May 27, 2016
February 10, 2017 (Winter Update)
Like so many of the best things in life, tire design and engineering involve a level of compromise and give and take. You have to give a little to get a little, and when the means of accomplishing two goals conflict, which takes priority? Standard Touring and Passenger All-Season tires are expected to deliver a pleasant ride, responsive handling, long tread life, and traction in the wet and light snow, but there are engineering conflicts inherent to these objectives. Generally speaking, it is often possible to provide a high level of performance in two conflicting attributes, but it comes at a (literal) price. As great as it would be to have an unlimited budget for research and design and engineering, the reality is tire designers are limited to what the funds they are allocated will allow. Yet even when faced with these constraints, tire manufacturers have demonstrated the ability to create impressive products that deliver a lot of give with very little take.
To better understand the strengths and weaknesses of Firestone’s newest Standard Touring All-Season tire, the Champion Fuel Fighter, the Tire Rack team conducted a Real World Road Ride and Performance Track Drive comparing it with three popular existing tires, the General AltiMAX RT43, Goodyear Assurance All-Season and Kumho Solus TA11. Our evaluation used 2014 BMW F30 328i sedans fitted with new, full tread depth 215/60R16 tires mounted on 16x7.5 wheels.
Our 6.0-mile loop of expressway, state highway and county roads provides a great variety of road conditions that include city and highway speeds, smooth and coarse concrete, as well as new and patched asphalt. This route allows our team to experience noise comfort, ride quality and everyday handling, just as you would during your drive to school or work.
Though we don’t know what goes on behind the tire manufacturers’ closed doors when priorities are determined, budgets are allocated and tires are developed, we are provided a retrospective glimpse by driving on the finished product. Completing that drive for this test revealed the Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter placed a strong emphasis on comfort in the areas of ride and sound quality. The Champion Fuel Fighter provided the best damping of this group, soaking up road imperfections and muffling the impact to a dull thud. High marks were also received for noise comfort, with very little sound making its way into the cabin, and what noise could be heard was unobtrusive with no distinct tones. What may be a trade-off for the luxurious ride came in the form of a lack of steering feel and feedback. Though the steering wheel was nicely weighted while driving the Firestone, its generally numb and vague nature meant the driver had to guess as to the proper amount of steering input needed, followed by small corrections in the event the initial guess was wrong. A tire with similarly positive on-road characteristics was the General AltiMAX RT43. A faint, but noticeable growl from the tread and incrementally stiffer ride meant the AltiMAX RT43 did not quite match the Champion Fuel Fighter in terms of comfort, but direct and communicative steering put the AltiMAX RT43 at the top of the handling category for this Real World Road Ride. The Goodyear Assurance All-Season also received mostly positive reviews for its on-road performance. The ride quality was slightly harsh over bumps, but not to the point of being objectionable, and combined with the quiet operation meant the Goodyear provided more give than take for comfort. Mirroring its comfort, the Assurance All-Season’s handling was predominantly positive, with a small dead zone on-center slightly detracting from the otherwise satisfying steering feel. Our testers had mixed assessments of the Kumho Solus TA11’s on-road performance, with the good outweighing the bad. From a ride standpoint, the Solus TA11 felt somewhat less substantial than the other tires in this test, with the least isolation from low-speed impacts and some additional reverberation after the initial contact. At highway speeds, the Kumho was slightly more composed over bumps, where it seemed better able to shrug off road imperfections. The Solus TA11’s sound quality was commendable, with only a small amount of tread noise that placed it roughly on par with the General. Eager and responsive handling garnered praise from our testers, but the steering offered little resistance or weight and had a tendency to wander on the highway.
Our 1/3-mile per lap test track course includes 90-degree street corners, a five-cone slalom and simulated expressway ramps. Run in both dry and wet conditions, the test track allows our team to experience the traction, responsiveness, handling and drivability normally only encountered during abrupt emergency avoidance maneuvers or competition events.
