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After completing our first phase of snow tire testing here is what we found and how we found what we did.
First of all, since quite often in the winter you are driving on clear or wet streets we tested the tires on a 7 mile lap around the streets of South Bend which included almost all types of road surfaces. For winter traction testing we took our test cars to a local ice skating rink. Our testing on the ice included; 60 ft. acceleration tests, cornering tests, braking tests and overall handling rating them on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being the best. The results are calculated by averaging all of the scores from our testing staff which includes; myself and over 50 other Tire Rack employees and sales people.
Q-rated studless Winter tires
Road Testing
Blizzak/Dunlop/ Michelin
MZ-01 /DS-1 / Artic Alpin
ride 7.08 6.25 6.98
noise 6.32 5.26 6.86
handling 5.26 4.32 6.36
Road
Rating 6.22 5.28 6.73

Ice Testing
Accel 8.74 7.63 8.15
Braking 8.08 6.86 7.63
corner 8.33 7.07 7.00
handling 8.00 6.29 7.20
Ice
Rating 8.29 6.96 7.50
combined
rating 7.40 6.24 7.17

H Rated High Performance
Winter Tires
Blizzak/Dunlop/ Pirelli
LM-22 /M-2 / W210
ride 6.89 7.06 6.94
noise 6.59 6.87 6.01
handling 6.94 6.30 7.07
road
rating 6.81 6.74 6.67

ice testing
accel 5.44 5.39 5.14
brake 5.47 5.31 5.27
corner 5.42 5.27 5.37
handling 5.32 5.17 5.24
ice
rating 5.41 5.29 5.26
Combined
Rating 6.01 5.91 5.86

I hope that you find this info helpful in your winter tire selection process and if you have any additional questions please feel free to give me a call.
Thanks, Luke

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Luke Pavlick
Performance Specialist
ASE Certified Master Tech
for more info or to place orders please call 800-428-8355 ext. 362

[This message has been edited by Luke@tirerack (edited October 21, 2000).]