Dry Braking

The clear winner here – with an impressive stopping distance of 38.2metres – was Continental. And the PremiumContact 2 enjoyed a half-metreadvantage over Michelin. This meant the French company made its first appearancenear the top of the result sheet, snatching second from Dunlop’s Fastresponse.

Dry track victor Bridgestone was a further metre behind. Therewas little to choose between wet road specialist Vredestein, Hankook, Fulda andKumho, which were separated by only centimetres.

Pirelli had another result it would probably like to forget,and those big water-pumping channels did the Goodyear no favours, either. Inthis test, the emphasis is on having a stiff tread pattern and rubber on the road– that counted against  theOptiGrip, and bosses won’t be pleased to be nearly four metres off the winner.

The Goodyear’s problems were nothing compared to the Wanli,though, which yet again brought up the rear, a long way off the standard set bythe rest. It took more than five metres longer to stop – a car’s length. Thatmeans when a vehicle with the Conti rubber has come to a halt, one wearing theWanlis will still be doing 20mph-plus.

The new Maxxis showed its dry handling performance was not aone-off, stopping in just under 40 metres. That would have been enough for fourth.