Considering its budget-friendly price, the Fuzion UHP Sport AS is a viable option for those seeking a balance between performance and cost, especially in the entry level ultra-high-performance all-season tire segment.
Table of Contents
Quick Insights
Overall, the Fuzion UHP Sport AS offers impressive performance in terms of:
- Cost-effectiveness, offering a great tread longevity and fuel economy, that adds significant value, especially for a budget-friendly tire.
- Linear and lateral grip, providing stable and responsive handling in dry conditions.
- Steering responsiveness, with quick and precise feedback that enhances driving dynamics.
However, the tire could benefit from improvements in:
- Wet and snow braking performance, where it lags behind in stopping distance tests, particularly.
- Noise comfort, due to its echo-prone rubber composition.
- Ride smoothness, particularly over rough surfaces, due to its stiffer internal structure.
Range of Available Sizes
The tire comes in 17 and 18 inches rims only, with following specs.
- Speed ratings: W only
- Load ratings: SL and XL.
- Tread depth: 10/32″
- Weight: 21 to 26 lbs.
- UTQG: 380 A A. (Learn all about UTQG here: https://tiredriver.com/what-is-utqg-rating/)
- Treadwear warranty: NA.
Internally, the tire offers a single ply polyester casing with twin steel belts, covered by spirally wrapped nylon cap ply.
Tread Structure
Fuzion UHP comes with a symmetric tread design with 5 blocks columns, called ribs (in the tire world).
Here, the central (most) rib is continuous and distinguished by its triangular-shaped siping.
Adjacent to this central are ribs with a continuous structure as well, (lacking distinct lateral grooves),
Though they do have a unique biters pattern on them.
As you may have noticed, they come with V shaped lateral notches, along with curved linear sipes.
Similar pattern continues towards shoulder ribs as well, (seen by V shaped notches and linear sipes), though these biters vary slightly in angle, adding to the tire’s dynamic design.
Additionally, the outermost edges of the tire feature notches that assist in improving cornering capabilities.
Swamped by all the all-season choices? Take the easy route and start here:
https://tiredriver.com/all-season-tires/
Overall Dry Performance
To thoroughly assess dry performance, we consider not just the tire’s grip and handling, but also its ability to maintain stability at high speeds. Let’s break down these components.
Linear Grip
This grip focuses on the traction a tire maintains while moving in a straight line. And it gets influenced by tire’s weight, and footprint form the lugs in its middle, (as they make the most contact with the surface, while the tire rolls linearly).
Moreover, since its a “directional” metric, it gets measured by braking distances.
Having said that, the UHP Sport AS delivers satisfactory results here, thanks to its robust and rigid rubber composition, paired with unbroken running central ribs.
While these elements ensure a solid rubber-to-road contact, the outer ribs, equipped with numerous sharp notches and chamfered edges, further enhance the overall grip of the tire.
However, the tire’s performance could have been slightly better, if it weren’t for its somewhat narrower central most rib.
While this rib is designed for enhanced winter performance, it slightly compromises the tire’s directional grip.
Yet the tire’s overall braking is still impressive. To give you an idea, the Fuzion UHP provides a very close resembling performance, when compared to Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate (review).
Lateral Grip
The outer edges of a tire’s tread are vital in determining its lateral grip, which is essentially the tire’s ability to maintain traction during turns.
This grip is largely affected by how well the tire’s shoulders and sidewalls are constructed, as these parts of the tread make the most contact with the road, while the tire is turning.
(This is because of centripetal force. Basically, as the tire turns, the weight it carries, concentrates towards tread edges).
In this area, the Fuzion UHP Sport AS performs exceptionally well.
Its structure features streamlined shoulders with minimal design elements, enhancing the rubber-to-road contact and, as a result, improving lateral traction.
That’s why compared to other entry level (and budget friendly) UHP options, the Fuzion stands out notably, outperforming nearly all, (as seen by its leading lateral g forces on tests).
Side Note: The Fuzion tire here, is actually ranked among top ultra-high performance all-season tires, for its “best value” overall. You can check out the list here: https://tiredriver.com/best-ultra-high-performance-all-season-tires/
Steering Feedback
Renowned for its quick and precise response to steering inputs, the Fuzion UHP Sport AS contributes significantly to a vehicle’s agile, and precise handling, enhancing the overall driving experience.
So, what contributes to this performance? Well consider two following aspects.
- Compact Shoulder Lugs: These lugs, backed with additional foundational supports underneath, keep the lugs and overall tread stable.
- Composed Internal Construction: The tire’s internal plies, with folded edges adds to the tire’s direct steering. This is because the edges of the tire don’t flex or compress as much with the road, keeping their structural integrity, keeping the delay between (driver’s) inputs and feedback low.
Basically with lugs not bending excessively, the tire doesn’t waste time into reshaping of its tread, which directly translates in to faster response times.
To give you an idea here, the tire’s dry handling is very similar to Kumho Ecsta PA51, (one of its direct competitor). Review this tire here: https://tiredriver.com/kumho-ecsta-pa51-review/
Wet Performance
When it comes to wet conditions, a tire’s performance is gauged by its traction, steering accuracy, and hydroplaning resistance. Let’s see, how well the tire fares in each of these areas.
Wet Traction
In terms of wet grip and handling, the Fuzion UHP Sport AS falls noticeably behind its competitors. And that’s mainly because of the tire’s ineffective sipes and grooves.
Basically, grooves channel away most of the water, while sipes are crucial for managing the remaining water particles.
