Weather or not: Goodyear Assurance TripleTred All-Season.
While the winter season is still months away, Goodyear is getting a head start by launching a new Assurance TripleTred All-Season tire. That said, if you’re looking for a set of tires to take to the track or autocross, you may want to skip this article. Or if you live in the arid Southwest where a broken sprinkler passes for inclement weather, you may want to pass. But if you reside in a city that averages more than 100 days of snow and rain annually (that’d be 20 of the 40 most populous cities in the U.S.), you may want to read ahead.
Based on the well-received Assurance TripleTred launched by Goodyear in 2004, the replacement tire continues its design with three distinct tread regions: dry, water and ice zones. The “ice zone” lies in the center of the tire, and utilizes engineered edges to bite icy roads. The “wet zone” consists of the sweeping grooves and sipes to evacuate water, while the “dry zone” is the large tread blocks on the shoulders of the tire. Goodyear may call it TripleTred, we call it smart marketing.
Aside from keeping the monikers of the different zones, the new Assurance TripleTred All-Season tire has been completely revamped. The “ice zone” features a new compound consisting of polymers, as well as particles and fibers such as volcanic sand and glass for improved traction on ice. The “wet” and “dry” zones also see changes in compound consisting of silica and polymers for improved grip.
A key technology on the Assurance TripleTred All-Season tread is the new Evolving Traction Grooves. Called “Opti-Grip” in Goodyear products in Europe, what first appears to be a thin sipe eventually expands into a thicker groove as the tire wears for improved water evacuation, helping wet traction.
We tried out the new Assurance TripleTred All-Season around a small wet/dry autocross course. Our automotive weapons for the day? Toyota Camrys…not so sexy, but presumably a target vehicle for this type of tire. Benchmarked against the Michelin HydroEdge, the Goodyears seemed to have a bit more grip. On a drenched left-hand sweeper, the Michelins got loose, breaking traction in the rear, while the Goodyears managed to claw through the wet pavement. Although getting a car to rotate is something we normally enjoy, for this exercise, stable traction must be applauded. We wished we had some more seat time to truly validate all of the revamped engineering.
The Goodyear Assurance TripleTred All-Season will be initially offered in 22 sizes ranging from 15- to 18-in. diameters. When it comes to tires, all-seasons aren’t exactly fun, but neither is sliding around uncontrollably during the winter months on your summer tires.
On a complete sidenote, we had the opportunity to witness the birth of a Goodyear NASCAR tire. Cool stuff. If we can track down some Goodyear-approved pictures (cameras weren’t allowed), look for a story on our site soon.
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- Up, Up and Away in the Goodyear Blimp!
- Orange, the Fastest Fruit? Yokohama’s New “Green” Race Tire
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