If you’re in the market for grand touring all-weather tires, both the Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6 and its predecessor, the Weather Control A005 Evo are worth considering. They both excel in their unique mix of performance, handling, and comfort features. But is the newer tire better overall? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
Key Insights
My technical analysis of the tires reveals that the Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6 is notably better in:
- Enhanced dry braking.
- Superior wet braking performance. In fact it records the best wet braking distances among other top grand touring tires.
- Improved ride smoothness thanks to its superior blend of inner and outer construction.
- Longer tread longevity, with its lighter structure.
Conversely, the Weather Control A005 EVO surpasses in these specific areas:
- Greater resistance to hydroplaning, with its more voided up design.
- Better performance on powdery snow.
- Higher lateral traction, with its numerous longitudinally aligned in-groove notches.
- More responsive steering, though with a negligible difference.
Info on Sizes
| Specs | Weather Control A005 EVO | Turanza All Season 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Rim Sizes | 15 to 21 inches | 16 to 21 inches (85 sizes) |
| Speed Ratings | H, V, W, Y | H, V, W, Y |
| Load Ratings | SL, XL | SL, XL |
| Tread Depth | 11.5/32″ | 11.5/32″ |
| Weight Range | 25 to 40 lbs | 25 to 36 lbs |
| Warranty | None | None |
| Winter Ratings | 3PMSF, M+S | 3PMSF, M+S |
Don’t miss out: For top-notch all-season tire advice, your first stop should be my main page. Check it out before making your decision: https://tiredriver.com/all-season-tires/
Quality of Ride
The quality of a ride is twofold: it’s about the tires’ ability to suppress road noise and their skill in ironing out road imperfections. I’ll get to each one by one.
Noise Comfort
Noise comfort is the area where I expected the newer tire to be much better, as it was the weakest point of Weather Control.
But here we are, and its now the weakest point of its successor too. So although the Turanza All Season 6 is relatively quieter, there’s isn’t too much improvement to be seen.
Basically now the newer tire comes with a less aggressive and less voided up tread pattern, so it emits relatively less growling and noise generated from air.
How air contributes here? Well as the tire rolls, air is compressed and pushed in and around the tread, and with the air’s movement and its collision with the tread walls there are a lot of different emitted sounds.
Additionally, the Turanza employs a slightly better compound that is more effective at absorbing sound energy. This means it doesn’t reflect sound as much or produce an echo, which helps in reducing resonance within the tire grooves.
Vibrations Comfort
The ride smoothness of a tire is closely linked to its ability to absorb the irregularities of the road, a quality largely determined by the tire’s material composition. That’s why it makes sense why most of tires crafted from softer materials provide a smoother ride.
However, there’s a delicate balance to maintain, as overly soft tires can lead to other complications.
Having said that, the new Turanza All Season 6 provides that balance in a better way, with its well engineered overall construction.
For the sake of simplicity, it features a stiffer internal structure combined with a softer outer rubber layer. And this blend of soft and firm characteristics enhances its ability to absorb road bumps effectively, offering a noticeably smoother ride in comparison to others.
Wet Performance
For a comprehensive understanding of wet performance, I focused on testing both tires for wet grip, handling, and their capacity to resist hydroplaning. Let’s dive into each of these areas one by one.
Wet Traction
Both tires are pretty awesome in the rain, but you’ve got to know what makes each one tick to really get how good they are.
So, here’s the deal: it’s all about the grooves and sipes.
The grooves (those V shaped voids) are there to get most of the water out of the tire’s way, while the sipes, those tiny cuts in the tread, are super important for soaking up any leftover moisture.
Now here the Turanza All Season 6 comes out with some significant improvements over its predecessor. In fact it outperforms nearly all tires (in its grand touring category) in terms of wet braking.
This is thanks to its very well optimized interlocking sipes and an updated rubber composition which (although lacks slightly in dry) does a great job sticking up with wet roads.
In contrast, the Weather Control Evo, despite having numerous interlocking sipes, shows relatively more slippage. And that’s mostly because its sipes aren’t as flexible and the rubber’s a bit stiffer.
But here’s the kicker: the difference between these two tires isn’t huge, especially when we’re talking about wet handling. And that’s mainly because the predecessor is interestingly better at resisting hydroplaning. Let me explain it in the next section.
Aquaplaning Resistance
Hydroplaning happens when your tire can’t push away water fast enough. And instead of gripping the road, your tire starts to skim over a water layer, kind of like it’s surfing. Needless to say, it loses all of the tire’s traction.
Now, both Bridgestone tires here are pretty impressive providing above average performance and float speeds (among other grand touring competitors).
But comparing them together, you get to see the predecessor taking the lead. This is because the Weather Control Evo is relatively more voided up and got these interconnected grooves that do a better job at channeling water away, particularly in sideways directions.
