REVscene Automotive Forum - Winter tire discussion for grown ups thread.

There's a new ice grip standard in additional to the 3 peak snow rating and Bridgestone has a new Blizzak out that meets the standard:

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a7...-tire-details/

Quote:

This more human-readable name has some meaning behind it. Like all winter tires, the IcePeak meets the three-peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) standard, which tests snow acceleration against a standard tire. The rubber industry came up with a new certification called "ice grip" in 2021 that tests braking performance on ice. The IcePeak is the first Bridgestone tire to meet both standards, hence its non-alphanumeric name, and it has those respective symbols stamped on the sidewall.

Would the DM-V2 and WS90 have passed the ice-grip test? Probably, a Bridgestone rep told us, but the company hasn't done the testing to find out. Both tires were released before the ice-grip standard was a thing, and it wasn't worth the expense to go through the recertification process or update all of the many molds to include the icon, so they waited for the new tire.

Aside from the additional badge of honor, the IcePeaks are an improvement over what they replace, maintaining a competitive edge. Bridgestone testing shows they're comparable to Nokian's Hakkapeliitta R5 winter tire, while they're as good as or better than the WS90 across the board—the biggest leap is a claimed 23 percent improvement in acceleration performance.

I bet most current full winters already meet this standard.