**The Importance of Winter Tires: A Comparative Analysis**

As we embark on this winter driving season, it's essential to understand the significance of using proper tires for safe and controlled navigation. In this article, we'll delve into the world of winter tires, exploring their benefits, features, and performance compared to all-season tires.

**The Benefits of Winter Tires**

Winter tires offer several advantages over all-season tires, particularly in snow and ice conditions. One of the primary benefits is improved traction and braking performance. The unique tread pattern and compound used in winter tires provide enhanced grip on snowy and icy surfaces, reducing the risk of skidding or losing control.

**Sinusoidal Sipes and Interlocking Bridges**

A key feature of winter tires is the sinusoidal sipe design, which creates a complex pattern that enhances traction and braking properties. Additionally, interlocking bridges between the rubber blocks provide structural stiffness, leading to improved handling performance. These features work in tandem to deliver exceptional grip, stability, and control on snowy and icy roads.

**The Performance of Winter Tires**

Our test drive put winter tires to the test, comparing them to all-season tires in various driving scenarios. We started with a Subaru Rally Car, which showcased the excellent performance of winter tires in regular handling conditions. The car's straight-pipe exhaust system provided 150 horsepower, and studded tires enabled us to tackle the challenging slalom course.

**Slalom Test: Winter Tires Outperform All-Season Tires**

The first test involved navigating a slalom course without hitting any cones, with the goal of achieving maximum speed while maintaining control. The winter tire proved to be significantly better than the all-season tire, allowing us to maintain a speed of 25 kilometers per hour without understeering or plowing. In contrast, the all-season tire struggled to maintain grip, resulting in reduced speed and increased risk of loss of control.

**Ice Performance: Winter Tires Shine**

Our next test focused on ice performance, with a particular emphasis on traction and braking capabilities. The winter tire demonstrated exceptional grip on the icy surface, even when compared to studded tires. This was surprising, as we expected the studded tires to provide superior traction in slippery conditions.

**Real-World Applications: Winter Tires for Everyday Driving**

As we explored the performance of winter tires, it became clear that they offer benefits beyond just snow and ice driving. The improved grip and control on snowy and icy roads translate to better handling and reduced risk of accidents, making winter tires a worthwhile investment for everyday drivers.

**Common Misconceptions: Debunking the Myth of Winter Tire Necessity**

Some drivers believe that all-season tires are sufficient for driving in snow, citing the presence of four-wheel drive or front-wheel drive as justification. However, this is simply not true. All-season tires can still lead to accidents and reduced safety on snowy and icy roads. It's essential to understand that winter tires provide a unique set of benefits that cannot be replicated by all-season tires.

