Goodyear News

In our tests, we have 3 better-known tires; Bridgestone, Goodyear and Nokian. Goodyear's new tire represents the speed class Y, the others have the speed class W. Goodyear's tire is a so caller reference-tire in the test, but we will publish the test results along the other tires. In addition, there is Barum and Hankook representing the middle-class tires and Kenda and Nankang were chosen for their low price.

The test car was Honda Accord Type S where 225/45 R 17 is the original size.

In this test we criticize the quality of the tire as well as changes in different kind of situations.

The handling test is done on wet and dry asphalt.

The final mark for the wet-drive is built on track-time, quality of the tire and how logical it is to use the tire.

Dry handling:

• 1. Goodyear 9.0
• 2. Nokian 8,9
• 3. Nankang 8,4
• 4. Bridgestone 8,1
• 5. Hankook 8,0
• 6. Barum 7,8
• 7. Nokian 7,2

Goodyear has the most exact mid-area in steering. Bridgestone, Hankook, Nankang and Nokian will share the second place, because all of them had a small, unclear area in the middle.

Goodyear together with Nankang and Nokian had also clearly the best sense of steering both on low and high steering grades.

When it comes to driving in a curve have Bridgestone, Goodyear and Nokian the best precision. Our Honda drives through the curve without any need for additional steering.

Too much steering; "oppressing with the tire" deals the tires into 2 groups. The best again are Nokian, Bridgestone and Goodyear.

The car stays holds the line with the tires from Barum, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Haankook and Nokian when we break strongly in a curve.

However, the car had a small over-steered slide with Goodyear, Hankook and Nankang when breaking with the motor.

The strongest in the slalom-test are Goodyear and Nokian. Both makes it expressionlessly neutral. Nokian reacts a little bit slower on the change of direction than Goodyear, but there is no problem with controlling. The same pair succeed also the best when changing fields.

Wet handling:

• 1. Bridgestone 9,2
• 2. Goodyear 8,9
• 3. Barum 8,4
• 4. Hankook 8,3
• 5. Nokian 8,1
• 6. Kenda 6,6
• 7. Nankang 5,6

Wet handling test was made on a 1,5km long wet track. The base of the final judgement is time around the track

Goodyear has clearly the fastest tire. It wins over the second best almost by a second. Basicly Goodyear is easy to drive, but when pushing the limit it might easily change to over-steering.

The properties on tires for aquaplaning were measured both on straight track and in a curve. The top-four had their own class of speed in both tests.

Aquaplaning on a straight track

• 1. Bridgestone 9,2
• 2. Barum 9,2
• 3. Goodyear 9,1
• 4. Hankook 9,0
• 5. Nokian 8,2
• 6. Nankang 8,2
• 7. Kenda 8,1

On this test the thickness of the "watermattress" was 7 mm. tires from the other side were on the water and tires from the other side were on a dry track.

The top-three; Bridgestone, Barum and Goodyear were very close to each other. The best result was 94,1 km/hour

Aquaplaning on a curve

• 1. Bridgestone 9,2
• 2. Goodyear 9,2
• 3. Barum 9,0
• 4. Hankook 8,9
• 5. Nokian 8,3
• 6. Nankang 7,7
• 7. Kenda 7,1

On this test the thickness of the "watermattress" was 8 mm (round track).

Bridgestone and Goodyear shares the first place based on only the speed. However, Bridgestone warns the driver clearly earlier; the car makes a small side-slide.

In this test, the weight is on the properties of a wet weather. Reliable results are gained after several tests.

Side grip on wet

• 1. Goodyear 9,5
• 2. Bridgestone 8,8
• 3. Barum 7,5
• 4. Hankook 7,4
• 5. Nokian 6,9
• 6. Nankang 6,3
• 7. Kenda 5,3

Goodyear had the best and the tire had its own chapter. When driving on "even gas", Goodyear rolls on neutrally, but when easing the gas a bit, the back of the car slides suddenly. Bridgestone is left more than a half second behind Goodyear.

"Ones head goes all mixed up when breaking on one millimeter of water. Only Goodyear keeps its position"

ABS-breaking on wet

• 1. Goodyear 9,5
• 2. Barum 9,3
• 3. Hankook 9,2
• 4. Bridgestone 8,0
• 5. Nokian 7,9
• 6. Nankang 6,7
• 7. Kenda 5,9

This break-test was made using only the front breaks, between 40-0km/h. The braking distance is taken on 5km/h.

Goodyear cleared the shortest breaking distance. Kenda needed almost 1,7m longer way to stop than Goodyear when almost reaching 10m of breaking distance.

ABS-breaking on dry

• 1. Goodyear 9,5
• 2. Bridgestone 9,3
• 3. Nokian 8,2
• 4. Kenda 8,2
• 5. Hankook 8,0
• 6. Barum 7,3
• 7. Nankang 7,1

As on wet, we used only the front breaks. Because of better gripping, the measuring speed was higher: 50-5 km/h.

The newcomer from Goodyear was the best also on dry.

• 1. Hankook 8,3
• 2. Barum 8,3
• 3. Kenda 8,2
• 4. bridgestone 8,0
• 5. Nankang 8,0
• 6. Nokian 8,0
• 7. Goodyear 7,9

The noise level was measured on a worn-out finish asphalt

All the tires were quite noisy. The microphone was placed "floating" in the trunk

The results: Cheap is not Good

"Goodyear would win the test but it will be left out of the judgement, because of the different speed class"

Goodyear 9,2

Goodyear gets the best marks on the test, but because of the different speed class it must be judged separately.
What it comes to grip, is the Eagle F1 a top class product, within the top class almost in every test. Only in the noise test it is the last.
Bridgestone can fight best against Goodyear and only in some tests. In Aquaplaning on a straight track it is Barum that wins over Goodyear. Time results of Eagle F1 would be enough for the first place in the handling test, but a small but maybe a meaningful point is the surprising "over steering" ability.