Tyres are the single most important performance component of your car. It doesn’t matter if you have a powerful engine that can pull a cruise ship, brakes the size of dinner plates, or traction control capable of landing a mars rover, if your tyres aren’t up to the job you’re in for a bad time.

Unfortunately, tyres don’t get the appreciation they deserve. Luckily tyre expert and Youtuber Jonathan Benson is here to help you pick the perfect winter capable all-season rubber.

In winter conditions the importance of the correct tyres becomes even more apparent. On rainy warm days almost, any tyre can make due, but in slick snowy conditions, where grip is at a premium, only certain tyres can deliver. Traditionally those who want to drive in snowy conditions were directed to purchase a set of winter rubber instead of relying on all-season tyres that lack performance when road conditions deteriorated. But this all-season tyre test conducted by Jonathan Benson is quite intriguing.

Now Jonathan is a tyre expert having spent time testing out most of the popular tyres on sale today. He covers his experience and love of tyres on our Motor1’s Rambling About Cars podcast in-depth and his experience shows in his latest test.

Jonathan was lucky to base his test a Michelin’s Winter Testing Center in Michigan, USA where he was able to test and set lap times with seven different all-season tyres. As a baseline, a single lap with a set of summer tyres on the Genesis G70 test car took 170 seconds where the worst all season took only 110 seconds.

From there lap times fell until a winner was crowned thanks to a quick lap time, predictable handling, and impressive dry performance. The Michelin was a full ten seconds faster than the worst-rated all-season and a second faster than the second place from Continental making it the clear victor.