**Conclusion: Winter Tires for Safe and Controlled Driving**

In conclusion, our analysis of winter tires has highlighted their exceptional performance in snow and ice conditions. By understanding the features and benefits of winter tires, drivers can make informed decisions about their tire selection and enjoy safer, more controlled driving experiences. Whether you're a seasoned driver or just starting to venture into snowy terrain, winter tires are an essential investment for safe and reliable transportation.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm Jacob right we're comparing winter tires all of these and tires throughout the launch of the continental Viking contact seven winter tire continental is our sponsor for this year and we are so happy to have them onboard we are at I car race track just outside of Montreal and they have just given us some cars to just drift around in have some fun and actually just do some real tests so don't forget to subscribe because Continentals going to be having some contests with us this year to give away some free tires three tires oh and hit the notification bell as well so you get a notification every tuesday and friday when we post a video at 8 a.m. eastern time and you have a spoiler alert these tires are really wicked yeah they are drift transition and explain the day so they have given us two identical cadillac XTS s1 is equipped with continental Viking contact seven winter tires and the other is on all season tires so we are comparing the performance of both four braking acceleration and just some fun drifting as well yes because we want you guys to drive with winter tires on the road in winter because it's safer and it's more fun you have way more control with winter tires like way more and it's just better overall like a better braking distance and everything so here's our tests we're going to start with the braking distance test to see how much more room you have stopping with winter tires compared to all seasons then we're gonna do an acceleration test shorter and longer flat out with traction control on to simulate real-world conditions and just a reminder the black ones got winter tires and the white ones got all seasons very good all seasons I might add though by the way all seasons should really be considered three seasons yes because they're not all weather tires exactly and then we want to see how the winter tires handle versus the all seasons so we're gonna throw it through a little slalom course see how one handles versus the other and then we're gonna do a little understeer test so how fast can we actually drive around the corner before the car starts to plow towards the outside simulating a potential crash in an intersection or a left turn and we're also gonna be drifting throughout the whole time and maybe some Subaru Rally drifting maybe for sure cut to the clip let's start with the breaking how did the All Seasons do compared to the winters so we did the test at two different speeds 50 km/h and 65 km/h so from 50 km/h there was a difference of about 5 feet where the winter tires stopped shorter than the all-season tires from 65 km/h there was a way bigger difference in the stopping distance we had about 27 feet shorter in the winter tires versus the all-season tires huge difference of only 15 kilometers more that should be the biggest reason for you guys to get winter tires like imagine if a little kid ran out or something yeah you can't stop in time and a little drift transition to you and into my drift transition Yuri what was the second test that we did we did a drag race we went from a short distance and a longer distance to see what difference it really made so both cars had traction control on again to simulate real worlds condition so that the tires made all the difference what I found was the all-season tires kept up pretty alright but once you got up to speed I felt so sketchy in that yeah because you eventually had to stop yeah and it's like oh my god if anything happens I'm done yeah pretty much how did you feel in the black one with the VC 7s oh the Viking contact sevens yeah don't call them vc7 VC sevens is a cool name for them anyways I had way more confidence in those like no issues with those traction right off the line they're great oh and by the way we actually have the previous generation of this tire on our personal cars which is the winter contact si so these tires now replace those yes and the reason they're called and Viking contact seven was because there was a Viking contact six in Europe before yeah we're getting it now exactly and on that note here's a couple words from the engineer of that tire yeah he's way more technical than we are I'm joined with Timur and he is one of the developers of this tire Timur tell me when you switched to winter tires at what temperature and what are your favorite features about this new tire yes I will do with pleasure so basically the bike in contact seven is our brand new soft compound flagship tire line which is designed for the specific needs of the markets in these Nordic conditions as we have them here in Canada I would recommend to switch over to winter tires after a temperature of seven degrees Celsius because the brittleness of the compound will decrease significantly after this point features of the compound which lead to its superior winter performances are related to the compound on the one hand and two different pattern features on the other hand so the compound itself is developed in that way that it performs best at very low temperatures service conditions of minus 20 minus 30 and less degrees so the pattern itself contains different features leading to a high ice as well as snow performance as you can see here for example we have this no edges on the trailing and leading edge of the shoulder blocks which provide a high milling effect to the snow the sipes itself are created in a sinusoidal way which brings different advantages the main advantage of sinusoidal types is that beside only traction and braking properties is that you can create also lateral side force build up another important feature of this tire of the pattern are the so-called interlocking bridges as you can see here in-between of the rubber blocks we have inserted rubber elements in the sub depths of the pattern providing a high structural stiffness to the pattern leading to good handling performances great thank you very much and before we talk about the third test Subaru Rally Car test on general tire studded tires now the tires are really good too but straight pipes exhausts that's what I'm talking about with straight pipes 150 horsepower and studded tires here we go hopeless Holden yes all right look