Tyre Test - DUNLOP SPORT MAXX RT

Developing a performance tyre is a subtle exercise in balancing all manner of compromises. Andy Enright takes a look at Dunlop's latest effort, the Sport Maxx RT.

Developing tyres is a black art and some master it better than others. We've all heard the line about how your rubber is the most important component of your car. That you're putting all of the technology of your vehicle to the road through four contact points, each the size of your palm and so on, but to even the more informed consumers amongst us, actually choosing a replacement tyre for your car can be a dizzying experience. Especially if it's for a high performance vehicle.

As few will ever get to try the product they're just about to plough hundreds of pounds into, tyre buyers tend to make the buying decision based on all kinds of claims and usually on the reputation of tyres trusted in the past. Dunlop believes it doesn't have to be this way and in the shape of the Sport Maxx RT claims to have a high performance tyre that's demonstrably superior to its key rivals.



So what exactly do we have here? Well, a tyre designed to appeal to high performance road drivers who might otherwise have chosen something like a Pirelli Pzero, a Goodyear Eagle F1, a Bridgestone Potenza S001, a Michelin PilotSport3 or a Continental ContiSportContact5, tyres you may already be familiar with. This is a tough nut to crack. These aren't full-on track tyres that optimise dry weather grip at the expense of virtually every other criterion. They have to perform well in both wet and dry conditions and still offer the sort of low rolling resistance and noise levels that road drivers demand. In the TÜV tests, when fitted to a Golf GTI in the popular 245/45R 17, the Sport Maxx RT outperformed its key competitors by 7 per cent in wet and dry braking tests and by ...