Why speed has such a big impact on your safety

When you drive, speed will always be an important issue. For the owners of sports cars, speed becomes a natural thing and one reason for buying that type of vehicle. On a fast vehicle, everything is designed for high speeds. You have car tyres that can handle high speeds. You have brakes that can handle the high forces and extra braking power that is needed. You have a suspension that can keep the car in a level position when cornering and work together with the tyres to keep the car on the road.

Driving at high speeds means that you automatically increase the braking distance to need a long distance for the vehicle to come to a full stop. This means that you are more likely to be in an accident. Better tyres can provide a shorter braking distance, but they will be longer than driving at a slower speed. The risk for aquaplaning also increases if you drive with summer tyres on your vehicle during wet days.

A few manufacturers make very good premium Ultra High Performance (UHP) summer and winter tyres made for powerful cars. You have, e.g. Nokian Tyres, that have the Nokian Snowproof P, which is targeted for powerful cars that want to drive fast during the winter, especially in Central Europe. They then have the Nokian Powerproof made for summers, where you want to continue to drive at high speeds.

You need protection against aquaplaning for the summers, and for the winters, you need to have a great winter grip and prevention of slushplaning on the wet winter days. For both the winter and summer tyres, you need an excellent grip, control and stability when driving at high speeds, with a great feel in lane changes and when cornering, regardless of the weather conditions. You, though, have to adapt the speed according to the weather conditions. Great tyres don’t make you invisible, and you still have to adhere to the laws of physics and respect the dangerous conditions that can be caused by bad weather.

When you have invested a lot of money into a powerful sports car, you also need to make sure that you match it with tyres that can handle the high speeds without risking blowing out and providing the performance and safety you are looking for when driving a sports car. As most cars will come with summer tyres, you will need to match those with winter tyres if you also want to use your sports car during the winter. Not everyone chooses to do this, and they have another vehicle that they use for the winter months and only bring out the sports car for the summer months. With the weather temperatures being milder in Central Europe, many prefer to use their powerful cars during the winter months and then winter tyres. When the weather allows for it you can still drive safely at high speeds.

For more information regarding UHT tyres for high-speed use, visit: https://www.nokiantyres.com/