Dunlop Sport BluResponse Tyre Launch At Yas Marina
How Much Difference Can A Tyre Make? Lots
By Imthishan Giado
People in the UAE just don’t get tyres. They spend millions every year buying new cars and SUVs – but when it comes to replace those tyres, the money tends to evaporate almost as quickly as it was produced in the showroom.
Time and time again, we’ve seen people focus solely on price, getting the cheapest boots they can to replace the original item. And that’s a dangerous strategy because the tyre is literally the only part of your car that is always in contact with the actual road surface. How many times have you seen strips of rubber littering our highways? That’s what happens when tread separates from the inner tyre at high speeds, putting the vehicle and passengers at risk. If you’re lucky you’ll see the owner parked by the side of the road rueing their poor decision – and if they’re not, the alternative is far, far worse.
So it was with some interest that I attended the launch of Dunlop’s new Sport BluResponse tyre at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Quite apart from the fact that I always enjoy hustling a car around that track, Sport BluResponse tyre is a tyre intended for everyday drivers –people who punt about in Corollas, Altimas and Passats – not high performance supercars. It’s intended to be an inexpensive but quality tyre for the average consumer, available in 52 sizes for rims from 14” to 17” inches. So if you’re got ridiculous 22” inch rims on your Civic – you need not apply.
Improvements? Well Dunlop claims that this new tyre performs better in wet conditions, grips better in dry ones and improves rolling resistance by 30% compared to its predecessor. Officially, it’s classed as a ‘Summer High Performance’ tyre. Even more officially, it’s classed according to the new European system of labelling as a ‘BA’ tyre – A for wet grip, B for rolling resistance with lower letters in the alphabet being better.
For people who drive European cars, the above techy talk is actually quite important since Sport BluResponse will soon be the standard fitment on cars ranging from the plain jane Peugeot 208 up to high end Mercedes and Volkswagens.
Speaking of Mercedes
You can talk about tyres and grip all day along but it means nothing if you can’t actually feel any difference. Sadly Dunlop did not have any A-B comparisons with competitors available on the day but they did provide an extensive series of track tests using Mercedes C200 sedans shod with 205/55 16-inch rims – which is incidentally the exact same size found on my own humble Toyota 86.
This was a stroke of luck since I’m very used to this size of tyre, having clocked up more than 13,000km on the 86 since I bought it. And every one of those kilometres have been awful from a grip perspective since Toyota chooses to fit taxi-spec Yokohama Decibel E60 tyres with terrible road noise and squidgy handling.
Being a busy day for assignments I only had time to try one test – a timed slalom course using a SLK200. Interestingly, we would be competing against journalists from other nations – so not only was I testing the grip levels of the tyre under competition circumstances, but I also had to defend my national honour! No pressure…
The slalom rules are very simple. Blast through the cones, complete a 180 degree turn at the end and return to your starting box before your competitor. I sat out the first round and so can’t tell you who we beat but from the passenger seat, it felt like a close match. For round two, I hopped into the passenger seat, going up against the deadly Belgians who had knocked out two other teams already with precision driving. I was in an alien car which had virtually no power and ‘economy tyres’ going up against hardened journos who, I was informed, regularly raced! This was not going to go well.
A voice crackled on the radio. “Go!” With the merest hint of wheelspin, I blasted off the line…OK, left the line as quickly as a SLK200 would allow. A slalom is not about raw speed – it’s about control and keeping your speed up, hitting your apexes through each yaw moment. I must confess that I was quite surprised by the performance of the tyres – I’ve driven much faster cars with more expensive rubber that delivered less grip and feel through hard cornering. The true test would be the hard turn at the end. A slight squeal and a bit of slip but the SLK200 made around the bend.
I couldn’t see the other driver at all so I kept up the pace charging for the finish line, my lines getting worse with each turn. As I pulled into the box, I could see him a few fractions behind – the win was mine!
We were down to the final round now, going up against the even more deadly Dutch. “They’re much, much faster than you through the centre section of the course,” deadpanned the course instructor. This was not a source of comfort. And even less so, my entire team decided to nominate me for the final race for the trophy. Thanks, guys…
Lining up at the grid, I was incredibly nervous, hands clammily grasping the low-rent vinyl wheel. Would I get a good start? The radio barked. No, I didn’t. Cursing my slow reflexes, I burned away from the line charging hard, but he was already at the hard turn. Moments behind, I swing through the hard turn, only to see him beginning the final slalom.
With nothing to lose, I throw the little Merc through the bends like never before. The tyres squealed furiously in protest but somehow, someway, the Dunlops found purchase and kept true to their line. Without looking up, I knew there was simply no way I could catch the other driver. No way.
Yes way, because not only did I catch him, but somehow on the final section I managed to overtake him and claim the top spot! Don’t ask me how, but picking up that trophy was certainly satisfying.
How much did the new Sport BluResponse contribute to my unlikely win? Well without independent testing it’s impossible to know for sure. From a purely subjective viewpoint however, it felt a cut above your average rubber, hanging on through the tough slalom course with grim tenacity. We don’t do slaloms in the real world of course but it’s nice to know that ability is there when you need it.
Would I replace the 86’s rubber with Sport BluResponse? No, because it’s not a high performance tyre. But for everyone else, it’s a great alternative and certainly worth your dollar.
