Tyres are the only intended physical contact points between a motor vehicle and the road, therefore their importance to safety cannot be overstated. The established makes have routinely topped instrumented tyre tests, reinforcing the perception of quality of these brands when the time comes to make a purchase.
Though, the latest results have found the Linglong Sport Master from China to have topped the charts in wet braking tests, in a field of entries comprised of tyres from well-known brands including Michelin, Continental, Pirelli, Goodyear, and Bridgestone.
The latest tyre tests by ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club) and Auto Bild via Tyre Reviews have emerged with their findings, in tests for the 225/50R17 size fitted to a B9 Audi A4 Avant, and 245/45R19 fitted to a G60 BMW 5 Series.
In wet surface braking from 80 km/h conducted by ADAC for the 17-inch size, the Linglong Sport Master tied for first place with the Continental PremiumContact 7 at a stopping distance of 30.10 m. Coming in third in this test was the Kumho Ecsta HS52 with a stopping distance of 31.10 m, followed by the Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance (31.30 m), Pirelli Cinturato C3 (31.80 m) and the Michelin Primacy 5 (32.70 m).
The results were also mirrored in the findings for wet braking performance on concrete, with the Linglong Sport Master taking top spot with a stopping distance of 32.30 m, followed by the Continental PremiumContact 7 (34.90 m), Kumho Ecsta HS52 (35.90 m), Pirelli Cinturato C3 (37.30 m) and the Falken ZIEX ZE320 (37.70 m) for the top five.
In testing for straight-line aquaplaning, the Sport Master continued to be near the top of the chart in fourth place with a float speed of 78.60 km/h, behind the Pirelli Cinturato C3 (79.70 km/h), Continental PremiumContact 7 (79.70 km/h) and Vredestein Ultrac plus (79.30 km/h).
The high-ranking results attained by the Linglong Sport Master are just part of the story, however; in terms of predicted wear life, this model was ranked last among 16 tyres tested for the 17-inch size, with a predicted wear life of 26,100 km (topping the chart is the Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance with a predicted wear life of 57,800 km.
Its contrasting results across different parameters continue with the measure of fuel efficiency, again ranking last among 16 tyres tested for the 17-inch size where the Linglong Sport Master recorded 6.00 l/100 km, against the top-scoring Michelin Primacy 5 which recorded 5.40 l/100 km (the testing method by ADAC is to drive the vehicle on an oval to acquire the fuel consumption reading).
According to Tyre Reviews, the poor tyre wear and fuel efficiency findings show where the compromises have been made in order to attain the chart-topping results in wet braking.
Locally, Linglong is present in the Malaysian market as OE fit for the Leapmotor B10 with the Sport Master e, and in our experience the Sport Master e has provided decent performance for the electric SUV. Other factory-fit examples of Linglong tyres are on the Proton eMas 5 with the Comfort Master, and the BYD Dolphin with the Eco Master, though the latter two tyre examples have been found to be less satisfactory.
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Give it time, i’m sure they will catch up. slowly but surely. just like how we used to say unreliable products from china many decades ago. now do you still have japanese handsets or TVs? Soon enough Hafriz won’t be so against the LingLong and other chinese makers :)
china tyres banyak money for R&D if they want to catch up they can
i dare not trust my life with linglong tyres.
a lot of clowns here writing as if tyres is the critical factor for safety. when in fact its the driver awareness and caution which is the main factor to ensure safety when driving.
Mick, I just read the German ADAC Reifentest review and after reading the following line which you have not picked up on, I feel this should be included in your article regarding the Linglong.
“Wird der Reifen warm, spricht er verzögert auf Lenkbefehle an und es fällt schwer, den richtigen Lenkwinkel zu treffen. Beim Fahren fühlt sich das nicht nur schwammig an, man muss den Lenkeinschlag sogar mitten in der Kurve korrigieren. Auch im Grenzbereich wird es mit dem Linglong kritisch: Er neigt beim Ausweichen sehr schnell zum Übersteuern. Werden Ungeübte von einem ausbrechenden Heck überrascht, kann das heikel werden.”
Translate is to English (unless you are fluent in German) and you’ll realize that especially for the Malaysian market with road surface temperatures in excess of 50°C this is a devastating verdict given their testing conditions specified road surface temperatures of 30-36°C.
Cheers
Ben
In the age of Google Translate, why would you even bother being pretentious like this? Just write what the point was, duhh..
I am sure other brands can make even more superior wet braking tyres. No issues. Just the lifespan will shorten to 15,000km. All this just to get to the headline.
Linglong – Performs well only when new, gonna harden-up and turn to shit in one year.
Michelin, Continental, Pirelli, Dunlop, GoodYear – Even it was performing less, you can always expect same performance throughout the whole tire lifetime.
Michelin and Continental, yes, all tire models can maintain performance. Not true for Pirelli, Dunlop and Goodyear because their cheaper tires are good when new but deteriorate fast after the 10k km mark. Goodyears especially have poor tread life in hot climate like ours.
Owh ok… Just heard about this brand. How about the noise? Other than stopping distance. Noise level also 1 of reason why I buy those brand.
Tyre can be good grip if the rubber is soft and material is sticky based. This will result in good grip and braking performance. But the drawback is high rolling resistance with poor fuel consumption, poor lifespan and noisy. Without mature technology this kind of budget brand grippy tyres is only good in first 20% usage. After that tyre perform drop a lot braking distance extend 20%, even louder noise, less grip in wet surface.
Nevertheless it is a good start for Ling Long. Hopefully in future they can enhance the lifespan and reduce the rolling resistance to improve fuel consumption.
all this bising bising from bunch of funny anti-china brand clowns! so u guys just want to keep buying the expensive brands and bla bla bla for them to keep monopoly the market?! dont forget many of this big brands also have their production line in china….. and also some of it in indonesia too! do u really think ur michelin really come from france?! ur continental really come from german?! wake up… just go and try or watever before givin stupid thought
i only trust Michelin. I am not risking my life to trust some ching chong tyres
Useless comment
haters like you were saying the exact same thing about china cars five years ago – ” commie cars no good not safe blablabla” – and yet here we are today
Wow … Hafiz most hated Tyres now beat world reknown tyres…A Sad Day for Hafiz…