okay back to the cat facts I guess so now we go out to the slalom okay so we wanted to see how the cars performed in regular handling conditions we wanted to take the slalom as fast as possible without hitting a cone and there was a huge difference between both of them so towards the end the all-season tire just started to lose grip you had to slow way down in comparison to the Viking contact seven yeah biking context haven't kept you going right through where the other one like it was the second last caller yes so we're at a plowing towards if you've got a little too fast exactly so you started to understeer so then because of that test we want to do another test we wanted to see how fast you can get around a turn without plowing on both tires so we wanted to do max speed without understeer just to simulate real-world conditions on a left turn and obviously the winter tire did much better yeah way better so I was able to maintain a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour no problem with the Viking contact sevens when I tried that same speed in the All Seasons not so good yeah it like really plow to met if you're an intersection doing that yeah telling you guys get winter tires for snow we've always had winter tires on our personal cars always I've never owned a car without winter tires since my first Camaro I had winter tires my first car was a Ford Escort I had winter tires for it then I bought myself a Subaru WRX also had winter tires for it drift brake again Jiri yeah kind of tired of driving normally it's good go for a little drift in this there we go and so much grip for the front end so the biggest thing I noticed driving this around versus the all-seasons is this has so much grip on the front end PC sevens are killing it so with the all seasons I basically plow all the way out understeer and then find some grip so the biggest difference with these tires that I have noticed is the ice performance because this is a very slick track and it is just sheer ice underneath the snow so that all seasons just start to lose grip and understeer whereas the Viking contact sevens I still have grip on the ice which is amazing for non studded tires when we started driving today before it got even slicker it felt like you were driving on a normal Road yeah it did but you didn't feel gimmicky at all I know it was amazing and by the way all the tests we set up today we set up ourselves there was no one here to tell us what to do how to do it what's gonna work better to show anything off it was all us all we asked them for was cones we set everything up ourselves we just wanted to prove a point we already knew the facts but we just wanted to prove it on camera that winter tires are so much better than all season tires so let us know if you're a winter tire person or not and tell us why you're not a winter tire person because you should be if you're driving in snow I look forward to all the comments from everybody that's wrong telling you that they're not winter tire people oh we're gonna have your car it's front-wheel drive so I should be fine with these summers that's a myth wrong Youssou true people I'm looking at you oh I don't need winter tires I got all-wheel drive not you still can't stop so don't forget to subscribe get the notification Bell check out Continental tires if you're getting some your tires is here or general tires cuz continent also in general tires general tires is more off-roading exactly and patreon.com slash straight pipes and teespring I'm Yuri I'm Jakob we're going for a drive don't forget subscribe subscribe right now subscribe we didn't even we didn't do thatI'm Jacob right we're comparing winter tires all of these and tires throughout the launch of the continental Viking contact seven winter tire continental is our sponsor for this year and we are so happy to have them onboard we are at I car race track just outside of Montreal and they have just given us some cars to just drift around in have some fun and actually just do some real tests so don't forget to subscribe because Continentals going to be having some contests with us this year to give away some free tires three tires oh and hit the notification bell as well so you get a notification every tuesday and friday when we post a video at 8 a.m. eastern time and you have a spoiler alert these tires are really wicked yeah they are drift transition and explain the day so they have given us two identical cadillac XTS s1 is equipped with continental Viking contact seven winter tires and the other is on all season tires so we are comparing the performance of both four braking acceleration and just some fun drifting as well yes because we want you guys to drive with winter tires on the road in winter because it's safer and it's more fun you have way more control with winter tires like way more and it's just better overall like a better braking distance and everything so here's our tests we're going to start with the braking distance test to see how much more room you have stopping with winter tires compared to all seasons then we're gonna do an acceleration test shorter and longer flat out with traction control on to simulate real-world conditions and just a reminder the black ones got winter tires and the white ones got all seasons very good all seasons I might add though by the way all seasons should really be considered three seasons yes because they're not all weather tires exactly and then we want to see how the winter tires handle versus the all seasons so we're gonna throw it through a little slalom course see how one handles versus the other and then we're gonna do a little understeer test so how fast can we actually drive around the corner before the car starts to plow towards the outside simulating a potential crash in an intersection or a left turn and we're also gonna be drifting throughout the whole time and maybe some Subaru Rally drifting maybe for sure cut to the clip let's start with the breaking how did the All Seasons do compared to the winters so we did the test at two different speeds 50 km/h and 65 km/h so from 50 km/h there was a difference of about 5 feet where the winter tires stopped shorter than the all-season tires from 65 km/h there was a way bigger difference in the stopping distance we had about 27 feet shorter in the winter tires versus the all-season tires huge difference of only 15 kilometers more that should be the biggest reason for you guys to get winter tires like imagine if a little kid ran out or something yeah you can't stop in time and a little drift transition to you and into my drift transition Yuri what was the second test that we did we did a drag race we went from a short distance and a longer