David Samuel - SnowyTires

Pirelli Scorpion Winter vs Goodyear UltraGrip

Both Pirelli Scorpion Winter and Goodyear UltraGrip are snow-taming beasts in the winter tire market, each offering a unique set of capabilities to face the harshest weather conditions. Let’s see which tire is better for you.

Key Takeaway

Goodyear UltraGrip takes the lead when it comes to:

Snowy conditions due to wider tread voids and efficient V-shaped lugs.
Handling in dry conditions thanks to stiffer rubber and quick steering response.
Fuel economy, achieving comparable efficiency as Pirelli due to its stiffer compound.

On the other side, Pirelli Scorpion Winter excels in:

Ice performance with its expertly designed tread pattern and multi-angled sipes.
Wet grip, attributed to its softer compound, dense siping, and effective hydroplaning-resistant grooves.
Comfort levels: quieter rides due to fewer tread voids and superior variable pitch compound; better vibration dampening with its unique tread pattern and material blend.

Ice Performance

When faced with icy conditions, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter emerges as the top contender, with significantly shorter braking distances and faster acceleration times, as noted from averaged test results.

The tire offers an expertly designed tread pattern, featuring well-positioned biting edges at optimal angles.

The combination of slanted incisions and V-shaped biters, each facing both lateral directions, provides superior gripping capabilities on icy surfaces.

Additionally, the tire’s enhanced flexibility and multi-angled sipes further augment this gripping performance.

Conversely, the Goodyear UltraGrip, although possessing suitable grooves and ample sipes, misses the mark somewhat due to the absence of notches along its smoothed-out edges.

This results in less effective biting ability, especially in comparison to its counterpart.

So, overall, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter clearly takes the lead in icy conditions.

Though keep in mind, both tires aren’t so great on icy terrains, I mean there are far better options out there.

Snow Performance

When it comes to snowy conditions, however, the Goodyear UltraGrip takes the lead, thanks to its specific design features.

Goodyear UltraGrip Winter — Goodyear UltraGrip

The tire offers wider tread voids and in-groove notches that help trap snow particles.

This design promotes better traction, as snow lodged in the grooves provides better grip than the rubber tread itself.

Furthermore, the tire’s divided up V-shaped lugs are highly efficient at displacing thick snow, enhancing forward momentum and contributing to superior acceleration times.

Basically acceleration is what’s giving this tire the main edge.

As the tire exit the corners, it reaches out towards the desired speeds quickly, adding to it’s overall handling times, as seen by lap tests.

In comparison, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter shows somewhat limited braking and handling capabilities due to less efficient design.

Meaning, its biters don’t effectively form the highly needed snow to snow contact, nor throw back the snow as effectively as the Goodyear.

Therefore, the Goodyear UltraGrip stands out as the better performer in snowy conditions.

Wet Grip

In terms of wet traction, two pivotal factors come into play: the design of the tread and the composition of the rubber compound.

Considering these factors, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter again takes the lead, even though both tires feature abundant siping throughout their treads to aid grip.

This advantage can be attributed to a lot of features, though most important ones are following.

It offers a softer compound.
It has more siping per square inch of its tread.
It’s grooves offer better resistance to hydroplaning.

But how each is helping? Let me explain.

So with softer compound, the tire’s biters remain flexible, even while the tire is in aggressive turns for example. And since these slits suck up water particles (by flexing), their stretching ability is a crucial factor here.

Moreover, with its more efficient grooves throwing out more water at a given time (relatively), allows for superior resistance to hydro or aquaplaning, and it also means, there’s less burden for sipes (since groove handle majority of the work-load).

So overall, the Pirelli offers better overall wet performance compared to Goodyear.

Fuel Economy

Fuel economy is influenced by several factors, including the tire’s adherence to the road surface and its overall tread pattern.

Upon evaluating these elements, it’s clear that both tires exhibit similar rolling resistance values, leading to comparable miles per gallon (MPG).

Interestingly, this similarity in fuel efficiency is due to different reasons for each tire.

The Pirelli Scorpion Winter, although having a softer compound that leads to more lug flexing and hence extra energy consumption, is redeemed by its more streamlined arrangement of its ribs.

So you get rolling resistance (on average), which is equivalent to that of the Goodyear UltraGrip.

The Goodyear UltraGrip, although features less streamlined structure with its voids going everywhere, it’s stiffer compound is saving it, or should I say reserving its energy.

Basically it’s lugs with stiffer rubber don’t move a lot, even with extreme tire maneuvers, and this resisting of the lug flexing leads to similar fuel economy compared to its rival here.

Therefore, in terms of fuel economy, both tires perform on par with each other.

Dry Traction

Dry performance is broken down into two main components: grip and handling.

Grip pertains to the tire’s ability to roll, brake or corner, and here the straight line grip is typically measured using braking distances, while lateral grip is calculated by g forces.

Now in terms of grip, the Pirelli offers better traction values.

It’s central most rib forming interlocking lugs contribute to its superior directional grip, while its more compacted up shoulder lugs provide better sideways grip as well.

Though overall handling times on both tires are similar. This is because this performance metric combined both the grip and the tire’s steering response.

