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It’s the very end of winter and Torque News has two black sports coupes in our fleet for test driving. The first is a Toyota GR86 we purchased that Torque News Contributor Ean Goreham is presently breaking in. Expect some content soon. One thing slowing down the content to come are the summer-only tires Toyota chose. With temps hovering around freezing each morning this week, and an inch of snow on the way Friday, we have to be super careful with the new car.
The second of our coupes is the all-new Dodge Charger Daytona battery-electric vehicle. This bigger-than-life coupe has so many plusses that it’s hard to know where to start. In this story, we’ll highlight the tire pick. Dodge chose to fit the Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S all-season performance tire to the Charger. We feel this was a great move.
Summer Only vs. All-Season Performance Tires
If we were going to use a vehicle primarily for track days (is that even a thing anymore?), we’d pick a summer-only tire. The compound and design would be optimized for dry warm pavement, and that would give us just a smidge more grip and handling precision for our track laps. However, we don’t often track cars. Since COVID ruined our annual track days, we’ve had few chances to be on a paved track. Our time is split between paved roads and dirt roads. About 95-5 in terms of percentage. Often, those roads are covered in compressed snow and ice.
Summer-only tires are downright dangerous below freezing. The hard compound can be hard to predict at the limit of turning and braking distances are also impacted negatively. For that reason, we sometimes have to sit in our office looking at a great car we’d otherwise be driving. On trips to our rural mountain road test areas, we often take performance cars with all-season tires but nearly never do so between November and April in a car with summer-only tires.
A History Of Stripping Summer-Only Rubber Off Of Cars
Our media fleet manages to replace summer-only rubber with winter tires on many of the media vehicles we test. That is such a luxury we count our blessings every time we are fortunate enough to have it happen.
In my own personal fleet, I’ve stripped summer-only rubber off of a Mazda Miata and Lexus IS350C convertible coupe. Both cars benefited from the all-season performance tires that went on. Not only are they drivable in light snow if need be, but they are safer over cold, dry roads as well. In both cases, the ride quality improved markedly. Tramlining, harshness, and vibrations were all minimized by the switch to all-season performance tires. The all-season tires are also more practical in that they are less likely to suffer stone damage on short stretches of dirt roads we sometimes drive on.
The Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S – Goodyear’s Views
Dodge’s new Charger Daytona EV is a heavy vehicle like all EVs are. So, an XL tire was needed. That can be a limiting factor in some brands. Dodge also needed the tire to have a reasonably low rolling resistance to maximize range and efficiency. We reached out to Goodyear and asked what other aspects of the Eagle Sport A/S we should know about. Goodyear told us,
The 275/40ZR20 106Y XL Goodyear Eagle Sport All-Season was specifically designed for the Dodge Charger R/T. It features an updated design to improve ride and noise, specifically for EVs. The sidewall is optimized for steering & handling performance while maintaining adequate ride quality.
A Close Examination of the Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S
We measured the tread depth of our media vehicle, which has very few miles on its odometer at 6.54mm. That’s just perfect for adequate water evacuation, light snow management (in a pinch), and won’t be squirmy due to tread deformation when turning. The sidewall features a lip to help prevent rim rash when parking. The tread has plenty of full-depth sipes for managing winter precipitation.
Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S – What Do the Reviews Say?
We turned to some popular retailers and peeked at the owner reviews for the Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S. The rating is on a 1-5 scale, and the number in parentheses is the total number of reviews thus far. Here’s what we found:
- Discount Tire – 4.8 (442)
- BJ’s Tire Service – 4.8 (18)
- Simple Tire – 4.7 (97)
- Tire Rack – 4.0 (464)
As you can see, this is a tire that scores very highly on reviews. That is a strong endorsement since most of these reviews were for folks who had tried another tire before the Eagle Sport.
Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S -Pricing
We priced out the tire at a few retailers and here were our findings. In some cases, the specification may have been just slightly different, but the size was identical:
We found these tires were easy to obtain and in stock in many cases.
Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S – Warranty
Goodyear offers a 50,000-mile treadwear warranty for this size tire. That’s darn good for a performance tire. Also, Goodyear offers a 60- buy and try period.
Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S – Our Impressions
We have had the distinct pleasure to drive quite a few Dodge Chargers and Challengers over the past decade. All of them have a common trait – They are all comfortable. Even the crazy versions with big superchargers and widebodys. This new Dodge Charger is no exception. The car is super smooth, turns like a sports car should, and handles road imperfections nicely. The tires are inflated to nearly 40 PSI, yet the car is not harsh.
It can be tough for engineers to manage noise, vibration, and harshness in EVs since they have very quiet powertrains. Noise that would have been drowned out by the sound of the powertrain seems amplified. Because of this, many manufacturers fit EVs with either acoustic foam or self-seal tires. Both offer noise dampening. The Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S is a very quiet tire without these weight-adding measures.
Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S – No Swapping and Storage Required
By choosing an all-season tire instead of a summer-only model, Dodge also removes the hassle of having to buy, fit, and store winter-only tires. Nobody expects the Dodge Charger Daytona to be a snow-day car, so this is just a sensible move. It will save owners a lot of wasted time, space, and money.
Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S – Summary
Dodge has made a great choice of tire fitment for the new Charger Daytona R/T Stage 1. The Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S enables this vehicle to be operated safely year-round in reasonable conditions. The tire earns very high reviews and offers a quiet ride without needing acoustic foam inserts. We think these tires are a perfect match for this outstanding muscle car.
John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John’s by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.
Image of Goodyear Eagle Sport A/S Tires by John Goreham
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