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Hankook Winter iCept RS tyre review

A keenly priced tyre, but you will pay for that at the pumps over time.

A keenly priced tyre, but you will pay for that at the pumps over time.

While its summer tyres have improved steadily and are now original equipment on Mercedes and BMW models, Hankook’s winter designs haven’t kept pace. The iCept struggled most on frozen surfaces, trailing home last in all the tests.

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You could feel that lack of bite on the handling circuit, where the rear moved more than rivals. The front also struggled to grip in the tighter turns and easily spun up when accelerating on lock. It’s still better than our all-season tyre, but off the pace of the best.

This tyre starred in last year’s slushplaning test, which we didn’t include this time, but it demonstrated its deep water ability in our aquaplaning assessments. Those performances helped it top fellow strugglers Dunlop and Pirelli across all the wet tests, but it was a step behind the leaders in handling and braking. The lack of grip could really be felt on the handling circuit.

It was better in the dry, coming a close second, but Hankook can’t be pleased with the rolling resistance result. The tyre will use around five per cent more fuel than the winning Continental.

Price£82.49 
Snow braking94.50%8th
Snow traction92.60%8th
Snow circle96.90%8th
Snow handling96.10%8th
Straight aqua97.70%4th
Curved aqua100%1st
Wet braking90.40%8th
Wet handling94.20%8th
Dry braking97.10%5th
Dry handling99.90%2nd
Cabin noise98.00%8th
Rolling resistance83.90%7th
Overall96.70%8th
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