And Pirelli with softer rubber, and greater tread depth, isn’t so quick to respond to the driver’s input, as concluded from the multiple tests.

The tire basically is more prone to under-steer in comparison.

On the other hand, the Goodyear UltraGrip is taking the lead, as it’s stiffer rubber and more composed tread depth allows for smaller lug bending.

This smaller deformation of its tread leads to faster overall steering response. And the result? The tire in tests, offers half a second faster handling times in comparison.

So, to sum up, the Goodyear UltraGrip offers better overall handling, while the Pirelli Scorpion Winter provides you with greater dry grip.

Comfort Levels

The comfort level of a tire is largely determined by factors such as road noise and vibration absorption capability, which can vary significantly depending on the tire’s construction.

Let’s check out both factors.

Noise

Tire noise arises from the collision of air particles with tread patterns.

This auditory element plays a significant role, as particles first bump with the tread, and impact of that creates noise. Then that noise resonate within the tread walls, and create what they call, in-groove resonance.

Moreover, these add to the tire’s vibrations as well.

That’s why with more voided up structure, the Ultra Grip lacks here, allowing air more room to play around.

On the other hand, the Pirelli’s tread pattern, characterized by fewer voids, reduces spaces where air can reverberate, leading to quieter tire rotation.

So you get a more silent option here, elevating in-car comfort.

Moreover, Pirelli also offers superior variable pitch compound too. This basically creates various tones frequencies at the same time, and those then don’t get amplified this way.

So overall you get a quieter ride with Scorpion tire.

Road Bumps

Tires act as the first line of defense against the roughness of roads, with their capacity to nullify vibrations from uneven terrains directly impacting ride quality.

In this domain, the Scorpion Winter shines, all thanks to it’s distinctive tread pattern and material blend which allow it with superior vibration-dampening properties.

When faced with road anomalies like potholes, the tire’s design adeptly cushions these disturbances, offering a seamless ride and reducing vibrations felt within the vehicle.

Conversely, while the Goodyear provides commendable vibration dampening, it falls slightly short here still, primarily due to its more rigid outermost cap ply.

So impact comfort performance is better on Pirelli.

Conclusion

Both tires have their strengths and weaknesses. Let me explain.

The Pirelli Scorpion Winter excels in icy conditions, wet traction, and comfort levels.

Its superiority in icy terrains is due to its well-constructed tread pattern and enhanced flexibility.

For wet roads, its softer compound, combined with efficient groove design and increased siping, ensures optimal water dispersion.

Moreover, its fewer tread voids and unique variable pitch compound contribute to a quieter ride, and its design is adept at cushioning road disturbances, enhancing overall comfort.

On the other hand, the Goodyear UltraGrip stands out in snowy conditions, with its ability to trap snow particles and provide impressive acceleration, and it also has the edge in dry handling responsiveness due to its stiffer rubber and tread design.

In terms of fuel economy, both tires are on par, each attributing their efficiency to different design elements.

So, when choosing between the two, it really comes down to your specific driving conditions and needs.

General Altimax Arctic 12 Review

The General AltiMAX Arctic 12 is designed for drivers seeking dependable winter traction across diverse conditions. Tailored for a range of vehicles, this tire offers a blend of responsive handling and consistent performance on icy, wet, and snow-covered roads.

Key Takeaway

So overall, the General Altimax Arctic 12 tire exhibits pretty decent performance across varied conditions.

The tire excels in:

Ice Traction: Its unique tread pattern with multi-directional biters and angled siping offers excellent grip.
Snow Traction: The aggressive tread pattern ensures superior snow collection, and its V-shaped central lugs provide impressive snow acceleration.
Wet Traction: Rapid water evacuation is facilitated by its directional tread pattern and expertly designed contact patch, which together boost hydroplaning resistance and overall wet performance.

While its performance can be improved in:

Fuel Efficiency: Its considerable weight and design contribute to lower fuel economy compared to its peers.
Tread Noise: While it’s above average, it is still the loudest in its group.
Tread Longevity: Despite having a commendable tread depth, its more voided design impacts its overall tread life.

Info on Sizes: The General Altimax Arctic 12 comes in 14 to 19 inches with following. They all have speed ratings of T, while load ratings are available in XL only. Moreover, all sizes have tread depth of 12/32″ and weight range of 16 to 35 lbs.

Tread Appearance

The General Altimax Arctic 12 showcases a blocky, directional tread pattern.

In this design, the central (most) lugs are anchored atop a continuous secondary rubber layer.

These lugs offer multifaceted sides and are abundant with linear sipes.

Their arrow-like shape further complements them with potent in-groove notches.

On the adjacent (to the middle most) ribs, you see notches facing shoulders, and slightly different siping pattern (wave-like, unlike linear slits seen on the central rib).

These shoulder blocks come in pairs, flanked by the broadest (of all) lateral tread voids.

These studable lugs are smoother and less pronounced, showcasing fewer edges and devoid of notches, yet they maintain the wave-like siping.

Internally, the tire features a high-turn-up polyester casing, reinforced by two broad steel belts and a spirally wound nylon cap ply.

Overall Winter Performance

The efficacy of a tire during winter is determined by its performance on ice and snow.

