Tires are a crucial handling modification for any car, but have you considered the visual aspects of them? Here are the coolest tire tread patterns, according to us.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of tires. They’re the only bit of the car that’s actually in contact with the road, so it’s an area where you really don’t want to scrimp. A few basic checks will tell you what sort of state your rubber is in, and it’s not just a case of checking whether you have a legal level of tread and that it’s wearing evenly. Tears, cracks, missing chunks – are they perishing due to age? These are all things that tell you it’s time for a new set. And when it comes to choosing new tires, it’s crucial to make sure you get the right ones for you: don’t just buy the cheapest to get you legal again, because low-quality ditch-finders from a brand you’ve never heard of really are a false economy.
Furthermore, each big-name manufacturer offers a full range of tires tailored for specific purposes, so there’ll be a set out there that’s a perfect fit for your car and your own particular driving style. That said, there’s an important aesthetic element to consider there too. Because some tread patterns just look cooler than others, don’t they? And here are what we reckon are ten of the coolest…
Coolest Tire Tread Patterns
Yokohama Advan Neova AD08RS
This is an ultra high-performance road and track day tire that’s soft enough to give outstanding grip, but not so soft that it’ll wear out quickly. Yokohama claims that the tread pattern ‘results in sharper turn-in and progressive grip that lets you know when the limit has been reached,’ which is all very reassuring. But the thing that earns it a place in this list is simply that it looks brilliant. Emanating from a broad central channel, the design looks like two mirrored columns of sleepy cartoon rabbits – it’s the sort of tread pattern that ensures you’ll dial in a bit of lock when you park up so that everybody can see it.
Toyo Proxes R888R
There aren’t a lot of road-legal tire designs that look quite as hardcore as the Toyo Proxes R888R. The tread pattern is so sparse, you could almost imagine that it had been carved on the fly in a pit garage by some grizzled race engineer keen to get his driver out there to the apex whatever the weather. Designed specifically for the track, they provide excellent grip in the dry and are engineered to enable higher cornering speeds as well as superlative longevity and consistency. And then you can drive home again, looking stylish.
Nankang AR-1
Another road-legal track tire (bit of a theme developing here, isn’t there?), the Nankang AR-1 takes the concept of minimalism to an entertaining extreme, featuring just about enough tread as it’s possible to get away with. They’re not too far removed from cut slicks, with a 5.5mm tread depth in its sparse grooves. The AR-1 is the control tire in series such as the Civic Challenge, Classic VW Cup and BMW 1 Series Supercup – not for aesthetic reasons of course, but it does help to make the grid look a bit tastier!
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2
Rocking a set of Cup 2s is a statement of intent. It tells other enthusiasts that you’re a serious driver in a serious machine – that performance is imperative for you, and you don’t mind shelling out the big bucks to get the best possible grip in fast-road scenarios. Indeed, it speaks volumes that the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 was standard-fit on such astonishing machines as the Ferrari 458 Speciale, the Porsche 918 Spyder and the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series. This is proper stuff. And the tread pattern looks as serious as hell – two-thirds of it look like a historic F1 tire, while the other third is essentially slick. It’s an awesome vibe.
Avon Cut Historic All-Weathers
This isn’t the sort of tire you’re going to be fitting to your Fiesta. No, this is a pure competition tire for pure competition applications. Homologated and approved for all manner of historic race series, this is one of the coolest examples of a tire having its name spelled out in massive white letters on the sidewall, and the wiggly tessellating tread pattern evokes the golden age of visceral hedonistic motorsport. A timeless classic. Find out more here.
Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta
We love it when tire manufacturers introduce an eye-catching bit of artistic flair to their designs. Yes, the tread pattern on the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta is doubtless the result of countless hours of research and development, perfectly honed and refined and tested to provide the best possible performance within its budget bracket and operational applications… but we can’t help but be impressed by the fact that its splayed fan design resembles a piece of post-revolutionary Soviet art. It looks like it belongs on a Russian movie poster from the 1920s.
Continental Sport Contact 6
This one’s a bit of an everyday hero. From afar it might look a little mundane, somewhat run-of-the-mill, with its linear division of blocks forming regimented lines left-to-right. But look a little closer and a whole world of detail reveals itself. There are sneaky angular sipes juxtaposed within the strips, numerous different divisions of horizontals, triangles within the rectangles. This isn’t mundane at all. This is a mainstream road tire reinvented with the offbeat mathematical artistry of M.C. Escher.
Avon RX Cut Wet
This is the world’s most successful rallycross wet tire. It has a specially engineered compound for optimal start-line traction. It’s designed for extreme performance on wet tarmac and loose surfaces. But none of that is why it’s made the list. No, we just love the endless tessellating hexagons. It’s like a sinister beehive, infused with the street smarts of a pair of 1990s Reebok Hexalites. Learn more here.
Yokohama Advan A048
Advan is a strong brand. It looks great on a race livery or a sunstrip, and this kudos is backed up by some seriously impressive street and race rubber. The A048? Yes, that’s a properly cool-looking tire, developed with all of Yokohama’s racing know-how to make something eminently appropriate for track day heroism and club racing. And that tread pattern? Gorgeous, isn’t it? A sparse scattering of shepherds’ crooks showcasing acres of smooth empty surfacing. A masterpiece in rubber.
F1 slicks with marbles
No, you’re right, that isn’t technically a tread pattern. But the sight of a set of battered and blistering Pirellis that have just done battle with a grid of Formula 1 heroes, cooling down by running off line to pick up the marbles and add a bit of mass for the weigh-in – well, there are few sights more evocative than that in the realm of racing. When George Russell cruises into the pits with bits of everyone else’s old rubber gummed to his tires, it’s not just his AI-perfect jawline that’s making everybody swoon. Spent slicks with marbles have thrilling tales to tell.
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