What's The Best Performance Tyre In 2021?

We’ve said it many times before, and we’ll say it again: your car deserves good tyres. They’re your only contact patch with the road, so if you’re interested in driving at all, it’s worth getting good boots to unlock a car’s full potential.

Choosing a set isn’t exactly easy, but thankfully, Jonathan Benson of Tyrereviews.com is able to geek out about rubber like no one else on the planet. In Benson’s latest test, one of his biggest yet, he’s rounded up 10 ‘ultra high performance’ (UHP) and three ‘ultra ultra high performance’ (UUHP) tyres and a budget option to put under the microscope.

That involves dry and wet handling plus dry and wet braking tests at Goodyear’s test facility in Spain, where Benson got through some 150 individual tyres using Mk7.5 and 8 VW Golf GTIs. All tyres measured 225/40/18, one of the most popular sizes there is. Interestingly, the wet braking test was partly automated, ensuring the brakes were applied at exactly the right moment with consistent pressure applied each time.

On test, we have:

UUHP:

Bridgestone Potenza Sport
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport
Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S

UHP:

Altenzo SportComforter+
Avon ZV7
Continental PremiumContact 6
Falken Azenis FK510
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
GT Radial SportActive 2
Hankook Ventus S1 Evo3
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
Nokian PowerProof
Pirelli P Zero PZ4
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti+

We won’t divulge the results, as have the appeal here is the insight available in the video. We’re not exactly dropping a spoiler to point out that the budget tyre lost, though. It wasn’t a complete disaster for the Altenzo, but it’s far enough away to mean it can’t be recommended. That goes for ‘normal’ folk not interested in the way their cars drive, either, since it performed so poorly in the wet braking segment.

This aside, did the test pan out as you expected it to?