Ice Traction

This measures the tire’s grip on icy surfaces. Due to the slippery nature of ice, the effectiveness of the tire’s rubber compound and tread design becomes paramount.

So ideal tires here should have numerous, flexible “biters” that maintain their functionality even in freezing temperatures.

Having said that, it makes sense why the General Altimax Arctic 12 emerges as a front-runner on icy terrains, compared to other tires in its category.

Its exemplary performance on ice is credited to its unique tread pattern, which blends multi-directional biters with ingeniously angled siping.

Specifically, both its shoulder and the central (most) rib feature a distinct siping design, with variations in width and angular orientation.

This intricate and aggressive siping approach ensures grip from every angle.

Consequently, the tire delivers impressive braking distances and sharp handling precision, translating to an overall above-average performance.

Snow Traction

This evaluates how a tire fares on snow-covered roads. The tire must be able to dig into the snow, make effective snow-to-snow contact, and release snow to avoid accumulation. Snowflakes interlock naturally, so a tire’s tread should capture snow, creating friction that surpasses rubber-to-snow contact.

The General Arctic 12 truly stands out in this aspect, thanks to its aggressive tread pattern which isn’t densely packed.

This design allows the tire to effectively gather snow, leading to exceptional snow collection efficiency.

Additionally, its V-shaped central lugs are adept at shoveling the snow rearward, yielding impressive acceleration in snowy conditions.

For perspective, the Altimax only trails by just under half a foot in acceleration tests when compared to the best performer in this category.

Wet Traction

Tire performance in wet conditions hinges on tread design and rubber composition. These attributes shape wet grip and hydroplaning resistance.

Wet Gripping

Wet grip, akin to its dry counterpart, depends on the rubber’s contact with the road. Water, however, can prevent this contact.

And that’s where grooves and sipes come in.

While grooves eliminate most of the water, sipes address residual water particles. These sipes release air, creating a suction effect that removes water, enabling the tire to maintain road contact.

Now, the General Altimax Arctic 12 does a great job here, employing a very aggressive siping pattern that combines dual wave-like and linear patterns (linear on central rib, while wave-like on adjacent ones).

These multi-angled sipes ensure versatile grip, effectively securing traction in all directions.

However, it’s worth noting that a significant portion of its traction can be attributed to its hydroplaning resistance, though let me elaborate it in the following section.

Side Note: When it comes to winter tires, the Continental VikingContact 7 (review) offers one of the best winter traction. Just an FYI.

Resistance to Hydroplaning

Hydroplaning occurs when water disrupts the connection between the tire and the road. But why this happens? Well water is incompressible, so if it isn’t channeled away, it can come in between, causing a loss of traction.

So it has to be dealt with. And tires do that with grooves (for the most part), which direct water away, mitigating the risk of aquaplaning (or floating of the tire).

Now the General Altimax Arctic 12 excels here, as it escapes water out, pretty quickly and efficiently, allowing for decent overall float speeds.

Its directional tread pattern, characterized by squared-off central lugs, creates voids that run in all directions, facilitating rapid water evacuation.

Additionally, the tire comes with an expertly designed contact patch that applies enhanced pressure on the water, ensuring it is forced out with vigor.

This design technically means that most of the water is effectively channeled out through the grooves, leaving the sipes with minimal/less residual work, thereby enhancing overall wet performance.

Comfort Levels

Tire comfort relates to noise reduction and vibration absorption, influenced by construction, materials, tread pattern, and sidewall design.

Tread Noise

Noise often stems from air colliding with tire tread walls. So to put simply, tires with larger tread gaps produce more noise.

Now, General Altimax Arctic 12 delivers okay performance in this area, standard for a winter tire.

Its more open shoulder voids coupled with its multi-angled siping lead to a bit more audible growl.

However, its performance still stands out as above average, largely due to its variable pitch tread design, which effectively minimizes in-groove resonance.

But yes, it’s still the loudest tire in its group (even though its only by a small difference).

Bumps Absorption

Tires function as a vehicle’s secondary suspension, cushioning against road irregularities. This absorption is a product of both the tire’s internal and external construction.

And here, the General Altimax Arctic 12 is one of the best among its competitors, mainly because of two main things.

One, it’s rubber is relatively softer.

And two, it offers relatively greater tread depth, combined with independent lugs.

This basically allows the bumps energy to be transformed in to the bending of the lugs, thereby mitigating road vibrations efficiently.

Fuel Economy

Tire fuel efficiency correlates with weight and traction, which impact rolling resistance. But how these factors matter here?

Well, put simply, heavier tires with broad tread gaps often flex more during maneuvers, consuming energy otherwise used for tire movement.

Now, the General Altimax Arctic 12, while offering acceptable rolling resistance, falls short in terms of fuel economy when compared to its peers.

This is understandable given the tire’s significant weight and the presence of independent lugs lacking foundational supports.

Additionally, the multitude of in-groove notches and multi-angled biting edges intensify the grip, leading to increased fuel consumption.

So in summary, the fuel efficiency of the Altimax Arctic 12 is somewhat below average for top-tier winter tires.

Dry Performance

Even for winter tires, dry traction is vital. It centers on the rubber’s road contact and divides into directional grip and lateral traction.

