![]() Braking distances on snow may be the best reason to fit a set of winter tires, and Inuit stoplight drag racers would do well to note the extra second of acceleration from 3 to 18 mph. ![]() Five feet may mean the difference between a fender bender and an accident-free winter. On the snow, it took five feet more to stop than the average of the six winter tires on the following pages. But as good as it is, the Pilot Sport was nearly six seconds off the Nokian’s pace on the snowcross, and it didn’t come close to any of the winter tires’ braking performances. If we were going to buy an all-season tire, it would be this one, because it actually has some serious dry grip in summer conditions. For perspective on this issue, we asked Michelin for a set of all-seasons, and it sent over its Pilot Sport A/S 3. But, ironically, if you live somewhere that actually has all the seasons, you need winter tires. You may think you don’t need winter tires because your car has all-seasons. So if you’re going to mix tires, for safety’s sake put your best rubber at the rear. Putting the winter tires at the rear yielded stubborn understeer, which is way more predictable than the alternative. But that lap came with a wallop of oversteer, the kind of rear-end looseness that would catch most drivers out and toss them right into the ditch. Not only was the grip-in-front car easier to steer and brake, it was also 3.2 seconds quicker around the little circuit at Test World. Conclusion: Putting the winter tires on the front wheels was a lot more fun. ![]() To confirm or bust this bias, we mixed two sets of Michelin tires, winter and all-season, and ran a few laps of the snowcross with the all-seasons in front and the winters on the back, then vice versa. If you must for reasons of cost, though, the conventional wisdom is that you want the best shoes (or the least worn) in the rear no matter if you have a front-, rear-, or four-wheel-drive vehicle. No one recommends you install just two winter tires. TOM SALT, TEST WORLD Your Best Foot Backward The indoor environment lends an extra frisson of excitement to a winter's drive. Our mule was one of Test World’s Ford Focuses fitted with 225/45R-17 rubber. We also partnered with our hosts for the subjective evaluation conducted on the indoor snowcross circuit and measured in lap times. As with past tire tests, we deferred to experienced drivers, this time supplied by Test World, for the objective acceleration and braking on snow and ice. Also, a control tire laps periodically to normalize results if the track becomes faster or slower.įor this test we wanted to determine the best-performing studless snow-and-ice tire. Between each tire session, a maintenance crew resurfaces the snow to keep conditions as constant as possible. Because “Indoor 2 subjective handling test” is a mouthful, we’ll just call it the “snowcross” test. Get a corner wrong or slide too much and you’ll hit a strategically placed snowdrift, there to catch the car before the Armco does. Its top speed of 45 mph on snow feels like triple digits in the dry. ![]() From the air, it looks like a giant hollow Jelly Belly. If this isn't on the sidewall, it isn't a genuine winter tire. On our test day, the inside thermometer read -11, as in degrees Celsius, or 12 degrees Fahrenheit.Ībove right: This symbol on a tire's sidewall indicates that it meets or exceeds the Rubber Manufacturers Association's standards for snow grip. Both buildings have cooling circuits in the floor and chilled forced-air ductwork. Indoor 2 contains a 0.2-mile, 30-foot-wide squiggly handling circuit. The Indoor 1 building is a 525-foot-by-52-foot pole barn of packed snow that includes a lane of Zamboni-maintained ice. We headed up to the refrigerated covered complex in late summer, as we wanted this story to appear in time for you to take advantage of its findings for the winter soon to be upon us. In early spring, Test World stockpiles snow, filling its two buildings with about two feet of packed, natural white stuff, enough to last the entire indoor-testing season. During winter months it operates like any other automotive proving grounds, but with frozen canals and snow-packed fields standing in for the concrete and asphalt you find at more-temperate venues. The Test World Mellatracks proving grounds is a facility that offers year-round testing on natural snow, as opposed to the man-made stuff. The facility we used for this tire test, the aptly named Test World Mellatracks, sits roughly 186 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Lapland, outside the tiny town of Ivalo.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |