Tire Review
Cooper Tires CS5:
Out with the old and in with the new
by
David Miller
San Antonio, TX—With Cooper Tire
& Rubber Co. celebrating their 100th
year of operation, you would assume
they know a thing or two about the
tire business. They didn’t survive
all of those years without making
tough decisions, so they weren’t
afraid to make another one by doing
away with their best-selling CS4
Touring all-season for an all-new and
technologically advanced CS5.
You might see the name Cooper
Tires quite a bit on television ads and
sponsorships throughout Canada,
but it’s just trying to make a name
for itself up here. They’ve long
established themselves south of
the border , but still don’t get much
traction in Canada compared to the
big boys at Michelin, Goodyear and
Bridgestone.
8
THE DRIVER
Those three might be some of the
bigger names in the tire industry,
but they fall in the tier-one category,
while Cooper Tires is seen more as a
Tier-two-plus player. Their goal is to
make their tires just as good as those
big names at a lesser cost.
Cooper Tires invited several
journalists from all over North
America to take part in a real-life CS5
test against an equal rival and a tierone competitor. The setting would be
Cooper Tires’ own 1,000-acre training
grounds in Pearsall, Texas.
For this test, we would be pitting
the Cooper Tires CS5 Grand Touring
T-rated tire on both extreme wet and
dry conditions versus the Hankook
Optimo H727 tire with the use of
Ford Mustangs. Afterwards, we
would jump into BMW 328is to test
out CS5’s V-rated tire (for premium
vehicles) against the Pirelli Cinturato
P7, a top-tier competitor under the
same conditions. These tests weren’t
focused on regular street drives, but
it was all about pushing them to the
limit in time and accuracy trials to see
which one would come out on top.
To give you some more info on
the CS5, it’s a performance tire
that’s geared for major grip and
safety with technology the key to
it overtaking the outgoing CS4 and
its competition. It all starts with
3D Micro-Gauge Siping that create
stability, power and more endurance
agains Ёݕ