---
title: 'Horsepower vs Tires - What Actually Matters?!'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=cXNolTd5i20'
video_id: 'cXNolTd5i20'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 1118
---

# Horsepower vs Tires - What Actually Matters?!

> Source: [Horsepower vs Tires - What Actually Matters?!](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cXNolTd5i20)

## Summary

This video compares the performance impact of tire technology versus vehicle advancements by swapping tires between a sixth-generation and eighth-generation Volkswagen GTI. Results reveal that modern tires offer dramatically better grip, especially in wet conditions, often outperforming newer car models equipped with older tires.

### Key Points

- **Experiment Overview** [00:02] — Old car (Mark 6 GTI) with new tires vs new car (Mark 8 GTI) with old tires to compare the impact of tire technology versus vehicle advancements.
- **Tire Specifications** [01:28] — Mark 6 gets Continental ExtremeContact Sport 02 (2022), Mark 8 gets ExtremeContact DW (2009), both 340 treadwear summer tires.
- **Vehicle Advantages** [02:27] — Mark 8 has 16-32% more power, DSG transmission, better ABS, and power-to-weight advantage.
- **Wet Handling Lap Times** [04:06] — Mark 8 on old tires: 83.6s; Mark 6 on new tires: 79.6s (4 seconds faster).
- **Dry Handling Segment Times** [05:19] — Mark 8 on old tires: 54.4s; Mark 6 on new tires: 53.93s (0.47s faster).
- **Wet Braking (80-0 km/h)** [07:21] — Mark 8 on old tires: 31.3m; Mark 6 on new tires: 27.16m (4.14m shorter).
- **Dry Braking (100-0 km/h)** [10:49] — Mark 8 on old tires: 38.14m; Mark 6 on new tires: 34.8m (3.34m shorter).
- **Tires Offset Vehicle Improvements** [13:09] — Two generations of tire improvement entirely offset two generations of car improvement across all tests.
- **Car vs Tires Braking Contribution** [14:35] — With same tires, newer car stops ~1m shorter in dry and ~2m in wet. Tires contributed more than vehicle ABS advancements.
- **Conclusion** [16:50] — Tire technology has been the primary driver of modern performance numbers, especially in wet conditions.

### Conclusion

Tire technology advancements have been so significant that they can completely offset vehicle improvements over two generations. In both wet and dry conditions, newer tires provided more performance gain than the car's engine, transmission, and chassis upgrades.

