Mechanical grip and molecular compounds make a confidence-inspiring set of rubber on track
Nokian is introducing the Surpass AS01 as an ultra-high-performance option for owners of vehicles who choose to daily their ride but haven’t yet hung up the Shoei race helmet. Just as a skilled instructor or electronic traction wizardry can inspire confidence behind the wheel of performance vehicles, so too can a great tire.
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What is an Ultra-High-Performance Tire?
This segment originally sprang to life when car manufacturers were seeking an extra edge it could add to zesty trims of its mainstream models without having to (quite literally) reinvent the wheel. After all, installing stickier tires is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve handling characteristics. Gummy rubber compounds and intricate tread patterns of an ultra-high-performance (UHP) tire can boost lateral grip, acceleration, and help braking performance.
While the Nokian brand is best known for its prowess with winter tires, this isn’t its first foray in to the UHP segment. Its ZLine A/S offerings played in this sphere but were discontinued some spell ago, meaning the engineers and scientists at Nokian aren’t UHP noobs. In fact, top brass told us the Surpass was originally meant to follow the ZLine almost immediately but Covid headaches got in the way.
Who Should Buy Them?
Think of it this way – if your ride was originally equipped with UHP tires, replacing them with standard all seasons would be like asking Usain Bolt to run the 100 metres in a pair of wellies full of tadpoles. It’s possible, but performance will suffer.
While the Surpass AS01 (and just about all UHP tires) are technically considered an all-season offering, they are best suited to conditions which don’t resemble the surface of Hoth or even Highway 401 in the middle of February. In other words, it is targeted at consumers in this country who choose to run a dedicated set of winter rubber when the snow flies and then swap to these performance-based hoops when Mother Nature cheers up after the May 24 long weekend.
Tread Mills
Wide circumferential grooves are present in this tread pattern, placed as such for water evacuation along a raft of 3D sipes in the solid middle rib of tread. Sipes spread out slightly when pressed into tarmac for extra grip in less-than ideal road conditions, such as rain. The so-called shoulder claws are easy to spy and are said also improve wet weather grip; those blocks are tied together since testing showed that design increased steering precision.
Nokian bakes a few practical tools right into the tread design to help both new and experienced drivers assess the condition of their tires. A driving safety indicator slowly wears away as the tire sheds rubber during normal use, as does the icon of a water droplet. These ‘at-a-glance’ features are a boon for building driver confidence and familiarity – just like the tire’s performance builds confidence behind the wheel at rapid speeds. Much thought was given to rolling resistance, good for any type of car but especially an EV, which means these hoops earn the brand’s Electric Fit emblem. Road noise, or the lack thereof, is important to EV owners since there is no internal combustion powertrain to mask the racket, though an extensive freeway slog was not part of this test to determine if Nokian hit this mark. They are notably continuing to look at this tire as a candidate for foam in its construction, a material used by some tire companies to dampen noise when mounted on an EV.
Compound Interest
While a tire’s tread pattern is easily seen by customers, and sometimes ham-fistedly copied by no-name tire companies looking for a quick entry into the marketplace, the secret brew which goes into a rubber compound is a tightly guarded secret. A smartly engineered compound is a large piece of the traction puzzle. In the Nokian Surpass AS01, high levels of silica are used; in fact, we were told this tire has the highest silica amount of any all-season product they make.
This ingredient massively improves handling characteristics, especially in wet conditions, with Nokian choosing to deploy a rice husk ash silica sourced from a few different suppliers to guard its supply chain. But, like sugar in a cake recipe, adding to much can ruin the product. “You can’t just dump in silica and call it a day,” a Nokian leader explained. “Getting the mix just right is extremely important.”
Also, it turns out that silica is very hard on production equipment used to make the tires, which makes a load of sense from a materials standpoint since the same gritty characteristics that provide extra roadholding can act like sandpaper when in raw material form. If you’re wondering, Nokian uses the VW GTI as a core development car for tires of this sort, along with the new BMW i4 to evaluate EV prowess.
Handling and Control
Nokian uses cut lightweight fibre technology to strengthen the tire sidewall. Aramid is the general name for this class of material but most people know it as Kevlar, which is actually a brand name owned by the DuPont company, and use the terms interchangeably like tissues and Kleenex or web searching and Google.
A robust sidewall helps with impact protection against potholes and, if you’re like us, over curbs lining your local race circuit. The tires certainly had no complaints as we hammered a new Mercedes-Benz C 300 sedan at great speed over a technical road course, maintaining traction in the face of painted curbing. A long, sweeping corner soaked with water revealed the tire’s propensity to claw grip as the driving instructor riding shotgun encouraged us to go faster on these UHPs of stock size and pressure. That’s those circumferential grooves in the tread at work evacuating water, then.
It was a similar story behind the wheel of an automatic-equipped Toyota Supra. Anyone who has driven that model knows it can be goaded into tail-wagging antics, especially with the traction control set to Almost Off. Direct comparisons were favourable and it was easy to grab these Nokians by the scruff of the neck to haul them back in line with ample mechanical grip. Full disclosure: your author wasn’t close to the top time of the day but at least he was in the hunt for a mid-pack lap.
How long will a Nokian Surpass AS01 last?
A signature characteristic of UHP tires has traditionally been the trade-off between sticky grip and accelerated wear patterns. Nokian feels they have struck on a good blend of rubber compound which will permit owners to extract the performance levels expected of a UHP whilst not wearing tread patterns to a nub with each trip to the shops. Nokian is backing these tires with a 90,000-km treadwear warranty and a 560 treadwear rating.
Where is it made and what sizes are available?
These days, geopolitics are causing some Canadian shoppers to turn a critical eye on information about product origin. Nokian is presently making the Surpass ultra-high-performance tire at its facility in Finland thanks to development cycles and European influences on the final compound and tread design. The company does have a new plant in Tennessee but output there is presently focused on other products. A total of 65 sizes are available at launch, ranging from 16- to 21-inch diameters, and can be found at dedicated tire retailers.
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