Chances are the fastest possible dry lap time is not an engineering target for the designers of Standard Touring and Passenger All-Season tires, but safety, including the ability to react and respond in an emergency situation, is a priority in any tire’s development. All four tires in this comparison displayed the capability to stop, start and turn confidently and competently when called upon. Less than half a second separated the fastest and slowest laps of the group, and there was less than three feet difference between the shortest and longest stopping distances in our 50-0 mph ABS stop. Based on our findings from the Road Ride portion of the evaluation, there were no real surprises on the dry track. The Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter felt secure and solid, but the vague steering prevented pinpoint accuracy in vehicle placement, and resolute understeer meant the Firestone was quite stable, but far from playful. The General AltiMAX RT43’s steering was natural and linear, but not necessarily what would be considered sporty, and the handling was involving and slightly biased toward understeer as the limits were reached. Out on the dry track, the Goodyear Assurance All-Season received nearly universal praise. The handling balance was even and neutral, with no strong tendency toward understeer or oversteer. Braking was responsive and easily modulated, and the steering’s on-center dead spot seemed to disappear, leaving only the accurate and optimally weighted feel. Kumho’s Solus TA11 displayed the same light touch and eagerness to change direction on the track as it did during the Road Ride. Though the responsive handling was appreciated, the near absence of feedback from the steering wheel led to the sensation of being disconnected from the pavement, and the lack of steering resistance made it possible to dial in too much steering input for the desired outcome.
As is often the case, the wet portion of our track evaluation revealed greater objective and subjective disparities between the tires in this comparison. Firestone’s Champion Fuel Fighter delivered satisfactory levels of grip in all regards, responding quickly to directional changes and accelerating and braking with confidence. The limits were not quite as high as the comparison-leading General, and once they were exceeded, the Firestone’s front end grip consistently dissolved before the rear, leading to controllable understeer. The AltiMAX RT43 was undoubtedly the top performer in the wet. With lap times nearly a second ahead of the next-fastest Firestone and over three seconds ahead of the Goodyear, its objective stats are impressive, and the reviews corroborate this story. While quickly navigating through the slalom, the rear end stayed planted and in sync with the front axle, and there was very little of the common delay in response to steering inputs while waiting for the front tires to find grip. Straight-line braking felt locked-down, stable and sure, and the General was the best of this group at accelerating or braking with some steering input still dialed in at the helm. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the Goodyear Assurance All-Season, which required care to remain within its limits. As long as the driver did not ask for more than the tire was able to provide, the handling was nicely balanced, but braking zones were considerably longer than the other tires in the test, and if the steering wheel was pointed anywhere other than straight ahead while accelerating or braking, it would overwhelm the available grip and result in a spinning or sliding tire. The Solus TA11 fell toward the middle of the pack both subjectively and in its objective data. Its stopping distances and lap times were a step behind the Firestone, as was its ultimate grip level. The balance was neutral, with neither the front nor rear axle dominating, and the driver could confidently glide the vehicle through the slalom. Anything more than light throttle while turning would result in oversteer, but in all the Solus TA11 provided acceptable wet traction.
Winter weather is often unpredictable, and snow-covered roads change with every passing vehicle as they churn snow into slush or pack it down to polished ice. A constantly changing test surface makes side-by-side comparisons difficult, so we use a dedicated winter testing facility in Northern Sweden with acres of groomed snow that provides the consistency we need to get reliable acceleration and braking comparisons. This facility also has a prepared snow-handling course where we evaluate the stability and control of each tire during abrupt maneuvers. To simulate the icy conditions found at intersections or the black ice experienced out on the highway, we use ice at a local hockey rink and measure acceleration and braking traction.
In the snow, three of the four tires in this group performed very well, and with nearly the same level of braking and acceleration capability. The Goodyear Assurance All-Season performed ever-so-slightly better than the Kumho Solus TA11 and General AltiMAX RT43. Around the snow-covered handling course, the AltiMAX RT43 displayed superior control and cornering capability, allowing it to lap over three seconds faster than the Goodyear and Kumho tires. Trailing these three was the Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter, which delivered noticeably less traction, taking over 40% longer to stop from 25 mph than the other three tires in this test.
Ice acceleration and braking traction test results were similar to what we found in the snow, with the Assurance All-Season, Solus TA11 and AltiMAX RT43 separated by just a few feet. Again the Champion Fuel Fighter trailed, taking noticeably longer to start and stop our test car.
