Goodyear Dunlop beats the competition in Australian tyre test
An independent tyre test has found the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 to be Australia’s top choice tyre for large cars. Goodyear Dunlop’s Australian and New Zealand operation, South Pacific Tyres, also received merit for the Dunlop Sport Maxx as the best tyre for medium to small cars.
The tyre tests were conducted by Wheels Magazine, a leading Australian motoring publication that was the first of its kind for the country when it hit newsagents in 1953. Wheels Magazine released its Tyre Test 2007 issue in March, promising readers that its research was “exhaustive”. The six brands that were represented at the Wheels Magazine tyre test were Bridgestone, Goodyear, Pirelli, Dunlop, Hankook and Falken. The magazine claims that other leading brands were “invited to take part, but declined”.
The Wheels’ Tyre Test was adapted in 2007 from the previous year in order to create two separate categories for tyre testing. While in 2006 the tests were conducted on 17-inch tyres alone, this year’s tests were run on 245/45R 18 tyres and 205/55R 16 tyres. The tyres were mounted on a 6 litre V8 Holden Commodore SS and a turbo diesel VW Golf respectively, which were driven by professional rally and race drivers who tested cornering, braking and hot laps on wet and dry roads.
The Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 tyre beat the Bridgestone Potenza to win the 18-inch category, leaving testers particularly impressed with the Eagle F1’s wet breaking and wet hot lap abilities. In the 16-inch category, the Dunlop Sport Maxx on the VW Golf made an impression in the categories of dry breaking and wet hot lap, beating the Pirelli Zero Nero OE tyre.
South Pacific Tyres New Zealand’s General Manager of Sales and Marketing, Frank Hughes, stated: “Tyre design and construction involves trade-offs in different performance factors. For example, handling, cornering and braking in the wet or the dry can all be altered by the design and construction of the tyre, the tread pattern and the rubber compounds used.”
“These tests show that the Eagle F1 in the large size and the Dunlop Sport Maxx in the smaller size offer the best package for the average driver in a wide range of conditions,” added Mr Hughes, going on to announce on behalf of the company that he was “especially pleased with the critical wet braking performance which was over three percent better for the Eagle F1 GS-D3 than the Bridgestone Potenza which is the original equipment fitment on the Commodore.” Mr Hughes went on to state that “the Eagle F1 is a massive seven percent better than the worst tyre in the class. At the point when the Goodyear tyre had stopped the car, when fitted with the worst tyre, it would still be travelling and potentially crashing at 16 km/h,” he eagerly concluded.
http://wheelsmag.com.au
http://www.reifenpresse.de/CDML007/en/gast/fs_kurzmeldungen.html
Number: Z8037079
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