Evo Mag rates our stock Bridgestones vs Hankook V12 Evo
 

I could do some pictures of the articles, but I'll just post the results of each of the tests up here. Now, before you question the skill of the drivers doing the testing, many of the writers for Evo are also race drivers. Many of them raced successfully in the Nur 24 hours for top manufacturer rides.

The car doing the testing: Mazda Miata 2.0i Sport

The tires in question (all size 205/45/17:

Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
Continental Contisportcontact 3
Hankook Ventus V12 EVO
Kumho Ecsta Le Sport KU39
Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2
Uniroyal Rainsport 2
Vredestein Ultrac Cento
Yokohama Adavan Neova AD08
Zeetex HP103

The track:
The Contidrom near Hannover, Germany. Continental's Euro testing grounds.

The scoring, top tire gets 100 and the score goes down there appropriately

The results for the various Wet Tests:
Lap Times: - Seconds - %
1) Continental - 88.4 - 100
2) Vredestein - 92.6 - 95.5
3) Michelin - 92.8 - 95.3
4) Bridgestone - 94.4 - 93.6
5) Uniroyal - 94.9 - 93.2
6) Hankook - 95.6 - 92.4
7) Yokohama - 96.9 - 91.2
8) Kuhmo - 98.7 - 89.5
9) Zeetex - 101.3 - 87.3

Lateral G
1) Continental - 0.877 - 100
2) Michelin - 0.840 - 95.8
3) Vredestein - 0.796 - 90.7
3) Bridgestone - 0.796 - 90.7
5) Uniroyal - 0.771 - 88.0
5) Yokohama - 0.771 - 88.0
7) Hankook - 0.765 - 87.3
8) Kuhmo - 0.713 - 81.3
9) Zeetex - 0.665 - 75.9

Subjective
1) Continental - 49 - 100
2) Michelin - 39 - 79.6
3) Vredestein - 37 - 75.5
4) Uniroyal - 35 - 71.4
5) Bridgestone - 29 - 59.1
6) Hankook - 28 - 57.1
7) Yokohama - 26 - 53.1
8) Kuhmo - 24 - 49.0
9) Zeetex - 15 - 30.6

Aquaplaning Straight Line - KPH - %
1) Uniroyal - 83.2 - 100
1) Vredestein - 83.2 - 100
3) Hankook - 82.2 - 98.8
4) Continental - 78.8 - 94.6
5) Michelin - 77.2 - 92.8
6) Bridgestone - 77.1 - 92.7
7) Kuhmo - 76.2 - 91.6
8) Yokohama - 76.1 - 91.5
9) Zeetex - 74.9 - 90.0

Aquaplaning Curved Line - m/sec^2 - %
1) Uniroyal - 4.22 - 100
2) Vredestein - 3.90 - 92.4
3) Hankook - 3.71 - 89.8
4) Kuhmo - 3.31 - 78.4
5) Continental - 3.26 - 77.3
6) Zeetex - 3.24 - 76.8
7) Michelin - 3.23 - 76.5
8) Bridgestone - 3.11 - 73.7
9) Yokohama - 2.68 - 54.1

Braking test WET 50MPH - Meters - %
1) Continental - 33.1 - 100
2) Bridgestone - 34.9 - 94.7
3) Uniroyal - 35.5 - 92.7
4) Michelin - 35.6 - 92.5
5) Hankook - 36.8 - 88.9
6) Vredestein - 37.1 - 87.8
7) Yokohama - 37.4 - 87.0
8) Kuhmo - 37.8 - 85.5
9) Zeetex - 40.8 - 76.6

Braking test DRY 60MPH - Meters - %
1) Continental - 35.4 - 100
2) Bridgestone - 36.1 - 97.9
3) Yokohama - 36.6 - 96.5
4) Hankook - 37.4 - 94.4
5) Uniroyal - 38.8 - 90.4
6) Michelin - 38.9 - 90.0
7) Vredestein - 39.1 - 89.5
8) Kuhmo - 39.3 - 89.1
9) Zeetex - 40.1 - 86.6


And now the times that really matter here.

