TYRES: Hankook launches Ventus S1 evo2

Hankook, the world’s seventh-largest tyre company, has released its latest high performance road tyre, the Ventus S1 evo2, in Australia.

An evolution of the Ventus S1 evo, the tyre not only offers improved lateral grip, and wet and dry braking performance, but reduces rolling resistance by up to 25 per cent when compared to its predecessor.

The tyre is fitted as an OEM tyre to the new F30 series BMW 3 Series. While its motorsport equivalent serves as the control tyre to the German-based DTM touring car championship, Italian-based Superstars International Series and, closer to home, the New Zealand-based V8 Super Tourers.

In Australian, sales of ultra-high performance (UHP) tyres are growing faster than the market as a whole. Approximately 2.35 million UHP tyres were sold in Australia last year in a market of approximately 11 million. Hankook says it is well aware of the trend towards the fitting of wider, lower-profile tyres, adding that UHP tyres now account for more than 21 per cent of the replacement market for passenger car tyres.

Lightweight steel cord technology – developed for the DTM series – is used in the Ventus evo2. The manufacturer says the technology offers a significant reduction in tyre weight, contributing to a reduction in unsprung mass, while also reducing rolling resistance.

The tyre’s contact patch is better maintained by the stronger carcass, while a triple-layered ‘staircase’ tread design means the surface area of the tyre does not decrease with wear. The rubber compound utilises a new ‘high styrene-butadiene’ polymer to improve rolling resistance. While the compound itself is further aided by a system Hankook says links the sulphur particles within the rubber to help resist abrasion and heat aging – which Bridgestone has also sought to reduce in its Potenza S001 run-flats.

Grooves and indentations built into the pattern aid cooling by increasing the surface area of the tyre, while the sidewalls are fitted with a series of crater-shaped ‘intercoolers’ Hankook says create additional air turbulence, thereby removing excess heat. Further, a series of rectangular dimples on the sidewalls create micro vortices as the tyre rotates. The result here is improved aerodynamics, and reduced noise. Hankook says the tyre is up to eight per cent quieter than its predecessor.

Although we couldn’t pick the noise difference ourselves in our short back-to-back test, the newer tyre did prove more stable, especially when resisting lateral forces when cornering.

Driving the new tyre against the old on identical Holden Commodore SV6s we noticed greater resistance to understeer. Introducing the car to a continuous arc at speed the Ventus S1 evo2 held the line more successfully. The car didn’t require as much throttle balance to keep the nose in check, allowing greater cornering speed. The front end seemed to turn-in quicker and was more tenacious in its grip of the inconsistent asphalt surface.

This grip was also noticed when braking from 60km/h and 80km/h in wet and dry conditions respectively. In both tests, the new tyre proved superior, reducing stopping distances significantly. In the first test (60km/h wet) we managed to reduce the stopping distance from 12.1 metres to 11.7 metres, and in the second (80km/h dry) managed to shave 800mm from the stopping distance, down to 17.4 metres from 18.2 metres.

“The Ventus S1 evo2 has been developed by Hankook’s European Technical Centre, in cooperation with its R&D headquarters in Korea, to meet the very high demands of Europe’s premium motor vehicle manufacturers,” said Hankook Tyre Australia MD, Paul Park. “The new tyre features several innovative technologies which are the result of new thinking to overcome the engineering challenges highlighted by the extremes of motorsport.”

Depending on size, Hankook’s new Ventus S1 evo2 tyres are available from $480. Sizing specification and pricing information -- as well as information on the full range of Hankook tyres – is available from the company's website http://www.hankooktyre.com.au/Main/default.aspx

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