Longitudinal Grip

This grip pertains to a tire’s straight-line traction and is predominantly about the central tread’s road contact. As this area bears the most weight when moving straight, its performance influences braking efficiency (direct measure of longitudinal grip).

Among its direct competitors, the General Altimax Arctic 12 falls short by just an average of 2 feet in braking distance compared to the top-performing tire in this category.

The tire’s continuous central rib ensures steady road contact, which in turn contributes to shorter braking distances and faster acceleration during testing.

Dry Handling

Dry handling combines lateral traction and steering feedback. The tire’s lateral grip, indicative of its sideways traction, largely rests on its shoulder lugs. As tires turn, these lugs interact with the road, determining traction quality.

Having said that it can be explained why the General Altimax Arctic 12 offers pretty decent overall handling performance, I mean comparing other tires in it’s winter category.

So how come?

Well, this can be attributed to its stiffer internal nylon cap ply.

This feature ensures the tire’s shoulder remains firm during cornering, enhancing steering responsiveness.

However, its performance might have been further improved with a less voided structure.

Tread Longevity

Tread longevity intertwines with rolling resistance and tread depth. Though greater tread depth extends the tire’s life, it also increases the likelihood of lug bending, resulting in more heat and resistance.

Now although the General Altimax Arctic 12 has a good enough tread depth (which technically should allow the tire to take more time reaching down to 2/32″), the tire only offers average tread life here.

And the main issue is its more voided up design.

So even with the relatively lighter weight, the tire still pushes its lugs down more, as that weight is concentrated on a smaller rubber area.

This increases rolling friction, lowering overall tread longevity. That’s why it makes sense why the tire don’t come with any treadwear warranty.

Conclusion

The General Altimax Arctic 12 proves itself as a decent overall winter tire, showcasing strengths in key areas critical for cold conditions.

Its distinctive tread pattern, featuring multi-directional biters and ingeniously angled siping, allows for exceptional grip on icy terrains, while in snowy conditions, its design facilitates effective snow collection and impressive acceleration, outpacing many competitors.

Wet conditions reveal its rapid water evacuation capabilities, enhancing hydroplaning resistance and maintaining traction.

And talking about dry conditions, its solid central rib enhances braking efficiency and acceleration, though its handling has some room for improvement.

Fuel efficiency, however, is a notable drawback, being below average, attributed to its design and weight, and the same factors also let down it’s longevity too.

Moreover, the tire ensures comfort with adept bumps absorption, though it’s slightly noisier.

Pirelli Scorpion Winter vs Continental WinterContact SI

Both Pirelli Scorpion Winter and Continental WinterContact SI are the ice warriors of the winter tire realm, each exhibiting unique qualities to face the frosty challenges. Let’s check out the differences of both tires.

Audi — WinterContact SI is one of the best options, when it comes to ice traction.

Key Takeaway

The Continental WinterContact SI takes the lead when it comes to:

Superior wet grip, credited to its multi-directional sipes that enhance water evacuation.
Excelling under icy conditions with a noticeably shorter braking distance and faster acceleration, attributable to its intricate tread biter arrangement.
Longer tread life due to its reduced weight, less friction, and greater tread depth.Reduced road noise owing to its closed tread voids.
Offering better fuel economy due to its lighter weight, leading to lower rolling resistance and a streamlined central rib.

On the other side, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter:

Leads in hydroplaning resistance, maintaining higher speeds in water tests because of its wider grooves that expel water faster.
Offers a slight advantage in snow performance, especially with fluffier snow, because of its tread pattern, greater tread depth, and weight.
Provides marginally better vibration damping, offering superior cushioning over road irregularities.

Wet Traction

The factors determining wet traction chiefly include grip and resistance to hydroplaning, yielding mixed results in these two models.

The Continental WinterContact SI holds the upper hand regarding grip due to its multi-directional sipes, which combine rectilinear and interlocking patterns.

These patterns serve to evacuate water, allowing more of the tire tread to establish contact with the road.

However, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter, with its unidirectional siping and absence of rectilinear slits, provides less grip.

Nevertheless, it slightly outperforms in hydroplaning resistance, managing to maintain slightly higher speeds in both straight and curved water tests due to its wider grooves which expel water more rapidly.

In sum, the Continental WinterContact SI excels in grip, while the Pirelli Scorpion Winter leads in hydroplaning resistance.

Ice Performance

Under icy conditions, the Continental WinterContact SI excels, demonstrating a significantly shorter average braking distance and faster acceleration in tests compared to the Pirelli Scorpion Winter.

Pirelli Ice Zero FR — Pirelli Scorpion Winter

This outstanding performance is largely due to its intricate tread biter arrangement – a combination of slanted cuts, dual-directional V-shaped notches, and a host of sipes, all contributing to superior ice grip.

In handling, the WinterContact continues to impress with its sipes and lugs oriented in both lateral and longitudinal directions, offering superior grip.

In contrast, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter falls short due to its relatively larger tread voids and wider notches.

Though the main problem is the tire’s relatively stiffer rubber.

Even though both tires have very thermally apaptive, the Pirelli’s biters tend to get a bit stiffer, and so it lacks the overall ice traction in comparison.

