With winter tires you can drive relaxed even when it snows

With the climate going from spring to freezing cold in just a few hours during the coldest season of the year, winter tires allow you to always travel in relaxation, regardless of the whims of the weather. To demonstrate their superiority in use over summer tires in these conditions, also in terms of performance and comfort, Assogomma organized a day of driving tests for the press on the whitewashed track in Livigno.
A more technical solution and suitable for more severe conditions than “four season” tyres, the winter tires demonstrated all their qualities at -4 degrees Celsius on the snow and ice-covered track of the Lombardy ski resort. The event, promoted by the Plastic Rubber Federation, in collaboration with the local Ice Drive School and with the presence of the pilots of the International Safe Driving Center of Varano de’ Melegari, had as its focus precisely the highlighting of the difference in mountain response of vehicles identical, with summer and winter tires respectively.
Beyond the difficulty of assembling the chains, which depends on individual skill, the tests revealed the clear superiority in all conditions of the configuration suitable for the current season. The tests were all carried out at low speeds, to simulate city or suburban road traffic.
Alfa Romeo Giulias were used for braking: at 40 km/h, on a snowy surface, with summer tyres, it took 20 meters more to get the vehicle to a stop (40 meters against 20).
Fiat 500Xs were used for the handling and comfort checks on asphalt and snow. In this case, the winter tires were compared with the summer tires with chains on the front axle. The route simulated stretches of mountain with a snowy surface, alternating with clean asphalt, just like when you enter a tunnel. Between the two configurations, there are significant differences in response from the vehicles, in favor of tires with the M+S brand and Alpine bow.
Equally evident are the differences for the ascents and descents of the ramp, carried out both with the four-wheel drive Jeep Renegade and with the front-wheel drive Alfa Romeo, alternately with the two different sets of seasonal tyres. Also evident are the results for driving in circles at 30 km/h with hybrid Fiat Tipos. In the latter case, driving cars with mixed summer-winter equipment was also proposed (two tires of different types per axle), provided as an option by the Highway Code, which proved to be the most at risk of “spin”.
Finally, for the straight-line acceleration tests, with Volvo XC60s, the cars with winter tires recorded an average of 40% lower times to reach 60 km/h.
“The results – underlines Fabio Bertolotti, director of Assogomma – confirmed and clearly highlighted that safety depends on the type of tire with which the car is equipped, regardless of the engine capacity or type of fuel supply. years after our first demonstration events, the superiority of winter tires over summer tires during the cold season remains confirmed”.