Another tyre thread - but maybe of use

[Angel Boy]

We had an email sent around at work reminding us to check our tyre depths after a colleagues close family was involved in an aquaplaining accident. The usual stuff about tyre pressures and tread depth etc.
I remember reading that although the minimum legal depth is 1.6mm performance seriously decreases when the tyre hits 2mm and below. Too back this up I found an article on Black Circles. I sent out an email with this on etc and got sent a reply saying had I seen this:

Article

I hadn't, so I thought I would post it here. It maybe old news but made for interesting reading and if anyone had the original autoexpress article it would be good to know the results in the context of the test.

My thoughts after reading the article are that although tyres maybe v good in the wet (which was what the majority of the test focussed on), tread wear (hence tyre life) wasn't really mentioned. Hence the reason for the ask of the original article to see if it was discussed.

Admittedly I did read it between meetings so I may have missed it and I am about to be dragged into the garden to dig a huge hole for our composter so will read it when I get back, but interested in your comments.

Andy

[_ZS_]

Known issue - below 3mm tread depth most tyres loose the sipes and smaller channels used to move water, leaving the big chunks. Some tyres lose all their small channels at 3mm leaving just 4 or 5 ribs, similar to F1 tyres (Continental EcoContact is one, some Michelins too).