if you're shopping for a streetable summer ultra high performance tire it's probably going to be one of these four tires you're looking at which is the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S the Continental Sport Contact 7 the Bridgestone Patenza Sport and of course the Good Eagle F1 asymmetric 6 these are four of my favorite tires ever and I have driven a lot of tires however there might now be a fifth contender and it's this this is the new PL PZ5 pirelli claim it builds on the brilliance of the PZ4 which was excellent handling but just adds a little bit more grip so more dry grip more wet grip better rolling resistance more longevity it could be the new King of Ultra Performance tires if Prey are to be believed but I'm not in the habit of just believing tire companies i'm in the habit of testing so I will be testing this tire against these four plus a forken and a budget I've not tested before to find out if this tire really is as good as PL claim we'll be testing in the dry wet noise comfort rolling resistance everything you need to know about this tire so let's get on with the testing wet performance now the wet performance in tire test is very important even if you don't think so which is why you can go to the tire reviews website and change the score waiting of this test to find your perfect tire or I guess just watch the rest of the video but tire companies focus a lot of their efforts on wet performance of the tires because that's where a tire can really make the difference and it's a very safety critical aspect and when I said tire companies I mean most tire companies because there is a tire in this test aptly named Sunny and I can only assume that's because they only intended it to work in sunny conditions yes it is the budget tire yes it is pretty bad in the wet not only did it have very little grip it was the only tire in this test that made this Golf have over steer especially in the slalom but the budget tire felt sloppy lack of grip and also I scared myself a few times over steering towards these very close barriers don't fit apart from the Sunny every other tire in this test was either great or really great which is wonderful so let's talk about them next up was the Michelin and Goodyear now I've spoken about the Michelin Pilot Sport Forest many times before or it is the oldest tire in the test now um and like previously it is a very very safe stable predictable tire but it does like to under steer and it doesn't quite have the peak grip of the other tires and to Delta when you're looking when you're testing you've got your performance box data logger that's telling you where you are to the reference lap and in the long corners where you're really relying on the front tires you're just giving up time you can see the time bleeding away so that's where the Michelin was slow i know there's a new version coming soon at some point hopefully and I look forward to that the Goodyear now you know the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asmmetric 6 is a tire I've recommended a load it's a tire I always enjoy driving and once again the car felt bit more sporty a little bit more precise on the front end you could even get the back to play a little bit if you were really intentful about it which I love so it was an enjoyable driving experience but like the Michelin it's one of the older tires in this test now and I'm guessing the game has moved on so speaking of the game moving on the next two tires were a surprise it was the Falcon and the Continental now the Falcon FK520 I have checked since doing the driving between driving and telling you about the driving and the FK 520 hasn't quite tested as well as I found it but I had another driver run this entire test and he found exactly the same thing the FK520 has significantly more grip than the tires before it and while it wasn't super sporty the steering reactions weren't fabulous it was just so stable and had grip and it wasn't upset by the deeper water really impressive job by Falcon with the 520 a good step on from the 510 now the Continental Sport Contact 7 is the other surprise that tire has absolutely been stomping not only my tests but every test it's been in in the wet but again compared to the very new tires in this test it did lack a little bit of ultimate grip which meant like the Michelin you were just under steering a bit through the corners it was still a lovely tire to drive and the margins are now very very small but the Continental at least in this test in these conditions on this circuit on this car in this tire size isn't the best anymore the next tire is the newest tire in the test and that is the PRLY P 0 PZ5 now when driving I was like this is everything I want a tire to be it felt like the Goodyear which you know is a tire I love but it felt like it's big brother it was direct and communicative and the steering was nice and the grip was fabulous and I finished the lap i was like that is everything I want in a tire no tire in this test is going to go around better than that at the time I obviously didn't know it was the PLY i was just mighty impressed with this tire and it was it all round everything you'd want like I said like the Goodyear Eagle F1A Spectric 6 but just grippier and a little bit more precise and then the final tire I tested turned out to be the Bridgestone Patenza Sport i don't know what Bridgestone have done here you dug into the surface like it was dry there was just no hint of water at all when you were driving other than the water spraying up everywhere in my face the grip levels were monumental like I I got out of the car and I was like that's not real like I've I've forgotten how to drive on all of the other sets and then remembered on the last set that's wrong which is why I got another test driver to run the test and he got out the car after driving to Bridgestone and he was like what i was like what it's very impressive but let's not take anything away from the other tires in this test from Michelin up they're all very good in the way i