Safety Days with Continental Tyres

Published by Brian Leavy, Friday 18 September 2009 in Exhibitions

I spent a brilliant weekend on the Abbeville racetrack behind the wheel of small, high-powered cars that had been specially prepared by Continental. The day is designed to be an original and inventive way of testing their new tyres that they plan to sell to the general public.

Tyres are a product that us normal drivers don’t have the chance to test before buying. However, tyres are more than an accessory, they are in fact a vital element of the driving experience as they provide the link between the car and the road.

As a rough guide, if you reduce tyre resistance by 10% (for fuel economy), you will need 8m further to come to a stop in the wet.

Continental work hard, but creating the perfect tyre is almost an impossibility. During our test drives we were able to try several cars of varying sizes. Needless to say, I was the first to jump in to the Porsche Cayman S, before trying the BMW M3, the Subaru Impreza Sti, the Nissan 350Z, the Mégane R26.R and the Clio Sport.

In addition to the rollercoaster of sensations and the exhilarating speed, the track is designed to make you lose control of the car. It is, in effect, an obstacle course that forces you to approach at 130km/h, before breaking and swerving in and out of cones. To begin with it’s a shock but with time we discovered that the tyres grip incredibly well.

The most impressive part was the very tight bend that you have to take at 110km/h on a (thoroughly) wet track. Knowing my current car and the way in which it holds the road, I don’t think I would be as calm taking that bend.

Choosing tyres is to choose between better fuel economy and better breaking.

It’s worth resisting the charms of the tyres offered to you by the scrupulous garage owner, and demanding the quality of the German Continental tyres, which already have an excellent reputation, despite not being the most expensive.

Heartfelt thanks go to Tribeca and the whole Continental team for this day, which will stay long in the memory of this future racing driver.