Hankook Winter iCept RS tyre review

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.

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.