think you'd generally be happy with any of them and you'd be happy with most of them in wet braking prey took the top spot however again the top six tires were very close the budget tire stopped the car nearly 10 m later which is a huge difference in grip the Goodyear was the best over the two aquaplaning tests with the Prely also performing very well the budget tire again really struggled particularly with low curved aquiplaning resistance dry handling i'm assuming that's why you're here these are ultra high performance summer tires you want to know how they feel carving up your favorite road or even on track as they do get used on track well the good news is I can be brief about the budget it wasn't very good surprise under steer not very stable at the rear and pretty slow so let's brush that under the carpet i'm sure none of you are actually considering buying it next up was the Falcon now the Fulcon felt very solid sublim when we're doing lane changes and things like that to see how the tire would be at sublimmit driving or soft handling didn't light my pants on fire it wasn't super exciting but it was pretty predictable and nice and then as we got on the lap it was pretty much more of the same it wasn't the most sporty of all the tires but it got round and had good grip no surprises which is important safe balance next was the Michelin and the Goodyear now the Michelin was a little bit lighter on the steering than the Goodyear especially sublim sublimit everything happened predictably and wonderfully at the limit the Michelin actually in this size I didn't really have as much negative to say about it as I have in other sizes i thought it was very good um perhaps just wanted a little bit more front axle bite but otherwise fine the Goodyear we know the asymmetric 6 is one of my favorites and once again it just seemed to do everything well i think maybe sublim it was ever so slightly behind the Michelin but that's not a criticism cuz the Michelin was one of the very best sublimit but post limit I like the Goodyear you just felt like you were at one with the vehicle you were one with the vehicle and the tire and everything you expected to happen did happen finally there was the Continental Bridgestone and Preli and all of these these were the three best tires and they were all absolutely wonderful but they all had some slight drawbacks the Continental monumental grip and sublimmit the steering felt very quick and precise but once you got into the corner and you were really pushing it it lacked a little bit of stability it just felt like the car was moving ever so slightly more on the tire than on the other two and that was that was the negative of the Continental next up was the Bridgestone now the Bridgestone's drawback was notifications was feedback it lacked compared to the other two just a tiny bit of feedback what I call corner entry midc corner when you're trying to play with the throttle so you know whether you can tuck the nose or not and you just felt you're a little bit numb it was a little bit missing compared to the Continental and Prey but otherwise the steering reactions and the grip was bonkers and then finally there was the prelly now the prey's drawback was the steering just felt a little bit like sublimit but once you were into the turn and into the corner it felt like it was digging and it was predictable and it was really really lovely so those three tires the times the reason I'm talking about them so much being differently subjectively is the times were essentially identical across the three the first lap of the Prey and the Bridgestone was actually identical but then the second lap the Bridgestone lost a little bit more time than the Prelli so of the three the Prey was the fastest overall in this scenario but really the gap is so small i wouldn't really look at the lap times and it's more what you want from a tire and honestly I'm not sure I could tell you which is my favorite of the three they all had positives they all had negatives i'm assuming the three things I want from all of them can't exist in one tire because otherwise someone would have made it but honestly the Ply was amazing the Bridgestone was amazing the Conti was amazing the Goodyear was amazing the Michelin was amazing the Falcon was stable the budget was crap it's getting good tires are getting really really close and there's never been a better time to be a tire enthusiast because they're all so good they're all so fast they're all so grippy but they all have their own personality so I suggest you try them all on track try them all in dry handling and then let me know which one you like but moving on let's get on with the braking the Continental narrowly beat the Prey to take the top spot in dry braking but again everything was so close the Falcon did outperform its dry handling result to take third in dry braking and the budget tire was again very poor moving on to noise and comfort and I'm assuming at this point you will not be shocked to learn that it was it was very close the quietest tire in test was the Goodyear very closely followed by the Falcon then the Prelian Continental did well bridgestone was fine and the Michelin and Sunny finished just over two dibbels louder than the Goodyear that's not insignificant but it's also not huge considering this is an external noise measurement let's put it this way i didn't notice anything in the car when we were doing our subjective noise and comfort testing speaking of which for comfort Prely Continental and Michelin had a tiny lead over Falcon and Goodyear on the big impacts but really there was nothing between the best five the Bridgestone was as usual just a little bit firmer than the rest the budget Sunny had the lowest rolling resistance of the test which is neat anyway of the tires that actually had grip the Goodure and Michelin had the lowest energy use however the Continental Preley and Falcon were so close I would in no way base my purchase decision on energy use apart from maybe the Bridgestone it was 30% worse than the best