Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus vs Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport: Having a UHP tire gives you a lot of room to play with while still making you feel safe behind the wheel can be hard to find. And both of these coming in this category performance summer tires were tested with the same car in 225/40 R18 sizes. Let’s see which one comes out to be better.
With the Eagle F1 Supersport, Goodyear has developed a tire that provides excellent traction and cornering abilities in dry and wet weather conditions. This tire is especially great for people who love to get a little more feel out of their car because it has a very direct steering control and offers exceptional handling capabilities.
Examine the treads on these tires closely. They hold the key to knowing which to choose. In fact if you visit my "tread design" page, picking the right tire would never bother you.
And on the other side, Vredestein Ultrac Vorti plus developed by Apollo Vredestein also one of their top sports car tire is well known for amazing dry handling.
These tires are perfect for enthusiasts who like to put themselves in tough driving situations and have a sleek elegant looking design inspired by the Italian auto design studio Giugiaro.
Table of Contents
Dry Traction Comparison
To start off, with a dry braking distance, the traction of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport on dry roads is simply better! The moment you start your drive, you’re going to feel the stable and almost comforting grip of these tires latch onto the tarmac.
Compared to 35.8 meters to break from 100 kph to 0 kph for Vredestein Ultrac, The Goodyear Eagle SuperSport beats this tire by 1.63 meters.
Goodyear’s interesting thing about its tire grip is that it only gets stronger the faster you go with your tire. They use a special resin compound embedded in the first line of the tread, enhancing the micro-contact with the road to provide increased grip on the road.
To enhance performance on dry roads, the tire comes with specialized shoulder blocks. The outside shoulder of the tire has a closed, serrated pattern which allows the tire to remain in maximum contact with the road through sharp turns. This increased stability of grip around corners, combined with excellent handling (coming from the asymmetric tread design), makes you incredibly confident when turning without the possibility of oversteering or understeering, regardless of what kind of road it is.
The cornering grip when you’re turning is also assisted by the bridge assists in the 1st groove. With the amount of traction these tires offer, you can easily push them to their absolute limits without feeling like you’re losing control.
Still, the Vredestein Ultrac Vorti plus with the traction rating A, is not too far off. And given the current prices of both, the tire doesn’t look too bad after all.
It has a nice feel to it that seem very sporty.
Sometimes make you think if the tire is going to be able to put in the grip or going to slide.
But at the same time the responsive steering and the speed makes it a very enjoyable tire.
It is a tad stiffer on the shoulders and sidewalls, whereas the central strip is much wider which helps in dry braking and handling. It uses new high-traction tread compounds which include silica and raisin mixed with multi-purpose polymers to ensure maximum grip and braking performance on dry surfaces.
Wet Traction Comparison
Again we have another surprise when it comes to Goodyear and that is it’s amazing wet traction. This is primarily thanks to the three extra-wide tread bands that are made up of a wet compound.
The tread on Goodyear is also made of dual plus technology in which there’s a two-part tread compound with a u-shaped arrangement to enhance its wet performance. The tread also contains three center blocks which enhance its performance on wet roads by providing a stronger grip on the road.
Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport had a wet braking distance of 36.6 km/h compared to 52.8 meters to go from 100kph to 0 kph on Vredestein Ultrac Vorti plus.
Vredestein Ultrac also surprised us with low performance values on wet asphalt. As impressive as this tire’s performance in the dry is, it comes with a catch. It is nowhere close to its competition with regard to wet traction. Goodyear performed 16 meters better than this one.
However, the tire just doesn’t meet the standards that we have come to expect from Apollo Vredestein. Some enthusiasts would argue that this tire has been over-engineered to provide the best dry braking which has left it lacking in the wet braking department.
As far as wet handling is concerned, the Vredestein Ultrac Vorti is able to maintain an average speed of 85 kph on wet asphalt without any problems.
Goodyear was also very good at high speeds, maintaining that firm grip with the road and with its power shoulders, and you don’t feel like the car is leaning on the tires as you drive.
With this tire even if you ever feel a loos in grip or traction momentary (which will only happen if you put more power into the wheel while turning), it’s predictable, and the moment the grip breaks, you can feel it and manage it accordingly. At no point, you feel like the car is getting away from you.
Rolling Resistance Comparison
The rolling resistance is the effort needed to keep a tire moving.
The Vredestein Ultrac Vorti plus experiences a rolling resistance of 9.54 kg/t whereas the Goodyear F1, although tread design is excellent, the rolling resistance is relatively high at a value of 9.68 kg t. Which makes Vredestein Ultrac slightly better here.
Designed for high speeds and turning corners fast, the Vredestein Ultrac Vorti is a mixture of resin and of polymer and has a significantly large apex base. The carcass, the apex area, and the area around the rim use next-generation compounds that help reduce rolling resistance, which consequently helps not only the fuel efficiency but also the tire’s lifespan. The Apex base stabilizes the tire when turning corners and stiffens up the sidewalls, thereby minimizing the twisting of the tire by the high load that it feels while making sharp turns. The stiffer build of the tire ensures that the tire ends up getting less deformed while going down the road, resulting in a minimal amount of energy loss.
Compared to Goodyear SuperSport, a heavier tire that does increase the price, and with high rolling resistance, you will also get more fuel consumption, making your ride more expensive.