So overall, this ones a win for Continental.

Tread Life

Tread life is largely influenced by a tire’s rolling resistance, an area where the WinterContact outperforms its rival.

Its reduced weight results in less friction, slowing down the overall rate of rubber degradation.

Moreover, its greater tread depth, allows it to reach down to replacement levels (2/32″ in US), slower in comparison, allowing for greater tread longevity.

On the other hand, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter’s greater weight is concentrated on a smaller rubber surface due to its wider tread voids, accelerating tread wear and reducing its lifespan.

However, the difference in performance between the two is not significant, which explains why both lack warranties.

So the Tread Life is seen better on Continental WinterContact SI.

Comfort Levels

Factors such as road noise and vibration absorption determine a tire’s comfort level, which is influenced by the tire’s design, materials, tread pattern, and sidewall structure.

The Continental WinterContact SI, with its closed tread voids, offers superior noise reduction, whereas the Pirelli Scorpion Winter, offering better cushioning over road irregularities, is marginally better at vibration damping.

So in terms of comfort, both tires essentially balance each other out, resulting in a draw.

Snow Performance

Both tires demonstrate strong performance in varying snowy conditions, but the Pirelli Scorpion Winter secures a slight advantage, particularly in handling lighter, fluffier snow.

This edge is largely attributed to its tread pattern.

Now even though both tires have similar direcitonal patterns, the lugs on Pirelli are slightly more oriented to bite on softer snowy tracks.

The tire has the advatage of its greater tread depth, and weight.

With more tread dpeth, it allows more snow to be thrown backwards, where the shoveling snow in return creates a better accleratoin for this tire.

Moreover, with more weight the tire puts more pressure down, pushing snow to get properly trapped within the grooves, promoting enhanced snow-to-snow contact. The loosely packed snow is efficiently gathered by the tire’s interlocking grooves and snow-catching recesses, creating a snowy interface for superior traction.

In comparison, the Continental WinterContact SI, with its continuous center rib and absence of interlocking grooves, fails to gather as much snow, thus falling behind its competitor.

So although the Continental takes the lead on ice, it lacks when it comes to snow, in comparison.

Fuel Economy

Fuel economy is largely influenced by the tire’s traction and overall structural weight.

With this in mind, the Continental WinterContact SI, being lighter, performs better in this regard. Its reduced weight relieves pressure on its lugs, resulting in lower rolling resistance.

Further, the tire’s streamlined central rib facilitates smoother rolling compared to its competitor.

On the other hand, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter falls short due to its increased weight, which elevates its overall rolling resistance.

The extra weight causes the lugs to deform more, particularly during cornering.

And this deformation generates heat and consumes energy that could otherwise contribute to the tire’s rolling efficiency.

Consequently, the Pirelli does not offer as high fuel economy as the WinterContact.

Summing Up

Now both tires have some mixed results.

In the domain of wet traction, the WinterContact SI offers superior grip thanks to its multi-directional sipes, while its competitor holds an edge in hydroplaning resistance.

For winter conditions, the Pirelli Winter takes the lead on snow, while the other offers better ice traction.

As for tread life, the Continental’s reduced weight and greater tread depth afford it longer longevity, even though neither tire has a significant advantage. This also offers this tire with better fuel economy too.

Comfort-wise, the two tires are evenly matched, with the WinterContact SI providing better noise reduction and the Scorpion excelling in vibration damping.

Barum Polaris 5 vs Nexen Winguard Sport 2

The battlefield is set as Barum Polaris 5, acclaimed for its innovative ice-grip technology, competes against Nexen Winguard Sport 2, known for its exceptional slush performance. Let’s find out who takes the top spot!

Key Takeaway

The Nexen Winterguard Sport 2 takes the lead when it comes to:

Dominating icy surface performance with superior braking, acceleration, and handling due to a higher number of biters and varied groove notches.
Offering better vibration dampening and shock absorption for a smoother ride thanks to its softer tread compound and greater tread depth.
Outperforming in wet traction, both in terms of grip and hydroplaning resistance, with its aggressive siping pattern, V-shaped lugs, and greater tread depth.

On the other side, the Barum Polaris 5:

Delivers a superior handling experience in dry conditions, benefiting from its stiffer and lighter rubber.
Provides a quieter ride due to its pitch-producing tread which neutralizes noise from air particle collisions.
Excels in soft snow conditions, utilizing open biters, chamfered edges, and interlocking grooves to gather snow effectively for better grip.

Review Polaris 5 in detail.

Sizes Info

Feature	Nexen WinGuard Sport 2	Barum Polaris 5
Sizes (inches)	15 to 20	13 to 19
Total Sizes	Not specified	74
Speed Ratings	H, V	T, H, V
Load Ratings	SL, XL	SL, XL
Tread Depth	10.5/32″	9 to 10/32″
Weight (lbs)	15 to 30	15 to 26
Tread Warranty	None	None

Dry Performance

The proficiency of a tire’s dry grip is measured by the volume of the rubber that comes into contact with the surface. This is primarily determined by two key components: the directional grip and lateral traction.

Allow us to delve into each of these factors individually.

Directional Grip

The central tread area plays a significant role in the effectiveness of directional grip as it dictates the amount of rubber-to-road contact.