Our Real World Road Ride features a relatively flat 6.0-mile loop of 65 mph expressway, 55 mph state highway and 40 mph county roads along with three stop signs every lap. Our team drove each tire approximately 500 miles over the course of several days. Since we wanted to compare fuel consumption results that typical drivers would experience, our drivers were instructed to maintain the flow of traffic by running at the posted speed limits and sustain the vehicle’s speed using cruise control whenever possible. They did not use hypermiling techniques to influence vehicle fuel economy.
| Tire | Test MPG* | Gallons/Year @ 15,000 Miles |
% vs. Most Efficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firestone Champion Fuel Frighter | 33.1 | 453.2 | -- |
| General AltiMAX RT43 | 32.3 | 464.4 | -2.5% |
| Goodyear Assurance All-Season | 33.1 | 453.2 | -- |
| Kumho Solus TA11 | 32.6 | 460.1 | -1.5% |
| *Our evaluation used Race Technology DL1 data loggers to record true distance travelled. | |||
Increasing a tire’s fuel economy by lowering its rolling resistance can come with its own trade-offs, and the only tire labeled as Low Rolling Resistance was the Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter. We found a small difference in observed vehicle fuel economy across the group, with the Firestone and Goodyear tires tied for the highest returned miles per gallon throughout this evaluation. Based on our results the .8 mile per gallon difference between our lowest and highest observed fuel economy would result in an annual difference of around 11 gallons of premium gasoline. At the current cost of $3.00/gallon, it would amount to an annual difference of $33.60 for drivers driving 15,000 miles per year.
It’s important to note our test’s fuel consumption measurements follow consistent procedures designed to minimize variables that could influence the results, however they do not represent an exhaustive long-range fuel consumption study. While our procedures require the test vehicles in each convoy to run under the same prevailing conditions, the week-to-week differences in ambient temperatures, barometric pressures and wind speeds that we experience over a season of testing can influence vehicle fuel consumption and prevent the absolute mpg values of this test from being compared directly against those of others.
Larger differences in consumption between tires may indicate a difference that might be experienced on the road, while smaller differences should be considered equivalent. As they say, your mileage may vary.
Despite the unavoidable give and take associated with tire design and engineering, manufacturers can deliver finished products that perform at a satisfying level in many aspects. Some may focus their efforts on specific attributes, while others may strive toward more balanced performance. Firestone’s new Champion Fuel Fighter delivered a supple, quiet and comfortable ride on the road, along with respectable wet traction, but the steering and grip in the ice and snow left our testers wanting. The General AltiMAX RT43 provided impressive grip in snow and on the wet track, paired with a pleasant ride and satisfying handling, with just a hint of tread growl and slight harshness over very large impacts. Goodyear’s Assurance All-Season felt right at home on our dry track and offered a quiet, but firm environment on the road in addition to acceleration and braking performance in the snow that was very good for an all-season tire. Its performance on the wet track was underwhelming, though. The Kumho Solus TA11’s performance was acceptable in all regards, with winter traction that was competitive with the best in the category.
Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter (Standard Touring All-Season): The Champion Fuel Fighter is Firestone’s Standard Touring All-Season tire developed for the drivers of coupes, sedans, family minivans and crossover vehicles looking for year-round capability and long treadwear combined with fuel efficiency and a comfortable ride. Read more.
General AltiMAX RT43 (Standard Touring All-Season): AltiMAX RT43 (Road Touring) tires featuring T-speed ratings are General’s Standard Touring All-Season tire members of their AltiMAX family of flagship tires. Designed to deliver impressive consumer value through even treadwear and extended treadlife, the AltiMAX RT43 combines a quiet, comfortable ride with year-round, all-season traction, even in light snow. Read more.
Goodyear Assurance All-Season (Passenger All-Season): The Assurance All-Season is Goodyear’s entry-level Passenger All-Season member of their Assurance family of tires. Developed for drivers of family sedans and minivans looking for practical tires that provide confident all-season traction, the Assurance All-Season delivers Goodyear value by combining attractive pricing, long wear and year-round traction in dry, wet and wintry conditions, even in light snow. Read more.
Kumho Solus TA11 (Standard Touring All-Season): The Solus TA11 is Kumho’s Standard Touring All-Season tire developed for the drivers of subcompacts and sedans, as well as minivans and small crossover vehicles looking for comfort and lasting value. Designed for cost-conscious drivers, the Solus TA11 is designed to provide traction on all roads and in all seasons, even in light snow. Read more.
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