BFGoodrich G-FORCE COMP-2 A/S Review
BFGoodrich has a new all-season ultra-high performance tire on the market this year meant to offer most of the grip you would get in a summer tire with leeway for driving in colder weather.
The BFGoodrich g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S isn’t intended for winter use, but the company says its new product has enough grip in cold weather to offer safe driving in colder weather when very light snow is possible.
We plan to conduct a longer test later this year with a set on one of our personal vehicles to gauge how well the g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S lives up to that claim, but that will have to wait until later in the year.
In the meantime, we spent a day with the company testing how well the new tires stop and handle hard corners on wet and dry pavement. BFGoodrich held a closed course media preview event that included driving time in Nissan Altima sedans, Audi A4 quattro sedans and Ford Mustang coupes. Some of the cars were shod with sets of BFGoodrich g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S tires beside identical cars using a variety of competing tires.
Braking
Obviously, being able to stop in time to avoid a collision is extremely important. The kind of tires your car rides on can make a considerable difference in the distance that you need to stop. Riding on a set of the BFGoodrich g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S tires, I managed to stop a Nissan Altima from 43.5 MPH in 70.5 feet. By comparison, I needed 72.5 feet to stop from the same speed using Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires and 75.1 feet with a set of Yokohama AVID ENVigors.
Fast Facts:
- The BFGoodrich g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S comes with a 45,000 mile warranty.
- Sizes range from 205/45/ZR16 to 305/25/ZR22.
- BFGoodrich will offer 59 tire sizes.
- Pricing ranges from $89 per tire to $267 per tire.
On wet pavement, the braking distances that each of the tires require increased during our test, but by the smallest margin of those three with the BFGoodrich rubber. So-equipped, it took the Nissan Altima 73.16 feet to stop compared to 78.08 with the Continentals and 80.71 feet with the Yokohamas.
BFGoodrich said the tires also squirm less under hard braking than the two competing tires at the event, although I had a hard time noticing much of a difference in that regard.
Steering Through a Soaked Skid Pad
After that, I drove a series of all-wheel drive Audi A4 sedans through a soaked cones course that included a slalom, two consecutive sweeping turns and a tight left-hand turn in that order. Consistently, the cars shod in the BFGoodrich g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S exhibited less understeer and were easier to recover in after the car started to push. In that exercise we drive back-to-back with cars shod in Yokohama AVID ENVigors and General G-MAX AS-03s.
Doing It in the Dry
Finally, BFGoodrich had me test its tires against the same two brands by driving through a similar course on dry pavement with a fleet of 2015 Ford Mustangs. Once again, the g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S proved to offer the greatest degree of control on corner turn-in and the most predictable handling characteristics through those corners.
Pricing, Warranty and Available Sizes:
The g-FORCE COMP-2 A/S is available this year in 59 sizes including 31 sizes that are new for BFGoodrich in the ultra-high performance all-season tire category. BFGoodrich says that will cover approximately 86 percent of the market.
Sizing fitments range from 16-inch wheels that are 205 millimeters wide to 20-inch wheels (245/40Z/R20) or 19-inch wheels with widths up to 275 millimeters. Eventually, they will be available in up to 305/25ZR22 size. in widths up to $267 for the largest and most expensive 305/25ZR22 size that won’t be available during the initial launch.
Pricing will range from $89 per tire for the smallest size to $267 for the largest and most expensive version through TireRack.com.
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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I just want to drive those Stangs!
Anybody having troubles with extra noise at certain speeds?