distance to see what difference it really made so both cars had traction control on again to simulate real worlds condition so that the tires made all the difference what I found was the all-season tires kept up pretty alright but once you got up to speed I felt so sketchy in that yeah because you eventually had to stop yeah and it's like oh my god if anything happens I'm done yeah pretty much how did you feel in the black one with the VC 7s oh the Viking contact sevens yeah don't call them vc7 VC sevens is a cool name for them anyways I had way more confidence in those like no issues with those traction right off the line they're great oh and by the way we actually have the previous generation of this tire on our personal cars which is the winter contact si so these tires now replace those yes and the reason they're called and Viking contact seven was because there was a Viking contact six in Europe before yeah we're getting it now exactly and on that note here's a couple words from the engineer of that tire yeah he's way more technical than we are I'm joined with Timur and he is one of the developers of this tire Timur tell me when you switched to winter tires at what temperature and what are your favorite features about this new tire yes I will do with pleasure so basically the bike in contact seven is our brand new soft compound flagship tire line which is designed for the specific needs of the markets in these Nordic conditions as we have them here in Canada I would recommend to switch over to winter tires after a temperature of seven degrees Celsius because the brittleness of the compound will decrease significantly after this point features of the compound which lead to its superior winter performances are related to the compound on the one hand and two different pattern features on the other hand so the compound itself is developed in that way that it performs best at very low temperatures service conditions of minus 20 minus 30 and less degrees so the pattern itself contains different features leading to a high ice as well as snow performance as you can see here for example we have this no edges on the trailing and leading edge of the shoulder blocks which provide a high milling effect to the snow the sipes itself are created in a sinusoidal way which brings different advantages the main advantage of sinusoidal types is that beside only traction and braking properties is that you can create also lateral side force build up another important feature of this tire of the pattern are the so-called interlocking bridges as you can see here in-between of the rubber blocks we have inserted rubber elements in the sub depths of the pattern providing a high structural stiffness to the pattern leading to good handling performances great thank you very much and before we talk about the third test Subaru Rally Car test on general tire studded tires now the tires are really good too but straight pipes exhausts that's what I'm talking about with straight pipes 150 horsepower and studded tires here we go hopeless Holden yes all right look okay back to the cat facts I guess so now we go out to the slalom okay so we wanted to see how the cars performed in regular handling conditions we wanted to take the slalom as fast as possible without hitting a cone and there was a huge difference between both of them so towards the end the all-season tire just started to lose grip you had to slow way down in comparison to the Viking contact seven yeah biking context haven't kept you going right through where the other one like it was the second last caller yes so we're at a plowing towards if you've got a little too fast exactly so you started to understeer so then because of that test we want to do another test we wanted to see how fast you can get around a turn without plowing on both tires so we wanted to do max speed without understeer just to simulate real-world conditions on a left turn and obviously the winter tire did much better yeah way better so I was able to maintain a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour no problem with the Viking contact sevens when I tried that same speed in the All Seasons not so good yeah it like really plow to met if you're an intersection doing that yeah telling you guys get winter tires for snow we've always had winter tires on our personal cars always I've never owned a car without winter tires since my first Camaro I had winter tires my first car was a Ford Escort I had winter tires for it then I bought myself a Subaru WRX also had winter tires for it drift brake again Jiri yeah kind of tired of driving normally it's good go for a little drift in this there we go and so much grip for the front end so the biggest thing I noticed driving this around versus the all-seasons is this has so much grip on the front end PC sevens are killing it so with the all seasons I basically plow all the way out understeer and then find some grip so the biggest difference with these tires that I have noticed is the ice performance because this is a very slick track and it is just sheer ice underneath the snow so that all seasons just start to lose grip and understeer whereas the Viking contact sevens I still have grip on the ice which is amazing for non studded tires when we started driving today before it got even slicker it felt like you were driving on a normal Road yeah it did but you didn't feel gimmicky at all I know it was amazing and by the way all the tests we set up today we set up ourselves there was no one here to tell us what to do how to do it what's gonna work better to show anything off it was all us all we asked them for was cones we set everything up ourselves we just wanted to prove a point we already knew the facts but we just wanted to prove it on camera that winter tires are so much better than all season tires so let us know if you're a winter tire person or not and tell us why you're not a winter tire person because you should be if you're driving in snow I look forward to all the comments from everybody that's wrong telling you that they're not winter tire people oh we're gonna have your car it's front-wheel drive so I should be fine with these summers that's a myth wrong Youssou true people I'm looking at you oh I don't need winter tires I got all-wheel drive not you still can't stop so don't forget to subscribe get the notification Bell check out Continental tires if you're getting some your tires is here or general tires cuz continent also in general tires general tires is more off-roading exactly and patreon.com slash straight pipes and teespring I'm Yuri I'm Jakob we're going for a drive don't forget subscribe subscribe right now subscribe we didn't even we didn't do that\n"