BF Goodrich brought us out to Salt Lake City--a place we affectionately call "party central"--so we could test out what the company calls the "most technologically advanced tire BFG has ever made." We were hoping to sample something along the lines of a BFG R1 tire dipped in super glue; instead, we got an all-season tire.
We were a bit disappointed at first, but it turns out that this all-season tire--called the g-Force Super Sport A/S--doesn't feel like an all-season tire at all. It feels more like a dedicated summer tire, to be honest. And for those of you who live in places where the sun doesn't shine every day, the Z-rated g-Force Super Sport A/S may turn out to be your best friend.
Rather than take the easy route and give its tire over a hundred completely arbitrary "tread zones," BFG spent some money and developed a tire that uses three different tire compounds. These three types of vulcanized rubber--plus the Super Sport A/S' unique tread design--allow it Velcro-like grip in dry, wet and snow.
We're not saying that the BFG g-Force Super Sport A/S grips like a Hoosier race slick, but it is still really, really good. BFG let us race around Miller Motorsports Park in an Evo shod in these Super Sport A/Ses, and we found it really easy to push the Evo on these tires. For comparison purposes, we also got to drive a similar Evo running a competitor's all-season sports tire. While the BFG Evo had a direct steering feel and a tenacious grip on the track, the Evo wearing the "other" tires felt slow to respond to steering inputs and understeered like a mofo. We were much faster around the track in the BFGs.
The BFG tire also has seemingly superior performance in the wet. We also got to drive an Audi S4 around a wet track--using the same BFGs and the same competitor tire as a control. While BFG and Miller did their best to keep the track covered in a pool of water, triple-digit track temperatures meant the water would dry up as fast as the Miller team could spray it. That said, the Audi in BFGs exhibited much less fun-killing understeer and handled even the deepest puddles with ease.
As surprised as we were with this tire's grip level, we were more surprised with just how quiet it is. Driving the vault-like Audi S4 through Park City and all over Salt Lake City's highways, we noticed that we got more noise from wind buffeting the car than we did noise from the tires running over SLC's rough pavement.
The g-Force Super Sport A/S isn't the tire to choose if you want to kick ass and take names at the race track, but it's a pretty good piece of rubber for those who want to partake in a bit of spirited driving without running the risk of hydroplaning across four lanes of highway as soon as it starts to drizzle. The g-Force Super Sport A/S should be at your local tire dealer right now.
www.bfgoodrich.com