in a shockingly high result in fact it was so high we tested two different tires and both had the same results this is a strange one we'll get to it in a minute as I touched on earlier for the final results I've put a little bit more score waiting on the wet performance of the tires but you can go to the tire reviews website linked in the description and work out your own results be sure to leave a review while you're there please it will be no surprise that the budget Sunny NA305 finished in last place and was the worst in everything by NVH and rolling resistance it wasn't just a little bit worse it was 40% off in wet braking which is tragic when braking from motorway speeds where you'd be stopped on the Pre you still be doing 70 km an hour on the Sunny that's bad think about hitting a stationary car at 70 now on to the results of the tires that had grip where everything was very close the Breezone Pretends Sport might have been amazing in the wet and as always it is a very nice handling tire but the rolling resistance level of this tire is not just awkwardly high but is now being legislated out of production in the European Union thanks to new label targets making the test of this sadly a little bit redundant also as we've seen plenty before the outer shoulder of the tire did not hold up well to track work so I hope any update they make to improve the rolling resistance will address that issue too i really like the Penza Sport as a fast road tire as it steers so nicely if they can fix the rolling resistance and track wear without changing the sporty nature of the tire it could easily end up being of one of my favorite tires the Fulcan Aenus FK520 performed well in the grip test it was low noise and the best in straight aquiplaning oddly it did struggle a little bit more in curved aquiplaning and wasn't at the very top for comfort but I definitely call it a solid safe tire the main drawback for me at least and probably you as you're watching this is it's just not a very dynamic tire so while you have good grip it's just not much fun using it so if you consider yourself a driver keep that in mind but for other applications such as like your everyday cruiser it offers really good value the next three tires are all really excellent the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S and the Continental Sport Contact 7 they all finish within half a percent of each other and honestly I don't know which I like best everything I'm about to say about these tires is really just splitting hairs there's no major drawbacks to any of them really the Goodyear as always is a super nice tire to drive it didn't quite match the best in braking but in handling comfort noise and rolling resistance it was there i really like this tire and of the top four it's usually the cheapest it's It's really fantastic the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S is another really well-rounded tire super safe and dynamic especially subliming is really nice it builds up beautifully at the limit it still quite isn't the sportiest of the bunch but if you're not going to go on track a lot it's really difficult not to recommend this tire so I am recommending it highly finally the Continental Sport Con 7 was once again right at the front of yet another test having huge amounts of grip in the dry excellent comfort nice quick steering it's just a good tire in this 18in size on a Golf it wasn't quite as well balanced around the limit as I remember the 19-in fitment I've tested previously but even with an average aquiplaning performance it's still right at the front of the overall result so another fantastic option like I said I'm really just splitting hairs i challenge any of you to fit the Goodyear Michelin or Continental and be unhappy with your choice but there is another tire in this test the newest tire in the test and what has turned out to be the best tire in this test it is of course the new Prely P0 PZ5 it was the best overall in the dry even if the steering was a touch lighter at the very limit than I'd ideally want joint best in the wet scoring well both in the shallow and the deep water test and had excellent comforts though the margin was small its rolling resistance was higher than the Goodyear Michelin and Continental but like I said previously it is an insignificant amount in the real world great job Pirelli now as I am the first person in the world to have tested this tire you might be wondering if this is a one-off maybe PLY have just made this tire work really well in this size but not in others i don't believe that and here's why i happened to be at a public proving ground at the end of 2023 where Prey were there also testing the new PZ 5 prey asked me if I wanted to test a couple of the near final specifications of the tire because they wanted to find out which specification I preferred i believe it was just a couple of belt angle differences between the sets the compounds were the same not only did they have the two versions of the PZ 5 for me to play with but there was also the Sport Contact 7 and the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S as a benchmark for me to test against obviously I said yes who's going to say no so I ran dry and wet handling and in this scenario the PZ 5 was even further ahead of the Continental and Michelin than I found in this test and the steering just felt super perfect why am I telling you this we were testing in 2353519 which is a different tire size so I do believe the new P 0 is legitimately this good recently PLA are definitely on a roll with the updates they're making to their aftermarket range of tires and the PZ 5 continues that dramatic improvement by winning the test i look forward to seeing other tests of it in the future which I will of course cover on tire reviewviews.com any questions please do ask below you can support Tire Reviews and Independent Tire Testing on Patreon also linked in the description go review your tires at the tire reviews website and as always safe motoring i've been doing that for love with