## Transcript

what's faster an old car running new tires or a new car running old tires in we're going to witness how impressive the technology leap has been in tires over just the past 10 to 15 years have modern engines transmissions and
suspensions brought us into the era of Bonkers performance numbers that we see today or by chance could the majority of that performance bump be explained with just one thing tires to demonstrate this we'll be pitting a sixth generation
Volkswagen GTI against an eighth generation GTI the catch the eth Gen GTI will be running Tire technology from the Sixth Gen gti's era and vice versa with
the six gen GTI running modern tires and so that it's absolutely clear both sets of tires are brand new manufactured within several months of testing in this video this test is demonstrating the difference in Tire technology I don't
that an old dry rotted Tire gets outperformed by a new one that's not what we're comparing both vehicles are running the exact same tire size at recommended pressures so things like Tire width wheel diameter and aspect
ratios are kept identical any performance difference is a direct evaluate the difference between old Tech and new we're going to be looking at wet and dry lap times as well as both wet and dry braking performance but first
working with we've got the cars and the tires let's start with the tires the Mark 6 GTI is going to be running continental's latest extreme contact sport 02 this is an ultra high performance summer Tire it was first
released in 2022 and it has a 340 treadwear rating the Mark 8 GTI will be running continental's extreme contact DW also an ultra high performance summer Tire which was initially released in 2009 and it also has a 340 treadwear
rating these tires sound similar because they're from the same lineup the sport2 is two generations newer than the extreme contact DW surprisingly Continental still makes the extreme contact DW sold in certain markets
unchanged after all this time which allows for this fascinating comparison so we have a tire that's two generations newer on a car that's two generations older as well as the reverse what an incredible contrast I'm stoked to see
what happens as for the cars the Mark 8 GTI has the clear Advantage not only is it more powerful it also has significantly more torque so at any point in the Rev range it's making about 16 to 32% more power newer tech means
some added weight but it only tips the scales at 5% heavier so it has a clear power to weight advantage and if that wasn't enough the eighth gen will be equipped with Volkswagen's Lightning Fast DSG their dual clutch transmission
while the six gen is rocking a manual transmission so so against the Mark 6 GTI the Mark 8 has better gear ratios faster shifting a better power to weight ratio and a more advanced anti-lock braking system objectively there's no
reason for it to lose on track great let's get to the testing all of the testing was carried out at continental's Cony drone Proving Grounds just north of Hanover Germany ensuring everything is carried out in a controlled environment
for an Apples to Apples comparison we'll make use of a wet handling course a dry handling course a wet braking track and a personal favorite flying around the high-speed oval in order to access the dry braking track to round it all out
we'll throw the extreme contact sport o2s on the mark a GTI so we can see exactly how much of the performance can be attributed to the car versus how much is attributed to the tires let's start with wet handling as wet grip is
dramatically improved the course were testing on is a tight twisty 1.8 km track that showcases a car's wet handling or lack thereof very easily the course has a continuous consistent level of water flowing on top of it first out
is the eighth gen GTI on the old tires for consistency one of continental's Highly experienced test drivers will be doing the ab comparison as he has countless Laps on this course and could probably drive it blindfolded in the
Mark 8 GTI on Extreme contact DWS he managed an 83.6 second time on the wet handling course okay time for the mark 6 on Sporto 2os it managed the course in just 79.6 seconds a full 4 seconds quicker
than a newer car that has every mechanical advantage possible aside from tires driving them myself honestly both tires felt solid but you could notice the additional grip of the sp2s especially on the front axle where you
could have a higher steering limit before you noticed under steer just for contrast and I won't name names but we threw some brand new cheap or uh wallet friendly summer Tires on the mar 8 GTI and it ran a
mar 8 GTI and it ran a 92.6 7 second lap driving these tires in the wet was scary in comparison and the lap time shows how much worse they perform even still I'm shocked how much two generations of a tire makes in wet
two generations of a tire makes in wet handling 4 seconds is a massive Gap so what about dry handling the course we timed was just a portion of the 3.8 km track the cony Drome has dedicated for handling it features long continuous
radius Corners so you can explore exactly what happens at a vehicle's grip limit and whether small steering inputs result in a rapid loss of grip or if it's a more controlled and stable drop off it's a really interesting circuit
for evaluating handling Behavior but we're here for lap times or in this case segment times Continental said that the advancements in Tire technology in terms of the past 10 to 15 years is very prominent and wet conditions but that
dry condition advancements aren't quite as Steep and with more grip thanks to dry conditions the Mark 8 GTI should be able to shine with its improved power to weight ratio since it won't be traction limited by a wet surface the newer GTI