Now here both tires have similar results, as seen by their braking effectiveness. That’s because they both have different features contributing to that.

In case of Barum Polaris 5, you although get more voids in the middle, reducing its performance.

The tire still does okay, thanks to its lighter weight.

With that, there’s less momentum force, allowing the tire for easier braking in comparison. And that’s improtant here, because straight-line grip is calculated by the tire’s braking.

Moreover, given that this central area bears the majority of the load when a tire rolls straight, the tire coming with slanted notches further add to that grip.

In contrast, the Winterguard Sport 2, despite showcasing a nearly continuous running layer, and more streamlined design of its counterpart, should technically take the lead, but its overall performance is similar to its counterpart, due to it’s greater structural weight.

So both tires end up getting equal scores here.

Handling

Handling largely depends on the tire’s shoulder regions and overall weight. While the central lugs carry the burden during directional movement, inertia forces the weight towards the shoulders during cornering. The ability of these shoulder lugs to engage with the surface significantly impacts the handling performance.

Here, the Barum Polaris 5, although offers similar shoulder-to-road contact area, in comparison, still delivers a superior handling experience, with it’s stiffer rubber, and lighter rubber.

On the other hand, the Nexen Winterguard Sport 2, featuring wider grooves, greater tread depth, and also has a heavier structure.

Nexen Winguard Sport 2 offers a softer rubber relatively.

This increased weight results in greater lug flex, leading to reduced steering feedback.

I mean, there’s an imbalance between it’s understeering and oversteering.

And winder grooves and tread depth add to that (lug bending).

Basically with more voids, its weight is less distributed among lugs, and greater tread depth means, lugs are thicker, so you get more deformity of its tread.

Moreover, it’s softer compound isn’t helping this process either.

That’s why even though both tires offer similar lateral grip, the Winguard lacks with its lagging steering responsiveness.

Ice Traction

The Nexen Winguard Sport 2 undoubtedly dominates on icy surfaces, significantly outperforming its counterpart in all aspects including braking, acceleration, and handling.

The reason for this superior performance lies in the higher number of biters present on the tire.

Basically both tires offer similar acceleration and braking, but the Winguard takes the lead in ice handling.

On the other hand, the Barum, with its sightly larger tread voids and lesser number of notches, simply can’t grip the slippery ice as efficiently.

It lacks complex features like dual and multi-angled siping, which are indispensable for tackling compacted snow and icy terrains.

Whereas its counterpart offers a higher count of effective biters, per square inch of tread (one way to explain it).

It features a more varied array of groove notches and snow vices, oriented in both lateral directions, along with a generous supply of dual-patterned siping. Together, these provide enhanced overall gripping efficacy on icy surfaces.

So on icy terrains, Nexen has the upper hand.

Comfort Levels

Ride comfort is typically gauged by two key elements: the noise level and the tire’s ability to absorb road shocks.

Let’s begin by analyzing the noise component.

Simply put, noise generation is a consequence of air particles colliding with the tread’s walls. Thus, a larger tread gap generally translates to a noisier ride.

With this in mind, the Barum Polaris 5, although does not feature compact enough tread gaps, it still offers a more superior ride in terms of noise reduction, all thanks to its pitch producing tread. Let me explain.

So with with this, there is a slight geometric variation in the tread blocks and that results in air particles generating a variety of tones that effectively neutralize each other.

However, the Nexen Winguard Sport 2 outperforms in the area of vibration dampening, due to its comparatively softer tread compound. This feature grants it superior shock absorption capabilities, promising a smoother and more comfortable ride.

Moreover, the tire’s greater tread depth is also providing this tire with a lot of help. This is because more tread depth means more rubber between you and the road, effectively dampening road shocks.

So overall, both tires are great when it comes to comfort, though Polaris is better with noise, and WinGuard with bumps.

Snow Traction

In conditions of soft snow, the Barum Polaris 5 stands out as the clear winner.

The tire, showcasing a more open biters, with chamfered edges and interlocking grooves, is able to gather snow effectively, providing better grip.

The importance of snow gathering is grounded in the fact that snow sticks better to snow than it does to rubber.

The Winterguard Sport 2, with its slightly narrower slits, facilitates less snow-to-snow contact, so it’s not allowing its lug voids to trap soft snow particles as effectively, within their interconnected grooves and snow vices.

Whereas the Polaris, with its pronounced directional pattern aids in paddling, scooping the snow backwards, thereby generating superior forward momentum.

So overall, this ones a win for Barum.

Wet Traction

Wet traction is primarily governed by two components: the tread design and the type of rubber compound used in the tire’s construction. These factors essentially determine the tire’s grip on wet surfaces and its resistance to hydroplaning.

Let’s explore each in turn.

Wet Grip

Despite both tires possessing substantial siping, the Winterguard Sport 2 slightly outperforms in this domain. It incorporates a more aggressive siping pattern that combines linear and interlocking slits.

Additionally, the ample number of biters on its tread allows for more effective gripping on wet surfaces.

These characteristics lend the tire a slight edge in terms of grip. Sipes function by expelling air and subsequently creating a vacuum that attracts water particles.

