The best road-legal wet tire I have tried so far. It wears very quickly. Despite marketed as “winter” tire, it cannot outperform legendary Sava Eskimo S3+. Full specification at manufacturer’s web.
- price about 120€
- durability barely 8,000 km on sport suspension
- very soft tire compound ACC
- soft sidewalls
- snow performance poor
- deformation/twisting under load
- best wet performance I have seen so far
- quick and uneven wear
Best wet tire
After fiasco with Sava Eskimo on dry gravel roads – I have looked for
high performance winter tires. My criteria were home made and long history with tires in alpine conditions.
Sadly, Nokian opened in 2005 a new manufacturing facility in Russia and quality dropped significantly. My tires were still manufactured in Finland. As you can see in above by image, that is usual on Nokian tires – tires easily wear to wire construction. I have seen some unlucky guy with summer Nokians worn to wire construction and tire disintegrating in front of eyes.
Tires have very soft compound, best wet grip I have seen so far and they wear very quickly. Aquaplaning is unknown word for this tire. I have driven flat out in 1 centimeter of water and tire still sticks to surface as dry tire.
Hard dry surfaces kill this tire in no time but that is price for soft sticky compounds. Of course it has got thread for winter and it slides and twist under load. Once, you go Yoko Advan you will be disappointed in every tire with normal construction 😉
Snow performance is same as WinterContact – thread pattern is narrower compared to legendary Sava Eskimo. Deep snow clutters thread pattern as every so called “winter” tire because it is optimized for typical wet-road European winters.
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