Testimonial - E82 135i - Tyres - Mr Luthra

Date: 28/12/2013 (from Kevin Bird)

 

Dear Karun,

 

It really isn't possible to determine the absolute merits of one tyre against another brand. If you have a look at tyre performance tests by magazines like EVO, they never manage to generate a consistent conclusion. Every year, the results are different and different "experts" have widely varying opinions.

The practical considerations are many, and none of these tests run the tyres over suitably high mileages to get a truer picture of performance in real world conditions.

The fact is that, as you have already acknowledged, huge gains in driver satisfaction can be generated by relatively small modifications. Even though we have been recommending Conti for maybe 7 years now, having run them on all of our demonstrator cars, we could not say what's best because we haven't been comparing with anything else.

 

But technically, the decision by us to run Conti is based on a few facts. The Conti is invariably the lightest tyre on themarket. The sidewalls are supple, enhancing ride quality, and the wet grip is probably the best available. Given that a driver is always closer to the limit of grip in the wet, we believe the wet handling characteristic is most important.

 

If you are after the ultimate dry grip performance, then I would tend towards Pirelli instead.

 

As regards matching tyres front and rear, it appears to be a reasonable argument. But the grip and handling requirements at the front and rear of the car are in fact completely different, so I would say it's not important to have matching tyres. Indeed in pas years, some manufacturers (Pirelli mostly) have provided completely different designs of tyres for front and rear axles.

 

At the end of the day, the choice is yours, but I think if you changed the front for Conti, you will probably eventually change the rears for Conti too. Unless you plan a lot of circuit work, I doubt you will ever find any issue with them.

 

Regards, Kevin.

 

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Date: 28/12/2013