Having found that our 4x4 Octy was supplied with Dunlop sp sport 01 tyres when car was new at the end of Nov 07, we just had to try them out ourselves. We had not used them at all from new, preferring to change to" Pirelli Winter Carving "for the winter, which proved very good indeed on ice and snow also heavy rain. We have read very unfavorable stories on the Briskoda about " road noise" and other more serious problems with some Dunlop tyres and SP sport 01s also mentioned. So this is our personal feelings, drawn from our very brief test over the last two days.

Driven on very bad potholed B/ C roads, both in the wet/ slush and dry conditions, noise = 1% louder than our winter Pirelli's, neither being loud by any means ( we recorded both types of tyres over these conditions and played back on the PC)

Driven on very good motorway surfaces 420 kms total, = didn't know we had even changed the tyres said my wife !! fact is both sets of tyres can not be heard over the 1.9td pd engine, so both types acceptable to us. The faster you drove say at 130/ 140 km per hour the Dunlop became if anything even more silent, but then so does the car when in 6th gear anyway.

In very wet conditions, large puddles, on motorway and a mountain twisting road, with snow still on verges, Dunlop behaved very well indeed. Even tried tyres in a little snow, and found ESP,TCS system didn't even know that we had changed the tyres.

So for ourselves at this point anyway we are happy with the Dunlops, there was a secret weapon however, we had our 30klo dog in the back , but then that was very often going to be the case.

Olympic center Bjelolasica Croatia, taken today still some snow around.

i was recommended them by my local tyre guy on my last car, i always respected his judgement as he would try the tyres first and give honest opinions to which ones to have.

Here in Portugal I never use winter tyres. I have Dunlop Sport SP1 and compared with other brands I used during last 22 years they, and Bridgestone, are very, very noisy tyres. Mine are almost worn so will be replacing them in summer.

I believe your test is more then correct. But, winter tyre is noisy, always. So, IMHO if noise of any winter tyre is equal to noise of summer tyre, then that summer tyre is very noisy.

I said I never use winter tyres, but that is since I moved to Portugal 11 years ago. Before that, I've driven a lot on snow and ice and I know how noisy winter tyres can be.

But, it's just me, maybe others have differnt experience.

PS

My next choice will be Falken, no more Dunlop or Bridgestone (I'm running on 18').

I've got them on mine and they seem to grip well.

Soldatov - always great to see your pics of the 4x4 getting used to the full extent. Very smart in grey with silver roof bars - unfortunately not an option in the UK until recently...