Performance and Summer Tires

Summer tires exist to do one thing extremely well: put down grip in warm weather. They use a soft, high-silica compound and a tread with large continuous blocks and minimal siping, which maximizes the rubber contact patch touching the road. The result is dry braking, cornering and steering response that no all-season can match, along with genuinely excellent wet grip because the large voids that remain are dedicated to water evacuation rather than snow.The categories step up roughly like this. High performance and ultra-high performance summer tires are street tires with strong grip and reasonable tread life. Max performance summer tires trade tread life for more grip. Extreme performance summer tires, sometimes called 200 treadwear tires, are essentially track tires with enough tread to be street legal, and they will wear out fast in normal driving.The hard rule with summer tires: do not drive them in the cold. Below roughly 45F the compound stiffens badly, grip falls off a cliff, and in near-freezing conditions the rubber can crack permanently. Summer tires are a seasonal commitment, and they pair naturally with a winter set on a second set of wheels.

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