DRY HANDLING!

Road Route - points - %

Subjective - Points - %

1) Yokohama - 62 - 100
2) Bridgestone - 58.5 - 94.4
3) Uniroyal - 56 - 90.3
4) Continental - 55.5 - 89.5
5) Vredestein - 55 - 88.7
6) Michelin - 53.5 - 86.3
7) Kuhmo - 51 - 82.3
8) Hankook - 49 - 79.0
9) Zeetex - 33.5 - 54.0


Subjective - Points - %

1) Yokohama - 54 - 100
2) Uniroyal - 50 - 92.6
3) Bridgestone - 49 - 90.1
4) Vredestein - 47 - 87.0
5) Continental - 43 - 79.6
6) Michelin - 41 - 75.9
7) Kuhmo - 40 - 74.1
8) Zeetex - 35 - 64.8
9) Hankook - 28 - 51.2

Lap Times - Secs - %

1) Yokohama - 70.5 - 100
2) Bridgestone - 71.2 - 99.0
3) Continental - 71.2 - 99.0
4) Michelin - 71.2 - 99.0
5) Kuhmo - 71.6 - 98.5
6) Vredestein - 72.0 - 97.9
7) Hankook - 72.3 - 97.5
8) Uniroyal - 72.5 - 97.2
9) Hankook - 72.9 - 96.7


FINAL SCORES

1) Continental - 93.4
2) Uniroyal - 88.7
3) Vredestein - 88.4
4) Bridgestone - 87.9
5) Michelin - 87.4
6) Yokohama - 87.2
7) Kuhmo - 80.8
8) Hankook - 80.1
9) Zeetex - 73.1


If you want to read the article, find yourself a copy of the latest evo magazine. It should be on shelves around mid next week. I'm pretty surprised to see how well the stock tires did vs the loved Hankooks. I'm also disapponted to see that the Direzzas or a sportier group of tires weren't picked.

Interesting to see that they are comparing tires from what looks like three different performance levels: Extreme Performance Summer, Max Performance Summer, Ultra High Performance Summer. And with the Yok's being the only "Extreme" tire in the test I would be surprised if it didn't place first in all of the dry categories.

too bad they are retardly expensive

where are the starspecs?

or is that just not fair?

Looks like it wasn't a Trackday tire test.

From what you guys are saying, the Hankooks have a soft sidewall construction. This could be why the handling characteristics are less than that of the stock Bridgestones. I didn't think the stock tires were that bad. A bit noisy at highway speeds, but overall they provided pretty good grip in wet and dry. Their tread wear was a bit lacking, but they are performance tires, so what should you expect.

I decided against the Hankooks and went with Sumitomo HTR ZIII's. So far they are performing beautifully. Amazing rain characteristics. You feel like you are on dry pavement. Dry performance is very nice as well. Handling and cornering is comparable to the Bridgestones, if you ask me. And road noise is considerably down with these over the Bridgestones.

I'm surprised they didn't make it in the comparison test.

Im not surprised by this...I have the hankooks at the moment and from my subjective standpoint I felt they didn't hold as well at the limit as the bridgestones. Consequently Im not pushing the car as hard on a day to day basis as I used to. However, the sacrifice in performance has been well worth not having to hear those damn bridgestones screaming at even moderate highway speeds.

I am not sure this is the same tire. If you read the article they keep calling it the K12 instead of the V12. I also know that the V12's are made in America and it is possible that the plant that makes them for the UK has different capability and produces a little bit different tire. Again, I am not sure about this and it could be just a type o but that article does go against everything else I have read about the tire including the C&D and Modified reviews.

Where'd you find the article? It always says V12 in the Mag.

they all say K12 unless you click on the tire link which shows V12.

2010 EVO Tyre Test - tyre reviews, the online tyre guide