‘Winter tyres’ are the current buzzwords in tyre depots across the UK and Ian was lucky enough to grab a set of spankers new Dunlop WinterSport 4Ds to put on his Audi.

Everyone seems to be talking about winter tyres, and I suspect that as I pen this there’s at least one person searching that well known internet auction site for a set of suitable steelies on which to fit some winter rubber in order to stay on the road this winter and preserve their best alloys.

And that’s not such a daft thing because, as you can see from the various illustrations from TyreSafe (www.tyresafe.org), the evidence promoting the use of winter tyres is pretty convincing. And contrary to what you might think, it’s not just in the ice and snow where they offer more grip – basically if it’s the slightest bit damp or when the mercury dips below 7 degrees Celcius there’s huge benefits to be had in terms of acceleration, cornering and braking performance.

That’s why I was bristling with excitement when I was offered a set of Dunlop’s latest WinterSport 4D rubbers to fit on the Audi which, I have to admit, is totally rubbish in the wet and downright dangerous in the ice and snow.

Made to grip
Winter tyres possess a number of features to help them grip better when the conditions go belly up. The first is that they are made from a stickier rubber that contains a greater proportion of silica so they don’t go rock hard when the temperatures begin to plummet. They also feature a distinctive tread pattern with a greater number of individual tread ‘blocks’ and hundreds of ‘sipes’ (ultra thin grooves) which provide better irrigation to disperse water more quickly. Finally – and this is where Dunlop’s 4D comes in – the interlocking arrangement of these sipes and blocks increase the number of edges in contact with the road, offering better grip and pressure deployment as well as brilliant driver feedback and steering response. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Dunlop’s natty sawtooth feature on the inside of the blocks for additional deep snow braking performance.

Name:
Ian Cushway
Age:
46
Current staple diet: 
Leffe Ruby
Recent revelations: 
The old A6 Avant is still one of the classiest estates out there
Drives:
Just the Audi now
Wish list:
A tow bar
Currently getting deafened by:
Harry Nilsson ‘Good Old Desk’
Big up!
Goodyear/Dunlop for creating such a sexy, high performance winter tyre. Also, the brilliant bunch of guys at Discount Tyre Direct Ltd in Worthing (01903 203477/234752, www.dtstyres.co.uk). If you live in Sussex, go pay them a visit...

To read the rest of this feature see the January 2012 issue of Golf+.

Back issues available here.