With high rolling resistance, you would expect the tire to compromise on the grip and handling of the car. However, the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport manages to counter that by perfecting its tread design.
Goodyear has optimized the geometry of the tire by impulse plus construction that enhances the pressure distribution in the tire to maintain the handling and steering control. And with the asymmetric tread design, shoulder blocks, and ultra-high performance tread compound, the grip on the road is also maintained.
Hydroplaning/Aquaplaning Comparison
When the tires are no longer able to clear surface water from their paths, they start losing road grip. In other words, hydroplaning resistance is a tire’s ability to maintain contact with the road, despite the presence of water.
Both of the tires performed the same here. The Vredestein Ultrac Vorti did slightly better than Goodyear here.
The Goodyear SuperSport tire has a float speed of 74.1 km/h and 2.07 remaining lateral acceleration where Vredestein had a float speed of 75 and 2.1 lateral acceleration.
For Vredestein, the inner construction of the tire consists of a layer of rayon which helps make the tire durable, but slippery and shifty at the same time which makes this tire prone to Hydroplaning when the conditions get really wet. Even though the tire has deep grooves to get rid of the water, they really don’t make any difference when the tire moves laterally through corners.
Goodyear SuperSport tire because of the 3 wide lateral grooves down the center of the tire, pushes the water away from the car as you drive.
This not only makes it safer, prevents skidding and sliding, but also maintains a firm grip on the road throughout the ride. When it comes to pouring rain and extreme storms, the tire does lead to a little bit of over steer as you turn (especially on the rear).
However, overall, when driving through wet roads and a few puddles, the hydroplaning abilities of the tire hold up extremely well and make you feel very confident behind the wheel.
Noise and Comfort Comparison
Both the Vredestein Ultrac Vorti and the Goodyear SuperSport aren’t the noisiest tires, but they are of the noisier ones if compared to others.
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti plus made an external noise of 72.4 dB on asphalt compared to Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport tire noise levels of 72.3 decibels.
Vredestein stiff treadwear combined with the deep grooves can make it a bit noisy especially on the highway. Air gets compressed inside the grooves of the tread and the deeper the grooves, the more air volume, the noisier the tire.
Similarly with Goodyear as the feel of the tire goes, you might also find an increase in the road noise with increasing speeds. When you’re driving on smooth roads such as the highways, the noise will be negligible. However, the noise levels might increase a little bit on more textured pavements.
But still, comfort-wise both tires are amazing. The Vredestein scored the same as some of the best tires in the market like the Michelin pilot sport 4 and Bridgestone Turanza T0 50 on the comfort scale.
And with the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport tire, although you have to compromise a little bit on the slightly increased noise levels on this car compared to its competitors. They are still very comfortable as well.
They have very thick sidewalls, which help in increasing the comfort as you drive by absorbing the potholes and other imperfections on the road. Along with that, this tire comes with an aramid and nylon power line cover, which provides excellent footprint contact with the road. This helps in making the ride more stable throughout the speed range.
Treadwear Comparison
The Ultrac Vorti has a high-traction tread compound with an asymmetric pattern that delivers great results in dry conditions. The central rib that goes all along the tire has diagonal slits that improve steering response and precision. The outer shoulder, which is much more rigid, wider, and low-void than the inner shoulder, is responsible for providing enhanced handling whereas the inner shoulder has much more void and is designed to aid wet traction and handling. Moreover, the tire has deep grooves that allow the water to flow through the contact patch and build up resistance against aquaplaning in wet conditions.
On the other hand the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport is a tire that is more prone to wear because of the intensity of its performance. The average range of miles that you can get out of these tires is 5k to 10k miles; however, that will differ depending on the conditions in which you drive. Certain protective features built into this tire to prolong the tread life, such as the rim protector and thickened sidewalls, will protect the tire against scratches from curbs. When the tire does wear, it has been molded into a multi-radius shape to result in an even wear.
The Ultrac Vorti tire with the treadwear rating of 320, itself is made with two different compounds: rayon and nylon. The rayon layer helps build up tire strength and durability, whereas the two layers of nylon are there to provide the high-speed capability. However this makes the treadwear quite sensitive to temperatures under 20 degrees F, so make sure that whenever you take these tires in the snow give it around 24 hours to return to at least 40 degrees F, otherwise the treadwear will wear out very quickly.
And on the other hand the Goodyear tire is more likely to wear faster when its alignment is asymmetrical.
As the tires wear, they’ll also get louder with time and become more prone to over steering and under steering.
Keep in mind that ultra-high performance tires are not built to last a long time either; instead, they have been designed to deliver the ultimate performance regarding traction, speed, and cornering abilities.
Conclusion
The Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport is a great tire that gives users an unmatched level of control and confidence. Its steering response is direct, and the handling is impressive, to say the least. The tire excels when it comes to maintaining its grip on both dry and wet roads. However, because of this tire’s excellent traction and performance, there is a slight loss of comfort in the ride quality and tread life.
And the Vredestein Ultrac Vorti Plus is a standard summer tire that will work perfectly fine for your daily use as well, however, if you’re an enthusiast and like to push your tires to the limit, this might not be the best option for you. Even though this tire will give you top-notch handling, speed, and precision in the dry, it won’t be able to cope with the pressure when the conditions are wet. The top-notch dry handling and speed do make this a fun tire, but you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth the risk or not.