managed a segment time of 54.4 seconds to our surprise though the Mark 6 GTI on newer tires was able to squeeze out a faster time at 53.9 3 seconds or just
under half a second not a crazy e Gap but remember that's with worse gearing but remember that's with worse gearing and less power tires beat horsepower I gave both options a try and honestly the overall grip felt quite similar though
to me the sport two felt slightly sharper as well as more predictable once you started exceeding the tire's grip it's tough to compare though since the body control of the Mark 8 is so much flatter than the older GTI which bounds
about quite a bit as you change directions now as an engineer at heart I am always skeptical I'm not here to doubt continental's driver and his lap times I genuinely believe he was giving it his best on every run but as a viewer
you could easily say well how do I know this isn't the driver just going easy while he drives on the old tire and giving it everything he's got on the new tire to dismiss this idea we need objective data this is why we also
performed brake testing and because any idiot can Mash a brake pedal in a straight line these tests were conducted by yours truly so here's how the test Works starting with wet braking the braking zone is a straight line covered
in water there are cones creating a narrow path within this braking zone so that you're always breaking on the same section of Road water is continuously fed on the course at a constant rate so you have a consistent level of water on
the surface at all times for the test we're measuring the breaking distance from 80 km hour down to zero to run the test you accelerate the vehicle to above 80 5 kmph enter the Splash Zone slam the brakes and the GPS only starts measuring
the distance traveled once you've hit 80 kmph down to the time you stop moving you do this a bunch of times in our case we did this five times for each vehicle and then you get an average stopping distance now this test is reliant on
speaking will give you the best stopping distance but we need to understand how it works to understand why the Mark 8 GTI has an advantage so the ideal ABS system does two things first it allows your wheels to continuously rotate
second it allows you to stop as quickly as possible so if you're to look at a you're going to have this linear deceleration where you just sit at your vehicle's Peak grip for those tires and decelerate down to zero in reality at
the individual wheel level as you apply too much braking Force to one wheel it locks up so it's wheel speed starts to drop you then release that brake pressure the wheel speed goes back up and you're hunting to find that Peak
and you're hunting to find that Peak grip as you decelerate down to 0 mph so a modern system will make more adjustments per second and it will also have a better job at finding that Peak grip they have better algorithms in
newer cars for finding that Peak grip So in theory newer cars should stop shorter even on the same tire than older cars because they have better ABS systems so what were the results well for the Mark 8 GTI with the old Tire the average
stopping distance from five separate runs from 80 km per hour to zero was runs from 80 km per hour to zero was 31.3 M for the old GTI on the latest gen Tire the average of five runs was 2716 M more than a 4 M Gap a huge
difference in order to get a better understanding of what these numbers mean it's better to compare them in terms of g-forces for example I have one G pulling down on me right now because I'm on planet Earth allegedly with some
simple math you can translate the stopping distance into G forces and find that the old Tire stop with an average of8 G's actually still reasonable in the wet but the new tire stops at an average of .93 G's in the wet that translates to
of .93 G's in the wet that translates to over 15% more grip again a massive difference very impressive now for the ultra SK Skeptics the vehicles were alternated after every run to accommodate for any changing conditions
on the road surface for example if the tires are to leave behind any rubber or slight weather differences so the testing goes vehicle one vehicle 2 vehicle one vehicle two for a total of 10 runs and these are the results okay
so what about dry breing again Continental Engineers were skeptical we'd see much of a difference because Tire technology has made greater strides in the wet than in the dry but surprisingly the results were clear
since dry breaking distances are shorter than wet breaking distances this test was conducted at higher speeds and to my delight it takes part on the cony drum's high-speed oval something rather remarkable about this oval at low speeds
as you're going around the car naturally wants to turn left down the slope at really really high speeds you have to steer into the corner as the car wants to drift up the embankment but at a certain speed this beautiful thing
happens where absolutely no steering input is required from the driver and steering wheel feeling like you're driving in a straight line while I self-preservation you could theoretically take your hands off the
wheel while driving around and at the right speed the car would track perfectly ahead anyways I've gotten distracted since Drive bring has shorter stopping distances this testing was conducted at higher speeds you bring the
conducted at higher speeds you bring the car up above 110 kmph and the GPS starts measuring stopping distance once you hit 100 km per hour down to zero in our case it started raining after we had completed two runs on each vehicle so
