New EU tyre regulation

There will come very soon a new tyre regulation from the EU which requires labeling of all tyres in a similar manner as we have now at many domestic products for kitchen. Yes, it sounds strange, to have a label on a tyre like on a refrigerator. However it will show at least a part of the common tyre benchmarks, namely fuel efficiency, wet grip and noise levels.

The design of the future EU tyre label will be this one :

As seen from the pictograms, the left upper part shows fuel efficiency, the right part shows the wet grip and the bottom part shows the noise level.

If the aim here is to go greener, fine, but the only green benchmark here is fuel consumption. For example no word about green production of the tyres or something similar. If the aim is to help to make a wise buying decision, why the heck is there no dry grip indicator, as this is much more common situation. If the aim here would be to go safer, there should be a breaking distance vs. weight indicator or something similar.

Of course for every driver the tyre tests should remain the main source of data before buying a new set of tyres. This label is only a fast and uncomplete help for quick orientation.

The timing of this rule is, that after 1.11.2012 every tyre for sale within the EU should have this kind of sticker.

Wheels

These are my 17" Aero wheels, I like them a lot. Recently they got new shoes - Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 2, with very good reviews. Hopely they hold what they promise. They were selected by Porsche as the default tyre for the current Porsche 911 Carrera 2. Hopely they will hold longer than last years Michelins.

Winter tyres : Dunlop Winter Sport 3D experience

The winter season is slowly coming to it's end here, so I'd like to share some experience on the Dunlop Winter Sport 3D, which I had on last couple of months.

I bought it because of good test results from ADAC and Autobild. The tested size also played a role : 225/45 R17 because it is close to my 235/45 R17. A good sum-up of several reviews and results can be found here on tyrereviews.co.uk and is saying this :

The tyres on snow gave me feeling of security. We were driving in december 2600 km in Austria, Germany and Holland, in the time, when on many places around was heavy snowfall, partially through the night when not all roads and highways were clean at all. To overtake on snowy roads is always a tricky thing but on these tyres I didn't felt any kind of "swimming" of the car or tendence to slip at speeds around 80-100kmh. The breaking and acceleration on snow was great as well.

The same applies for wet surface incl. no aquaplaning at all. Since I am driving carefully, it shouldn't be, but on previous tyres and cars I sometimes had a feeling of "whooops aquaplaning starts".

My experience is, that immediately after changing from summer to winter tyre I always felt a bit different behaviour of the car, something like I am driving on a "pillow". On these tyres the feeling was minimal, much less than before. So on dry surface they were also excellent, I could also enjoy a bit quicker rides on dry streets outside of the city.

For a driver which doesn't risk at all, but sometimes pushes the gas pedal harder on a stronger car these tyres are perfect. After driving ~10.000km on them there is no visible sign of deterioration, so I assume they will hold at least another 3 seasons.

Recommended ? Definitely yes.