The renowned UK weekly magazine had chosen the 138bhp Mondeo TDCi and the 268bhp Mercedes C350 to give a comparison between a typical large family car and a powerful rear wheel drive sports saloon.
On the Mercedes, the Autocar team were amazed by the performance improvement when the Goodyears were fitted. The test team, led by experienced tester Keith Howard, proclaimed: "With a set of Goodyears on, it was like attaching a turbo to the Merc's engine".
On the wet lap, the Goodyear-shod car was an average of 1.8 seconds faster than any other tire. "If you were to try to find 1.8 sec merely by increasing horsepower, you'd need to find a good 50 bhp" claimed Autocar. To show the importance of grip over power, the Mondeo fitted with Goodyear tires was as fast as the Mercedes (with nearly twice the power) fitted with the worst performing premium brand tire.
The Goodyear advantage is not just in performance and handling, but the latest Eagle F1 Asymmetric was also proven to be the safest tire in an emergency stop situation. In the front wheel drive test, the Goodyear stopped 4 metres sooner than the poorest performer in the test. "If a pedestrian stepped out in front of you on a wet road, you'd be glad to have the Goodyears" stated Autocar after the stopping distance test.
The success of the Goodyear is due to its revolutionary ActiveCornerGrip Technology which provides a more even pressure distribution across the contact patch during cornering. This technology, based around an Asymmetric construction as well as tread pattern, means that the inside sidewall is a different construction to the outer sidewall. This dramatically improves grip in corners, while at the same time reducing abrasion, which significantly increases tire mileage.
The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric is available in 24 sizes, from 17 inches up to 20 inches and 50 series down to 25 series. Almost the entire range is designed with extra load versions, to address the majority of today's modern high performance cars.
The final word on the Goodyear goes to Autocar's testers after driving the Mondeo in the wet: "We could go on about how much more stable the Ford felt on the Goodyears than on any other tire, how much bite it had on turn-in, and how much more grip it developed through high speed corners, but in the end the extraordinary consistency of the lap times say it all. Quite frankly, this test was a case of Goodyear first, by a mile," according to the magazine.
Autocar has a video about the tire test on its Web site.
