The market for real rally tires is incredibly niche. We suspect fewer than 1,000 people in the country actually care about which gravel tire performs better on dirt. That doesn't make this comparison test put on by the Team O'Neil Rally School in New Hampshire any less exciting.
The school wanted to find out once and for all which of the three prominent rally tire manufacturers actually perform the best on a twisty tree-lined road. So it brought together compounds from Michelin, Hoosier, and Pirelli and used its closed rally course to find out.
Team O'Neil enlisted the help of two pro drivers and their respective cars for this test. The first, Antione L’Estage, is a 10-time Canadian rally champion and seven-time North American rally champion. He brought along his all-wheel drive Ford Fiesta R5, a purpose-built rally car you're probably used to seeing carve through WRC stages. Then there's Chris Cyr, an up-and-coming pro American rally driver who also instructs at Team O'Neil. He's driving a front-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta ST that's been converted to rally duty.
The drivers tested each tire in two compounds: soft and medium. The kicker? They didn't know which tires they were running. Team O'Neil mounted them to the cars without telling the drivers, meaning they gave opinions and ran times without being skewed by perceived opinions of the brand.
The testing was extensive. Team O'Neil recorded a comprehensive set of data points from each run, including things like tire pressures and temperatures. If you want to see the full dataset—a must if you actually plan to buy a set of new gravel tires—head on over to Team O'Neil's website.
The crew also took lap times, of course. It was the Michelin that was consistently quickest, putting up the fastest times for both the front- and all-wheel drive applications. The Hoosier, considered a "budget" tire in this test, came close to beating the Michelin on several occasions, while the Pirellis were slowest.
As lead instructor and host Wyatt Knox points out, lap times are only half the story here. Tire longevity wasn't tested, meaning it's possible the faster tires could fall off over time, while the Pirellis might last longer. Either way, now you know which gravel tires are fastest, at least in the short term.
