Audi A5 Aquaplaning on The Wirral

I recently attended an Audi A5 on the Wirral where the client wanted to change all four tyres. Normally people do this because they're worn down and approaching the legal limit of 1.6mm or they've encountered a puncture. However, this client like to take their vehicle to the track and, especially at the moment, there is quite a lot of water around. His current tyres were the Dunlop SportMaxx GT 255/35R19 and suffered from the typical aquaplaning issue that most high performance tyres suffer from. These types of tyres are more designed for the warm weather and focus on dry grip as introducing central tread grooves to disperse the water reduces lateral grip.

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Although tyres aren't the only thing that can cause aquaplaning – Pressures, the type of road surface and vehicle speed are just a few more contributing factors.

Having heard good things about the dispersal capability of the Continental SportContact 5P, the client opted to give these a go as they have a slightly more aggressive central tread.

After attending the client at his work address and changing all four tyres, he has since messaged me to say how much of a difference there is in the tyres whilst on the track!

Are you one of many who live outside a town where the roads are poorly maintained and rarely gritted in the winter? Maybe you do long commutes everyday. Instead of a summer tyre, it might be an advantage to start looking at all-season tyres. Using technology from winter and summer tyres, these are great for the UK's roads as, we are seeing more and more often, the roads are either flooded, filled with slippy leaves or coated in ice during the winter months. But, this year especially, we have seen record temperatures. All-Season tyres have the design of a winter tyre which massively helps grip in the cold but have the compounds of summer tyres so are also great in the summer months.

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