Both champions in their categories, Goodyear’s Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 and Bridgestone Turanza 6 have their unique strong suits. Our head-to-head comparison examines these tires from every angle, shedding light on their characteristics and revealing the ideal scenarios for each tire.
Table of Contents
Quick Takeaway
The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 performs better in:
- Longitudinal traction, as it shows exceptional dry braking performance, courtesy of full-depth sipes and angled incisions.
- Handling on wet surfaces, due to a tread design that offers better water displacement and grip.
- Wet surface braking, with an exceptional hydroplaning resistance at various speeds on both linear and curved pavements.
- Tread life, as it offers a robust rubber composition.
- Absorption of road vibrations, thanks to a softer tread rubber that ensures a smoother and more comfortable ride.
The Bridgestone Turanza 6 outperforms in:
- Dry handling, given its enhanced steering response and an optimal balance of rigidity and flexibility in the shoulder lugs.
- Fuel consumption, owing to a more aerodynamically optimized structure and shallower tread depth, leading to lower rolling resistance and less energy loss.
- Noise reduction, as the smaller shoulder tread voids and advanced pitch sequencing technology help mitigate the noise.
Dry Performance
A detailed analysis of dry performance was done, where some crucial factors were taken in to account, these include, directional traction, steering responsiveness, and cornering capabilities.
I’ve discussed them both in following two sections.
Longitudinal Traction
Dry grip, or longitudinal traction as it’s called within the tire industry, is a straight rolling friction of the tire with the ground.
And since its a directional metric, its measure with braking distances.
Now, both tires are although neck to neck, the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 is still taking the lead.
This is because the tire offers multiple in-groove notches across the tread, and these act as very powerful biters to provide shorter braking distances on average (as seen on the tests).
Bridgestone Turanza 6, on the other side, offering a more streamlined structure, can’t provide similar grip, so it’s acceleration times and braking efficacy is affected.
Dry Handling
The lateral grip and maneuverability of a tire during cornering processes are inherently contingent on the tread’s extremities, aka shoulders and sidewalls.
And looking at them, it can be explained why they Goodyear Asymmetric 6 does better here as well.
The tire basically offers greater rubber to road contact form its shoulders, and it’s firmer lug to road contact form there provide superior balance between understeering or oversteering.
This results in faster handling feedback in comparison.
The Bridgestone Turanza 6 on the other side, lacks as it’s not able to do as better in both these departments. I mean don’t get me wrong, the tire is still pretty great, but overall, its still lacking to the Asymmetric 6, which is actually ranking amongst the top 3 when it comes to dry traction.
Performance on Wet Surfaces
To achieve outstanding performance on wet surfaces, a tire requires a tread design that balances a robust grip on damp pavement while also warding off hydroplaning. These critical features are primarily achieved through effective water evacuation from the tread.
In this context, the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 emerges as a superior choice, as the tire is equipped with lateral voids across all its ribs, which are not only adept at expelling water more efficiently but also act as “biters”, seizing the relatively drier surfaces with remarkable efficiency.
Essentially, these biters, which can be considered as sipes, are designed to draw in water particles, while the bulk of the water navigates through the grooves.
Thus, the grooves provide better resistance to hydroplaning, while the “sipes” take care of any remaining water particles.
Functioning much like vacuum cleaners, these sipes suck up water particles, allowing the rubber to establish a solid connection with the road.
In comparison, the Bridgestone Turanza 6, while equipped with sipes, lacks having the full depth feature. So, the primary method of water displacement, for this tire, is via grooves.
Given these considerations, the Asymmetric 6 outshines its competition in overall wet performance.
Fuel Consumption
The metrics of rolling resistance and fuel efficiency are positively correlated, I mean, one goes up the other goes up too.
And since same rule applies for the traction too, the Bridgestone Turanza 6 takes the lead.
The tire with symmetric structure, versus the asymmetric of its counterpart, gets to roll around with more ease. Moreover it’s missing multi-angled biters also help reduce the overall rolling resistance friction.
I mean, sure, these missing features loses this tire some points in overall dry and wet traction, but this is where it pays off.
On the other side, the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 not only lacks with more aggressive biters, but these in-groove notches, which are technically lateral gaps, makes its tread more flexible.
And so with greater lug/rib movement, more energy gets wasted in to the molding of the tread, which could have been used in to the rolling of the tire.
Side Note: The Turanza not only outperforms Asymmetric 6, but its one of best when it comes to fuel economy.
Tread Life
The longevity of tire tread life is predominantly determined by rolling resistance, tread composition, and tread depth.
The rolling resistance causes greater burning, sure, but if the tread depth is more, it would take more time to reach down to 2/32″ (which is where you should change your tires, I mean you are not allowed to run tires below this tread depth in USA).
Similarly, if the rubber is “hard/stiff”, it would not burn that fast.
Now here, the Bridgestone Turanza 6 is taking the lead, as this tire offers a firmer contact with the road, and is rubber is not that prone to burning up.
On the other side, the Asymmetric 6 with greater tendency to lug bending lacks. The lateral notches in its rib, causes it’s tread to be more flexible in comparison, and this leads to lug bending, (explained in the fuel section).
The bending then leads to heat, and that negatively impacts the tread-wear.
Road Noise
Air is what causes noise, as air particles coming in through shoulders, hit around the walls of the tread, and the impact of that produces unwanted sound waves.
Now out of both tires, the Bridgestone Turanza is taking the lead, due to its more streamlined structure, and missing lateral voids.
So basically this tire don’t allow air particles to have a lot of striking area, if you like. And it’s closed up tread voids, on the shoulders, don’t allow a lot of air to enter, in the first place.
Moreover, it also employs advanced pitch sequencing technology, whereby varying angles help to diminish noise levels, produced by remaining air particles that managed to get in.
All of these features are missing in the Asymmetric 6.
Vibrations Absorption
The ride smoothness of a tire is intrinsically linked to its ability to negotiate road irregularities, a quality greatly impacted by the tire’s overall composition, both internally and externally.
That’s why tires with more pliant structures tend to yield a more comfortable driving experience.
Consequently, it is understandable why the Bridgestone Turanza 6 faces some hurdles in this area, owing to its less flexible outer tread, even though both tires employ similar rigidity internally.
The Asymmetric 6, on the other hand, features a more flexible tread makeup, which effectively absorbs road vibrations within its tread. This flexibility is basically achieved by the multiple in-groove notches seen all of the tire’s tread.
So yes, the Goodyear is taking the lead here.
So, What’s The Verdict?
In conclusion, both tires present their distinct advantages.
The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 shines in longitudinal traction due to its superior dry braking performance, facilitated by full-depth sipes and angled incisions.
Moreover, it offers improved handling on wet surfaces with a tread design that optimally displaces water and provides a firm grip. Additionally, it ensures a smoother ride by effectively absorbing road vibrations through its softer tread rubber.
On the other hand, the Bridgestone Turanza 6 excels in dry handling though only by a margin.
And it also displays strong braking performance on wet surfaces, with outstanding hydroplaning resistance at varying speeds.
Moreover, the Turanza 6 showcases a longer tread life thanks to a robust rubber composition and contributes to fuel efficiency with its aerodynamic structure and shallow tread depth.
Additionally, its smaller shoulder tread voids and advanced pitch sequencing technology make for a quieter ride.
So now, the choice is yours to make, what you need out of your high performance tires? Well, this article answered that very nicely, I think.