Though most of its traction is coming from its hydroplaning resistance. Let me explain it in a separate section.

Hydroplaning resistance

Hydroplaning is essentially a floating phenomenon that happens when water forms a thin layer between the tire tread and the road surface, due to inefficient water dispersion. Broader grooves help to mitigate this.

Now here, the Nexen Winterguard Sport 2 excels, as it throws out more water, with its more streamlined V shaped lugs, followed by its greater tread depth and weight.

The V shaped lugs channel water out (from middle to shoulders, more effectively), while tread depth allow for more volume of water evacuation at a given time.

In terms of weight, the tire puts more pressure on water, creating a better negative pressure, so water goes out with a greater force/pressure.

So overall, wet performance is better on Nexen in comparison.

Summing Up

So overall, in assessing tire performance across various terrains, both tires have their merits.

For dry grip, both tires are comparably effective in directional grip due to different contributing features, although the Polaris 5 has a lighter weight advantage.

In handling, this tire offers superior performance due to its stiffer and lighter rubber, whereas the Winguard Sport 2 suffers from lagging steering responsiveness.

But the Nexen excels on icy terrains, offering superior traction, particularly in handling. However, its counterpart provides a quieter ride and excels in snow traction due to its effective snow-gathering design.

And yes the tire also stands out, in overall wet performance, with better hydroplaning resistance and grip.

Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 Review

The Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 stands as a testament to the Japanese brand’s commitment to winter road safety for Light Truck/SUV drivers. The tire promises an unmatched grip whether you’re driving through slush, fresh snow, or treacherous ice. Let’s see what more it has to offer.

Caddilac — Blizzak DM-V2 is not for you, if fuel economy is your main concern.

The Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 offers great performance in a range of conditions, excelling particularly in wet traction, ice stability, and snow handling. However, it could benefit from enhancements in areas like noise reduction, dry steering responsiveness, and fuel efficiency due to its inherent design elements.

Info on Sizes: The Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 comes in 15 to 22 inches with following.

Speed ratings: R, S and T.
Load ratings: SL and XL.
Tread depth: 13 or 14/32″.
Weight: 27 to 45 lbs.

The DM V2 is the best option if you’re looking for a winter tire “for your SUV”.

In fact, its so great that I added it to my list of top winter tires (stud-less), check it here:
https://snowytires.com/best-studless-winter-tires/

Tire’s Structure

The Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 comes with a biting symmetric tread pattern.

Though the tire is missing with a directional pattern, commonly seen on winter tires, it’s symmetric structure allows it to form 5 block columns.

Here the outer two ribs, features squared off shoulder blocks, forming prominent lateral grooves, and wide circumferential grooves (containing central lugs).

These shoulders are characterized by off-set edges, and a lot of wave-like siping.

The central lugs on the other hand, feature triangular shapes. Though they also have similar siping pattern along with off-set edges.

Moreover, they also form notches (in between two of each block pairs).

Also note how, these lugs form interconnected groove structure, which is really important for slush and water evacuation.

Wet Performance

Wet traction is dependent on the tire’s ability to clear water out of its tread.

And that provides you with wet traction and resistance to hydroplaning. Let’s check out both one by one.

Wet Grip

Wet grip, similar to dry grip, as here, you need rubber to properly grip the road, the more the better. But the thing is water comes in the way literally, as its not compressible.

So it has to go somewhere (out of tread), otherwise it would cause the tire to float and slip.

That’s why tires have sipes and grooves.

Grooves clear out at a major scale, throwing water out through grooves. I’ll talk about it more in hydroplaning section below.

Sipes on the other hand, come in later, as they suck up the remaining water particles in their slits.

Now the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 offers pretty decent overall wet grip here, with it’s numerous biters.

Moreover, the tire’s new gen compound offers NanoPro Tech Multicell tread composition, as Bridgestone calls it. Simply put, this doesn’t allow water particles to stick on to the tread.

Moreover, the tire already clears off a lot of water through its grooves, allowing for decent resistance to hydroplaning. This helps here because more water is able to get out, and less is there for sipes, improving their efficacy to clear water further.

For Your Info: Out of all winter tires, I’ve reviewed, the Continental VikingContact 7 (review), offers one of the best overall wet performance.

Resistance to Hydroplaning

Hydroplaning is basically floating of a tire, when it’s not able to clear out water through grooves.

So how well grooves are structured are really important here.

That’s why most of the wet traction comes from aquaplaning resistance on Blizzak DM-V2.

Although the Bridgestone tire’s missing directional pattern should hinder it’s water evacuation process, the tire still offers one of the best results (relatively), thanks to its superior inter-connectivity of its grooves.

As discussed in its tread design section, the grooves on this tire run everywhere. prominently joining up with the outer circumferential grooves and lateral voids of shoulders (which are pretty efficient at expelling the water out).

Moreover, the tire also has the advantage of greater tread depth going up to 14/32″ (a lot more than its direct competitors). So this further allows for water clearing abilities.

Overall Winter Performance

When it comes to winter performance, there are two variables here, how well the tire is on snow, and on ice.

Let’s check out both.

Ice Traction

When it comes to ice traction, you need a lot of control and stability, as icy conditions are very slippery and offer very little natural friction.