And with less water in the way, the sipes can do their thing more effectively, which means better handling in the wet.
That’s why there’s not much of a difference between both tires here when it comes to wet handling.
Overall Dry Performance
The overall dry performance of tires hinges on two primary elements: their longitudinal grip and handling. Let’s analyze both elements one after the other.
Directional Grip
Directional grip is the tire’s straight-line traction and is significantly influenced by its interaction with the road, primarily through the tread’s central section. This area basically forms the most effective contact patch with the ground as the tire rolls linearly.
This understanding sheds light on why the new Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6 tire demonstrates superior overall performance, providing superior braking (which is how this grip gets calculated).
Though the difference is small, we’re only talking less than half a feet (on average) in my 60 to 0 mph tests (comparing multiple sizes on both tires).
But yes there’s improvement for sure with the newer tire and that’s because of its cleverly engineered contact patch and a tread design with fewer voids.
I mean compared to its predecessor, the Turanza AS6 offers a higher rubber-to-voids ratio, ensuring increased rubber-to-road contact.
Additionally, the tire’s reduced weight is its another plus point.
I mean the Weather Control A005 EVO generates relatively more momentum with its heavier weight, thereby increasing the effort required to stop it. So needless to say, this weight directly decreases its stopping performance in comparison to its successor.
Overall Handling
When you’re checking out how well a tire handles, you’re really looking at two main things: how quickly it reacts to your steering and how much grip it’s got on the road, especially when you’re making those tight turns.
Focusing first on grip, the Bridgestone Weather Control A005 Evo takes the lead here, showcasing slightly greater g-force readings in tests.
This enhanced lateral traction is due to the tire’s optimized road contact. Plus the tire also features advanced biting edges, strategically designed including the specialized in-groove notches located at the shoulder block edges.
But, grip aside, what really makes this tire shine here is its superior steering responsiveness.
Even though A005 Evo is a bit heavier than its successor, its design still ensures greater stability as it’s got firmer lugs with a stronger build that keep it stable and quick to respond.
Basically its rubber composition is stiffer and all lugs have solid reinforced foundations underneath. And together they resist the flexing of the lugs as the tire corners (especially).
In contrast, the lugs on the Turanza All Season 6 are more susceptible to deformation under stress and so they take time to recover. Now this might not seem like a big deal, but it adds up and ends up slowing down the overall handling.
Tread Longevity
The durability of a tire’s tread is influenced by various factors including rolling resistance, tire composition, and tread depth. Let me explain how each of these affect tread longevity.
- Rolling resistance is straightforward: higher friction leads to quicker wear.
- In case of composition: tires made with harder rubber compounds tend to last longer.
- Regarding tread depth: The deeper it is, the longer time takes to reach down to 2/32″ (which is the legal limit in USA).
Now, comparing both tires here, although the come with similar tread depths, the new Turanza All Season 6 still takes the lead, providing 10 to 20% better tread life (depending on the sizes).
This is mainly because of the tire’s lighter weight and a well engineered contact patch that distributes that weight more evenly. So each lug on the tread ends up picking up less burden on its back, rubbing against the road with less friction.
Winter Performance
If you’re on the lookout for an all-season tire that really shines in winter, both of these contenders are top picks in the grand touring league.
I mean the Weather Control Evo was already a pretty decent pick, and now with the new update, the Turanza AS6 gets to be even better, combining the best bits of summer and winter tires. So both these tires are ace at handling snow and ice, whether it’s braking, speeding up, or just staying on course.
And yes they have the 3-peak mountain snowflake symbols on them along with M+S ratings, making them pretty versatile all-weather tires.
So what are the main changes with these tires. Well now the newer tire comes with a slight advantage particularly on icy terrains, providing better micro-level grip and handling with its updated rubber compound.
Though interestingly the predecessor still has the upper hand on powdery/fluffy snow providing superior traction.
Actually for such terrain type, snow-to-snow contact is crucial and with the Weather Control Evo’s multiple in-groove notches, it gets that job done better comparatively.
I mean lodges the snow more easily inside its voids and connects that trapped snow with the ground, which generates more friction (as snow doesn’t stick that well to rubber in comparison).
So What’s the Verdict?
In conclusion let me start by saying that the suitable tire here hinges on your preferences, as each has its own distinct advantages.
The new AS6 shows marginal improvements in dry braking due to its optimized contact patch and higher rubber-to-voids ratio.
And in wet conditions, it outperforms in braking but falls slightly behind in hydroplaning resistance to Weather Control Evo.
For winter performance, both tires excel, with the newer tire having a slight edge on icy surfaces, and the predecessor still providing superior snow traction.
In terms of ride comfort, Bridgestone’s newer tire provides better overall ride quality, though still needs to improve its auditory performance.
Other than this, Turanza All Season 6 does a better job in terms of fuel economy and tread life, with some noticeable, and appreciable improvements.
