5. Michelin
Alpin 5
ALONG with winter specialist Nokian, this was one of the stars of the snow tests, with the pair closely matched across the four disciplines and enjoying a clear margin over best of the rest Pirelli. That superiority could be felt from the driving seat as the Michelin pulled the car through turns where lesser rivals would simply slide. It had a good balance, too, with grip distributed between front and rear.
It was no surprise to see it take a convincing win in the handling test and around the circle. It was close to the pace in the other snow tests as well.
But away from the white stuff, it was less impressive. Across the wet tests, it was at the bottom of the table with the struggling Hankook, and was a long way off the best in the deep-water aquaplaning tests. Shallower depths saw its fortunes revive, with a top three finish in wet handling, and decent results on the circle and in braking. It felt pretty secure, too, with a very stable rear end and a front that hooked up well compared with rivals.
The Alpin 5 carried over this good driveability to the dry track, where it had the same security at the rear, coping well on the throttle through the long sweeps.
The days of Michelin topping every rolling resistance test are long gone, but while it trails the winning Continental by some way, it was at the top of the closely matched midfield pack.
SECOND spot goes to yet another new tyre, this time from cold-weather specialist Nokian.
The company has quite clearly focused its development on the driving experience, with a string of good results on all surfaces, but this has been at the expense of fuel economy. Without that result it could well have been celebrating a win because it had few other weaknesses.
It was in the top two in the deepwater tests and on the pace in the temperature-dependent braking, circle and handling assessments. Handling in the wet was ultimately limited by the front grip, but it always felt safe and the loss of grip was progressive.
As we’ve come to expect, the Finnish tyre maker excelled on snow, winning the traction and braking tests.
The WR D4 was less assured on the handling track, but lap times were close to the best even though it struggled to grip when accelerating through corners. The rear also moved once the front had hooked up.
It repeated its snow braking win in the dry, and while its lap times may have been a little off the front-runners’ on the handling track, the WR D4 still felt balanced and safe.
Fuel economy was the biggest price paid for that driving performance, but the Nokian was also quite noisy, and there was a slight harshness to the ride over our rough sections.