Sports car owners in colder climates mostly fall into two camps: Those who tuck their prized possessions away in a heated garage for the snowy season, and those who don winter tires to survive and enjoy the low-temp, low-grip months. For drivers in the latter camp, Bridgestone’s newest offering, the Blizzak 6 performance winter tire, may pique your interest.
The latest and most overtly sporting variant in the Blizzak’s 37-year history claims better performance and longer tread life. The Japanese tire brand invited us out to snowy Colorado to put it to the test at its Winter Driving School. The Blizzak name is synonymous with studless winter tires, which Bridgestone introduced to Japan in 1988 and first brought to North America in 1993. Unlike studded tires, which use metal traction aids mounted in the rubber of the tire, studless tires rely on traditional rubber tread blocks with narrow, zig-zagging sipes designed to trap and divert snow and ice. Studded tires are awesome for traction but make considerable noise and cause wear on road surfaces. For that latter reason, some states, counties, and countries have even banned them.
Photo by: Bridgestone
A studless winter tire won’t have quite the same level of grip, but a good set will deliver safe, predictable winter traction with fewer compromises. Even in places where it gets cold but rarely snows, a winter tire compound has more grip and is more pliable in freezing temperatures than summer tires, which may lose their elasticity and slide around like hockey pucks.
The Blizzak 6 replaces Bridgestone’s LM line of larger, high-speed-rated winter tires intended for luxury cars. The tire maker claims the Blizzak 6 improves grip and lateral stiffness for cornering performance in dry, cold conditions while shortening wet braking distances. New “lightning-bolt” channels along the shoulder blocks are meant to trap snow more effectively.
Being a Blizzak, the 6 is a three-peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) tire, meaning that on the standardized ASTM F1805 test, it demonstrated at least 110 percent of the single-wheel traction of an unspecified reference tire. Bridgestone won’t tell us how far above this threshold the Blizzak 6 performed, but the company claims it delivers snow grip superior to that of the outgoing LM005.
Photo by: Bridgestone
Bridgestone markets the Blizzak 6 as a performance-oriented tire for winter driving conditions, not a hardcore snow tire. As such, it carries a 100V speed rating, meaning these tires are good for up to 149 miles per hour. The company also claims a 32 percent longer wear life compared to the 6’s predecessor, the Blizzak LM005, which it says works out to an additional season before they’re ready to become AstroTurf. (Like most winter tires, the Blizzak 6 does not come with a mileage warranty, as wear will vary based on the temperature and conditions in which the tires are used.) Speaking of recycling, the Blizzak 6 is Bridgestone’s first winter tire to feature its Enliten technology, which means at least 25 percent of the tire’s raw materials are post-consumer based.
Bridgestone’s Winter Driving School is situated on an 80-acre hillside above Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It’s been in continuous operation since 1983, training everyone from rally drivers to high-profile bodyguards in car control on its icy skidpads and snow-covered slaloms. This isn’t a frozen lake, either—just like in the real world, there’s real elevation change, crests, dips, on- and off-camber corners to challenge even the sharpest drivers and best rubber.
Photo by: Bridgestone
Lap after lap, Blizzaks and wind churn away powdery snow exposing polished ice underneath, and zero-degree temps mean rubber cones shatter on impact. It’s impossible to evaluate a tire’s dry performance out here, but it’s a great simulation of worst-case weather conditions.
After a morning of car control exercises in the school’s fleet of Toyota Camrys and Highlanders, I hopped into a GR Corolla to really put the Blizzak 6 to the test. I was impressed with the tires’ straight-line traction and steering response on packed snow, launching hard then lift-throttling into a left-hander to rotate the rear. The Corolla’s all-wheel drive and rally-car dynamics didn’t hurt, but I credit the Blizzak 6 with my immediate comfort hucking the car around snowy hairpins.
The front end never washed out, and the rear rotated predictably and consistently. My hands were aware of the changing grip conditions through the wheel before I tried to turn or brake, which helped me avoid suddenly overloading the tires. Braking performance was strong and consistent on packed snow, and threshold braking was easy to achieve without much unintended ABS intervention. Along with driver feedback, predictability and consistency are two of the most important qualities in a tire. The Blizzak 6 scored highly here.
As the afternoon went on, packed snow gave way to patches of slick ice, the ultimate foe to any tire. Grip and speeds were severely diminished, but I was able to eke out predictable laps by slowing down my hands and not asking for more than one input at a time. Even on ice, the Blizzaks didn’t snap suddenly and send me shooting toward frozen cones, instead communicating their lower grip level and breaking away as progressively as any studless tire could be expected to.
Photo by: Bridgestone
Unfazed, I hopped into the rear-wheel drive GR86. The car’s inherent balance served as an ideal canvas for the Blizzak 6’s traction envelope. Judicious use of throttle-induced weight transfer paired with ample feedback and a consistent response from the front tires made placing and rotating the car on track a breeze. Progressive oversteer was easy to elicit and deal with. I’m far from a rally driver, but I felt totally in control of the car and confident in the feedback I was receiving—it’s probably the most fun I’ve had driving less than 30 miles per hour.
Most people shopping for winter tires aren’t sliding around a test course or going ice racing. We’re running errands, hitting the ski slopes, and trying to keep our families safe. While I didn’t get the chance to test these tires on the cold, dry roads where they’ll spend 90 percent of their lives, their performance in dicey conditions proved their overall communication, responsiveness, and consistency. I’m still curious how they feel loaded up in a cold, dry corner and how quiet they are on the highway.
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Bridgestone
But as the owner of a sports car that typically sits from November until March or April, I’m intrigued by the prospect of a performance-optimized tire for the colder months. Winter tires are already a niche proposition in the US, and performance winter tires are a tiny fraction of that, so I’m happy Bridgestone is serving this market. Also, I now have one less excuse not to drive my car in the winter.
The Bridgestone Blizzak 6 launches this May so that dealers can stock up for next winter. It will be available in at least 38 sizes ranging from 17 to 22 inches in diameter.
