Hey I've always wondered how you know if a performance tire grips more than another just looking at the specs. My friend says to look at the utqg but I think it's just the tread wear and it doesn't relate to mecanical grip isn't it?

 

Uniform Tire Quality Grade...or something like that...They rate treadwear traction and temp...usually looks like: UTQG: 400 AA A Meaning - Treadwear 400, Traction AA, Temp A

Here is a link: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=48

 

So the only way of getting an idea or the grip is to look at the traction rating AA or A ect...?

 

The traction rating is for wet stopping ability. There is no definitive rating for lateral grip or acceleration. The best you can do is make an assumption that a lower wear rating and higher traction rating may mean a softer compound, which usually translates to better grip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTQG

 

Doesn't Road & Track do an annual comparison test on a skid pad? I know they used to do, gave lots of info, so you could pick the tire that best suited your intended driving style.

 

I thin tire rack tests this on some tires as well. I would really just look to reviews from people trying different tires on the track.

 

There are some tires that make an exception though small in comparison to the overall, which the general rule is the lower the wear rating the higher the dry grip ability. The safest bet is to shop in the category tire that best suits your needs. In the extreme summer tire category wich is the highest dry grip tires you can get under an R comp(40-100) you will not find a wear rating over 200. The typical max and ultra category summers run between this and bellow around 300, and it goes on from there with all seasons and the like above this. So this number may not get to the exact T of grip level per individual tire, it does however get close and is an important indicator in shopping for a performance level in the case of dry adhesion.

 

Just make sure you get an extreme performance summer tire. They all have a thread were rating of 200 or less. This is the class that has the best dry grip for a street tire.

 

^^^ "thread were"

UTQG treadwear rating is not an indicator of grip. It's a relative value supposedly representing the tire life you can expect, but different manufacturers will have different standards for what it actually means. I wouldn't consider it *at all* in trying to determine whether tire A from manufacturer X has more grip than tire B from manufacturer Y.

That said, yes, the highest performance tires will have relatively low treadwear ratings and mileage-oriented all-seasons will have relatively high ratings. But you'd be wrong to look at the 180 rating of the Yokohama AD08R and conclude that it's grippier than the 200-rated Dunlop ZII, or look at the 400 rating of the Bridgestone RE970AS and conclude that it's grippier than the 500-rated Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3.

Back-to-back testing with the same driver(s) in the same car is the only way to know which tire has more grip, and even then it might only be true for that car and/or for the particular conditions tested in.

 

Walk through a track paddock and just do a simple count.

Offset that count and cross reference with lap time and then further collate similar setup cars together and you will get a pretty unbiased consensus of the best rubber.

All track guys want to light up a lap time list and want bragging rights so their is no way any of us are going to choose voluntarily a subpar tire (within the same grouping)



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