There are many tires for all seasons, but are, for example, winter tires really needed? To discover, BMW resorted to three M4s and tested the strengths of summer and winter tires, using the most extreme semi-slick and studded tires as a reference for the weather conditions in each of the tests.
As you probably already know, dry weather tyres, such as summer ones, have more contact area and less pronounced tread grooves to ensure more grip. They are also, as a rule, softer, all to ensure high levels of grip on dry asphalt.
Winter tires, on the other hand, usually sacrifice grip on dry roads for a more effective behavior in situations where there is snow or ice, and when the situation demands it, you can always resort to studded tires, all to be able to progress in the worst conditions. But are the differences really that big?
BMW tests
BMW simulated two different weather conditions: summer and winter. The first was simulated on a completely dry track with M4s equipped with summer, winter and semi-slick tires. On Monday, the German brand took the M4 to an icy track and equipped them with winter tires, summer tires and… with studs.
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Three races were held on both tracks: drag race, slalom and braking and the truth is that in both cases the tires specifically designed for the weather conditions in which they were being tested ended up revealing their strengths.
In the case of driving on dry roads, winter tires revealed their limitations, largely due to the deeper grooves and harder compound, causing them to lose grip more quickly.
On ice and snow, the summer tires didn't even manage to make one of the BMW M4's leave the starting line in the drag race and in all the other tests they showed that, for snow, the best thing is to “put on” the winter tyre, best suited for these conditions.