we're only averaging two braking tests on each but for both cars the two runs were very consistent so I'm confident in the numbers the new GTI on Extreme contact DWS had an average stopping distance of 38.1 4 M from 100 kmph to
zero while the old GT on Extreme contact sp2s stopped on average in just 34.8 n m so more than a 3 m Gap actually quite significant in terms of g-forces the DW
manages an average of 1.03 G's while the spor2 manages an average of 1.13 GS translating to over 9% more dry grip again that is a massive Improvement so
now because we objectively know the new tire has more wet and dry grip we can understand why the old car was faster on track as more grip means higher cornering speeds which results in Faster lap times all right we've got one more
test scenario to run through but I want to recap so far because this is pretty powerful after just two new generations of developing a tire Continental not only dramatically improved wet handling dry handling wet breaking and dry breing
but if you were to go from a Mark 6 GTI to a Mark 8 GT GTI you can entirely offset that performance gain with tires alone that is incredible but I'm still
not fully satisfied because now I want to know how much of the Improvement can be attributed to the tire versus the car I told Continental we're not done yet we need to run more tests and they obliged so we took the eighth gen GTI and
finally gave it the tires it deserves the sport 02s and we ran it through the same wet and dry braking tests we'll start with dry bring where it managed to start with dry bring where it managed to stop from 100 kmph to 0 in
33.84m just over one full meter shorter than the Mark 6 GTI on the same tires with an average breaking GeForce of 1.16 GS so to put this in context a two
generations newer GTI in the advancements in Breaking systems within it were good for about a 1 M difference in braking whereas two generations newer tires were good for over 3 m in braking distance with a worse braking vehicle
okay moving to wet braking the results are similar the Mark 8 GTI on sp2s are similar the Mark 8 GTI on sp2s manages 80 kmph to zero in 25.2 m versus 27.2 m with the old car on the same tires so 2 m from the newer ABS Tech in
the wet but 4 M shorter stopping distance with the Modern Tire using an older car so for breaking in both wet and dry the tires made more of a difference than the vehicle also if you do the math that is
do the math that is 999 G's breaking in the wet this is a 999 G's breaking in the wet this is a tire capable of 1G braking in the rain that is ridiculous moving on to dry handling this actually does show the
modern vehicle offer substantial performance benefits going from 53.9 3 performance benefits going from 53.9 3 seconds in the Mark 6 down to 52.5 seconds in the Mark 8 over 1.4 seconds faster while using the same Modern Tire
but even still the Modern Tire was enough of a performance jump to give the enough of a performance jump to give the old GTI a faster time over the new GTI on Old Tires overcoming the two generations of a performance deficit
finally we ran one last test wet handling with the new tire on the new handling with the new tire on the new GTI this was perhaps the most striking difference in all of the testing as it ran the wet handling course in
ran the wet handling course in 79.2 seconds just 4/10 of a second 79.2 seconds just 4/10 of a second faster than the 6 gen GTI on the same tires so the performance gap on a wet handling course between the vehicles is
just4 seconds while the performance Gap from old to new tires with a worse from old to new tires with a worse vehicle is 4 full seconds that's 10 times the time time Gap take a moment to appreciate this after 10 to 15 years of
Technology improvements with more power a faster transmission with better gearing and it's good for just4 seconds when you run the same tires on a twisty wet handling course yet the old car can run four full seconds faster than the
new one by running 10 to 15 years newer Tire technology tires really have carried us into the crazy performance numbers we're seeing out of modern cars and the contrast is even more striking in the rain you can have all the
horsepower in the world but if you don't have the grip it doesn't matter to me this demonstration of swapping generations of cars and tires has been the most powerful illustration to show just how important tires really are so a
huge thanks to Continental at the request of a measly YouTuber for putting in all of the effort and resources to make this happen and just one final comment on a personal note visiting and experiencing this facility has been a
genuine highlight of my career on YouTube before quitting and becoming a professional white border about 10 years ago I was actually a test engineer when I arrived at the con Drome in Germany it brought me right back I had a quick
literally Set Me Free to interact with the various test courses that the facility offered they immediately trusted me to faf about in various Vehicles by myself on various tracks right alongside profession professional
who are carrying out meaningful tests for both Continental as well as the major oems these are my people and it's an experience I won't soon forget so again a huge thank you to Continental for not only sponsoring this video but
for all of the effort and resources they put in helping create this video the extreme contact sport 02 is an awesome Tire I run it on my model 3 Performance as well as my gr Corolla and it's super fun on both rain or shine you can find a
description if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below comments feel free to leave them below thanks for watching