Uniroyal RainSport 5 vs Avon ZX7: We usually do not talk much about the tires outside from the premium segment but this time around we will give it spin. The Uniroyal brand in Europe is owned by Continental and they use it to great effect by having a dedicated tireline focusing purely on wet performance called the Rain Sport 5. The main focus of this tire is to be the absolute best in wet while balancing the other performances. On the other side of the line, we have Avon which is fully owned by Cooper tires (effectively Goodyear now) having ZX7 which is also a wet focus “A” label tire. To find out who is really the wet king, we will pit the Uniroyal RainSport 5 vs Avon ZX7 head to head in a wet showdown!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from the 2021 Tyre Reviews SUV Tyre Test. A total of 9 tires were tested in Goodyear’s proving ground in Teaxs, USA. As both tires are SUV but still not your typical off road tires, Tyre Reviews anyhow did some light off road testing which includes traction on gravel & grass. Note that for subjective comfort evaluation, we equate 1 point as 5%. Hence for example if tire A is graded 7 while tire B is graded 6, A is better than B by 5%.
The tire size of interest is 235/55 R18 which is a common tire size for Volkswagen Tiguan and the Audi Q3. The test vehicle of choice is a Volkswagen Tiguan. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The graph below shows the comparison between Uniroyal RainSport 5 vs Avon ZX7 based on the relevant performance category. The Uniroyal RainSport 5 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.
Wet
The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria. As the Rain Sport 5 had an ultimate goal of being the best wet tire, it showed this in the test by ranking 1st overall compared to the competition. It managed to out-brake the ZX7 by 4.24 meters.
Wet handling was much closer as Rain Sport 5 had only a 0.59 seconds advantage over ZX7 but surprisingly both tires were rated the same when it comes to subjective handling. Rain Sport 5 once again show who is the real wet master class by having a +10.64 km/h slipping speed advantage over ZX7.Things were also in the same direction as in lateral aquaplaning as Rain Sport 5 clogged a 2.35 m/s2 acceleration in comparison to the 1.89 m/s2 of ZX7.
Overall Rain Sport 5 showed clearly in almost all wet criteria the best in class performance. The wet king title definitely belongs to Rain Sport 5.
Avon ZX7:
- -10.7% in wet braking
- -0.6% in wet handling (lap time)
- 0% in wet handling (subjective)
- -12% in straight aquaplaning
- -19.5% in curve aquaplaning
Dry
While Rain Sport 5 dominated the wet category, the same could not be said for dry. There were only slight differences in dry braking distance as the Rain Sport 5 was 0.25meters in front of ZX7. However in dry handling, ZX7 clocked the fastest time in the whole test at 103.54 seconds which is 1.85 seconds faster than ZX7.
Avon ZX7:
- -0.7% in dry braking
- +1.8% in dry handling (lap time)
Comfort & Noise
In the exterior noise test, both tires were almost identical as the Rain Sport 5 has a pass by noise value of 71.1 dB which is only 0.1 dB quieter than ZX7. While in subjective comfort measurements, ZX7 was certainly behind with only a rating of 8.5/10 compared to the 9.8/10 of Rain Sport 5.
Avon ZX7:
- -0.1% in exterior noise (+0.1 dB)
- -6.5% in subjective comfort
Rolling Resistance
When it comes to SUV tires, rolling resistance is definitely not at the highest priority as the larger size tires tend to have a lower rolling resistance naturally. However with the sustainability topic being more prevalent, rolling resistance has been widely used as a competitive marketing tool as it could be easily seen in the label values.
Both tires come with a “C” label and we would expect them to be quite close to one another. However we saw a a big difference as the Rain Sport 5 has a 7.93 N/kN rolling resistance coefficient value while the ZX7 obtained a 8.72 N/kN rolling resistance coefficient. Hence this makes the Rain Sport 5 a much more sustainable as it emits less carbon footprint over its lifetime compared to ZX7. The ZX7 was the worst tire from the comeptition in terms of rolling resistance as it has the highest coefficient values.
Avon ZX7:
- -9.1% in rolling resistance
Off-road :Gravel/Grass
As both SUV tires are not really classified as an off road tire, it was surprising that Tyre Review even took the time to perform the off road test. Rain Sport 5 showed great dominance over ZX7 again as it took only 4.72 meters to accelerate from 5-15 km/h on grass roads in comparison to 4.91 meters it took for ZX7. Same direction in gravel as Rain Sport 5 holds a 2 meter advantage on the same acceleration speed.
Avon ZX7:
- -4% in grass traction
- -9.6% in gravel traction
Price
Uniroyal has been a household name in the tire industry for decades now and we would easily predicted that its selling point would be much higher than Avon. However we were proven wrong as the ZX7 cost way more than the Rain Sport 5.
Tire size: 235/55 R18
RainSport 5: €104.6
ZX7: €139.2
Difference: +25% more expensive for ZX7.
Summary
Overall, Rain Sport 5 dominated the ZX7 in wet, comfort/noise, rolling resistance & off road performances. The only silver lining for ZX7 comes in dry as it has quicker dry handling lap times. Rain Sport 5 once again showed absolute dominance in wet not only against ZX7 but the rest of the competition. With its relatively low price point, the tire definitely brings you the most value. Without a doubt, Rain Sport 5 is the winner of this duel !