These sipes, although are mere slits, they “open up” as the tire meets the road, sucking up moisture, drying out the road surface further.
Now, the primary issue with the Fuzion UHP Sport AS is its less effective siping. I mean although its tread offers numerous sipes, their linear orientation makes them prone to stiffening, particularly during sharp cornering.
In other words, they don’t “open” up effectively, reducing their water-absorbing capabilities. And yes, here the tire’s stiffer composition, with a lower silica content, adds to the rigidity of these sipes, impacting their performance further.
So because of this the tire lacks a lot in overall wet traction, particularly in terms of braking.
That’s why when compared to Michelin Pilot All Season 4 (review), which is highly rated for wet braking, the Fuzion UHP Sport AS falls short by over 7 feet in stopping distance tests (on average).
Though you can improve its wet performance considering these points.
Aquaplaning Resistance
Hydroplaning occurs when a tire loses contact with the road surface due to water, essentially causing the tire to float or “hydroplane” on the water.
So here grooves (and their design), matters a lot, since they take out majority of water.
Having said that, the Fuzion UHP Sport provides decent water evacuation capabilities, thanks to its straight-forward circumferential grooves. But there’s a catch.
Since these grooves are made by unbroken ribs, water can not escape out of the tread laterally, and is only able to evacuate out in vertical direction.
This insufficient lateral water removal not only affects curved hydroplaning tests, but also leads to understeering.
That’s why compared to Continental DWS06+ (review), which excels in wet conditions, the Fuzion tire lags by over three seconds on average, in wet handling lap time tests.
Snow Traction
The winter performance of the UHP Sport AS is a mixed bag, where although the tire excels in lateral traction and steering feedback, its braking performance leaves a lot of room for improvement.
To give you an idea, about its performance, I compared it with the most effective tire here, in its ultra high performance all season category, the Nokian WRG4 (review this tire here).
In this comparison, the Fuzion tire lacked behind by approximately 6 feet on snow, and about 13 feet on icy tracks, (when stopped from 50 mph).
This slower braking of the tire, leads to longer times needed for corner entry. I mean the tire requires more time to decelerate before making turns, and that time gets directly translated to overall handling times.
That’s why compared to same Nokian’s tire, the Fuzion lacked by over 4 seconds on lap tests, even though it offered pretty impressive steering responsiveness, overall.
Though I’d like to add that despite these drawbacks, considering its budget-friendly price point, the UHP Sport AS still presents a reasonable option.
Though standard touring tires are the cheapest among all other AS categories, just an FYI. You can see all of them here: https://tiredriver.com/different-types-of-all-season-tires/
Overall Ride Comfort
Ride comfort can be segmented into two aspects: Tread noise reduction, and the tire’s ability to absorb road irregularities. Let’s take a look at both.
Noise Comfort
The Fuzion UHP comes out with pretty notable noise levels overall, as seen by decibel reading tests.
This increased noise is largely due to greater in-groove resonance, characterized by a combination of harmonic tones and varying pitches.
The reason behind this is the tire’s rubber composition, which tends to reflect sound waves generated primarily by surface interactions. In other words, the tire echos the generated sound waves, increasing overall tread noise significantly.
For Your Info: Among entry level ultra high performance all-season tires, the Kumho Ecsta PA51 (review) offers the quietest ride.
Road Smoothness
The Fuzion UHP Sport AS could also see improvements in terms of impact comfort.
While the ride is generally smooth, the tire’s stiffer rubber compound doesn’t effectively mitigate road vibrations, affecting overall ride quality. This is true for both significant impacts and minor bumps.
So what’s causing this?
Well, predominately, its stiffer internal plies, with folded edges. They although provide the tire with good enough on-road stability, they still make the ride very, you can say, jittery, especially when you’re cornering.
Tread Longevity
The Fuzion UHP Sport AS is a standout choice, particularly for its cost-effectiveness.
I mean the tire isn’t just budget-friendly, but also excels in tread life, enhancing its overall value. In fact that’s the main reason why I added this boy in my list of top UHPAS tires.
So what’s making this tire perform great here? Well this is because the tire comes with:
- Stiffer Rubber Composition: This feature is key in reducing wear, extending the tire’s life.
- Supports Underneath Ribs: These supports add an extra layer of durability against wear.
- Well-Engineered Contact Patch: This reduces the overall impact of the tire’s weight, by evenly dividing it among its tread lugs.
That’s why although the tire comes with 40k miles warranty, its still capable of providing you with 50k usable miles, throughout its tread life.
However, it’s important to note regarding its warranty: the coverage drops to 20,000 miles if you use different tire sizes on the rear of the car compared to the front.
For Your Info: Among all the UHPAS tires I’ve reviewed, the Yokohama ADVAN Sport A/S+ is a clear leader, thanks to its longest lasting tread life. You may review this tire here: https://tiredriver.com/yokohama-advan-sport-a-s-plus-review/
Final Thoughts
The Fuzion UHP Sport AS provides great performance, across various areas. This less expensive all season tire, offers great performance on dry roads, providing superb handling and steering responsiveness.
And yes, same goes for its winter performance too.
Though the tire lacks a lot when it comes to wet performance, especially in terms of braking.
In fact braking overall, is the tire’s weakest of all, points. I mean it braking distance tests are lacking on all types of terrains, and not just wet roads.
Speaking of drawbacks, the tire also needs enhancements when it comes to road comfort, where its very loud, and isn’t able to offer good enough road smoothness.
Though on the good side, the tire stands out for its cost-effectiveness, offering decent tread life and fuel economy, which is also very even, throughout its all sizes.