That’s why you need a lot of gripping elements on the tire’s tread, along with a compound that can naturally stick well on ice.

Having said that, the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 perform pretty great here, where it only lacks marginally from the best tire in its category.

For Your Info: If ice traction is your main concern, you should know that the Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 (review) is the top ranking winter tire here.

Snow Traction

Snow performance tells you about the dynamics of a tire on soft, salt-like (on-road) snow, and here, there are a few factors to note.

One, how well the tire is able to act as a shovel. This basically throws the ground backwards, generating acceleration.

Two, how well the tire is able to provide snow to snow contact, which is important, because this contact generates greater friction compared rubber to snow contact.

Now among its direct competitors, the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 comes on top, offering fastest snow handling, braking and overall acceleration scores.

And it makes sense too, since the tire is equipped with a lot of in-groove notches, forming superior snow-to-snow contact, while it’s wider grooves and greater tread depth (on average) throw out excess snow particles efficiently.

For Your Info: Out of all it’s winter tires I reviewed, the Michelin X-Ice Snow (review) offers the best overall snow performance.

Tread Longevity

When it comes to tread longevity, you should know that it’s predominantly depends on tire’s tread compound used, depth, and overall weight.

Now the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 offer above average performance here, only lacking slightly behind the Michelin Latitude X-Ice, the leading tire here (offering 40k miles warranty, whereas Bridgestone doesn’t come with any).

So why is it happening, even though the tire gives you up to 14/32″ of tread depth.

Well, this has to do with it’s greater weight, and rolling resistance. You see, sure, greater tread depth takes more time to reach down to 2/32″ (which is the legal limit in US).

But it also causes lugs to bend more too.

And they are already pretty susceptible to that with the tire’s heavier weight and ton of biting edges, negatively impacting the tire’s tread longevity.

Comfort Performance

Tire comfort is largely determined by how smooth the overall ride is (referring to its stability and efficacy to soak up road imperfections), and how quiet it is on different types of surfaces.

Both of these are judged by the tire’s inner and outer construction, where rubber composition, tread pattern and sidewall design play the most crucial roles.

Let’s discuss both these factors, i.e. tire’s noise and impact comfort performance (separately).

Tread Noise

Air is the main cause of most of the tread noise, where the air particles colliding with the tread create noise, which then echo, producing what’s known as in-groove resonance. And that leads to cavity noise and tread reverberations.

Now simply put, the more voided up the tire is, the noisier it’d be on different types of surfaces.

That’s why the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 with such voided up structure lacks here. Though Sl sizes still do a lot better here compared to XL ones.

Bumps Absorption

Since tires are directly in contact with the bumps, they are first ones to handle them, besides the tire’s suspension system.

And how well the tire does here depends on two variables, its soaking abilities and stability.

Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 takes the lead here, mainly because of its ample tread depth. Simply put, the more the rubber, the better, (keeping stability in check).

Dry Performance

Overall dry performance is two parts grip and handling.

And here grip is further divided in to two, longitudinal and lateral grip. Let’s check all of them one by one.

Dry Longitudinal Grip

This ones is the tire’s straight line grip and depends on mainly on how well its tread (predominately form the middle) meets with the road.

Moreover, there are other factors involved here too, including tire’s weight and overall tread biters, and these define the overall tire’s braking performance (which directly measures this longitudinal grip).

Compared to it’s direct competitors, the tire only lacks by 2 feet in braking distance (on average), from the highest ranking tire here (Yokohama IceGuard iG51v).

Dry Handling

Overall dry handling depends on lateral grip. But that’s only half piece of the puzzle, where you get the whole picture when you define the tire’s steering feedback.

Now lateral grip depends on shoulders, as they make the most contact with the road (as weight concentrates on them, as the tire is turning).

And steering depends on flexing of the lugs.

Now ironically, although the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 offers one of the best lateral traction values, it’s overall handling (as seen by it’s average lap times) is trailing pretty far behind, as it gives you a pretty lagging steering responsiveness.

So why is it happening?

Well this has to do with it’s greater relative weight and tread depth going up to 14/32″.

These basically cause its lugs to bend more, and bending of lugs take time to recover, adding to overall handling times.

Fuel Economy

Fuel efficiency in tires is directly related to their weight and traction, both of which influence rolling resistance.

And so it clearly makes sense why the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 is one of the most lacking tire here in its category of winter tires.

Simply put, the tire is pretty bulky, one of the heaviest, and that combined with it’s softer compound and greater tread depth (almost 2/32″ greater on average, relatively), you get a lot of generated rolling resistance here.

And so overall fuel economy gets compromised with this tire.

Conclusion

So overall, the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 tire exhibits pretty decent performance across varied conditions.

It excels in:

Efficient water evacuation and hydroplaning resistance, especially in wet conditions.
Notable ice traction, providing stability and control in slippery conditions.
Superior snow performance, achieving faster handling, braking, and overall acceleration due to its effective in-groove notches and wider grooves.

While its performance can be improved in:

Noise reduction, as it tends to produce more tread noise on various surfaces.
Steering responsiveness in dry conditions, which is affected by its greater weight and tread depth.
Fuel economy, as its bulkiness and tread depth lead to increased rolling resistance.