, but not objectionable. Tread noise was found to be moderate.
Out on our dry h&ling course, the Traction T/A provided a confident, sure-footed feel when driven at the limit. Steering response was crisp, responding quickly to driver inputs, & helping the Traction T/A score the fastest slalom & overall lap average times, as well as the highest average cornering (g-Force).
On the wet course, the Traction T/A steering response again felt crisp, providing nimble h&ling that was easy to drive at the limits of traction. Average overall lap time was just 0.1 second behind first place Potenza RE950.
The Bridgestone Potenza RE950 is a High Performance All-Season tire that was developed to meet the needs of the drivers of sports cars, coupes & sedans by blending dry, wet & year-round traction, even in light snow. The Potenza RE950 is Bridgestone's first tire in America to feature UNI-T AQ II technology, using advanced compound & construction features to enhance & preserve wet traction through the tire's life. The Potenza RE950 h&les wet - even as it wears.
On the outside, the Potenza RE950 molds Bridgestone's second-generation dual layer tread compound into a directional tread design. The dual layer compound is designed to enhance wet grip from day one, & also to counteract the negative effects of aging on wet traction as the tire wears. The tread design features large tread blocks for quick response & sporty h&ling with lateral grooves that help move water toward the sides of the tire to resist hydroplaning. A continuous center rib helps reduce noise while providing constant road contact to enhance straight-line stability. Internally, the Potenza RE950 features a Computer Optimized Component System which blends twin, high tensile, steel belts with spiral-wrapped, jointless belt edge strips to stabilize the tread area & enhance h&ling, high-speed capability & ride quality while minimizing weight.
Out on the road, the Potenza RE950 received good marks from our team, & provided ride & noise comfort that was appropriate for High Performance All-Season tires. Road h&ling was found to be responsive, but not overly crisp, while noise comfort fell just below the other tires in this evaluation.
During the dry h&ling track portion of our evaluation, the Potenza RE950 delivered a nice balance of responsiveness & overall cornering grip. This combination provided consistent feedback to the driver, making this tire easy to drive at the limit.
When the track was wet, the Potenza RE950 continued to provide balanced h&ling, feeling predictable when driven at the limit of grip, & posted the fastest average overall lap time in this test.
The AVID H4s/V4s radials are Yokohama's High Performance All-Season tires designed to take everyday driving to a new level of comfort & confidence. The AVID H4s/V4s radials were developed to provide sporty cars, coupes & sedans with good treadwear, responsive h&ling & year-round traction, even in light snow.
On the outside, Yokohama developed an all-new tread compound for the AVID H4s/V4s radials that delivers grip on dry, wet & snow-covered roads while setting new high mileage levels for H- & V-speed rated performance tires at Yokohama. This new tread compound is molded into a computer-optimized directional tread design that combines large independent shoulder blocks & intermediate blocks with a solid center rib to enhance straight line tracking & high-speed stability on dry roads. Four, wide circumferential grooves & multiple cross grooves effectively evacuate water for hydroplaning resistance while slightly offset tread blocks further enhance light snow traction. On the inside, the AVID H4s/V4s features twin, high-tensile steel belts reinforced by nylon belt edge strips to provide responsive h&ling & high-speed durability.
Out on the road, the AVID V4s was found to be the most comfortable of the tires tested, primarily over the sharp expansion joints on the concrete expressway. Tread noise was moderate & not offensive, while road h&ling was rated as appropriate for the category, but especially crisp.
Under the extreme h&ling challenge of our dry test track, the AVID V4s was able to keep close to the fastest tires in this evaluation, posting an average overall lap time less than 0.4 second behind the first place Traction T/A. Steering response was found to be a bit soft, & while providing a good level of cornering grip, this tire felt less "locked in" when circling the skid pad portion of the course.
In wet conditions, however, the AVID V4s proved to be at more of a disadvantage. Steering response was somewhat sluggish, while the overall level of grip was just not equal to the other tires in this test. These elements combined to make the AVID V4s challenging to drive at the limit, especially around the constant radius of the skidpad portion of the track, where the tire felt as if it was transitioning back & forth between grip & slip.
