Sumitomo HTR A S P02 Review

Sumitomo HTR A S P02 Review: Sumitomo’s HTR A/S P02 is designed for traction in the High-Performance All-Season tire sphere. It comes in both V and H speed classifications. It’s designed for drivers of sport coupes and high-performance sedans who want more performance from their tires. In wet and dry driving situations, the tire provides great traction and handling response, as well as consistent traction in light snow and ice.

The Sumitomo Company aimed to achieve high performance in its tire by improving the tire’s responsiveness and handling, while at the same time achieving comfort and longevity that is mainly synonymous with touring and grand-touring all-season tires.

Sumitomo HTR A S P02 Review

The HTR A/S P02 is an all-season tire that gives the drive comfort and confidence while even driving the car at high speed without necessarily affecting the tire’s handling and performance.

The Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 Features

The tire has a silica all-season tread compound that helps provide more traction on wet and mild snow-covered roads. This unit’s revised tire formula is designed to endure rapid tread wear caused by high-speed driving. This compound has also been reinforced underneath with full-width nylon and steel belts for improved stability and rigidity.

The tires also feature asymmetric tread patterns are fitted with shoulder blocks with notches. They improve cornering and stability on dry surfaces. The tire has used different tread patterns to achieve dry, wet, and light snow traction, to improve controlling, reducing noise, and ensuring the tire is comfortable.

The four patterns are.
1. Alternate tread design block
2. 3 wide circumferential grooves
3. 3D sipes
4. Wider shoulders with pitches.

Sumitono increased the width of the circumferential grooves between the tread blocks, which improved the biting edges. This improved the performance of the tire in bad weather like wet surfaces and light snowy roads. This improvement is in relation to Sumitono’s previous generation, The Sumitomo HTR A/S P01.

The HTR A/S P02 has a set of twin steel belts reinforced with jointless nylon bands by Sumitomo engineers that are built internally. They are spiral-wounded to improve performance when driving at high speed, while additionally providing added riding comfort to drivers. A high-tensile polyester shell is also engineered inside the tire to improves handling even further.

HTR stands for High-Technology Radial in the tire names. The tires have been carefully designed with the use of a 4D nano design technology, giving them a superb aesthetic and ensuring their durability. Aside from that, this technology examines the treads down to the last molecule, allowing for increased grip and control on any sort of road.

The HTR A/S P02 comes in a wide range of sizes, ranging from 15 to 20 inches, with speed ratings of H, V, or W. Depending on the speed rating, Sumitomo has additionally incorporated a 65K mile treadwear warranty.

How is Sumitono HTR A/S P02 performance on Dry surfaces?

On dry asphalt or any surface free of water, traction is superb. Cornering and stability on such dry surfaces are both excellent. Because of the soft compounds used in their construction, the sipes that give excellent traction mirror the pattern of winter tires in certain aspects. This gives a light feeling to the tires on dry surfaces. Driving on these tires feels light.

Stable turning, dry traction, and responsive steering are all features of this tire’s dry traction performance.
This outstanding achievement is due to the tread design components. On a low and high-speed run, the 3D sipes and alternate tread block pattern contribute to the tire’s stability and control. While cornering is aided by the larger shoulder blocks and firm sidewall.

When braking, the braking distance is relatively shorter on a consistent interval.

How is HTR A/S P02 Performance on wet and Slippery surfaces?

More often, tires with great performance on dry surfaces lose the level of performance on surfaces. It feels like when improving their performance on dry surfaces while compromising on their wet surface performances. That is not the case with Sumitomo, especially not with their HTR A/S P02 tire model. Most customers have given the tire one of the best-wet traction reviews of all the tires in this congested all-season tire category.

This is why;

The tread design of asymmetric treads contributes majorly to the great traction and handling on wet surfaces. These designs are the 3 very wide circumferential grooves, 3D sipes, and block designs. When traveling on wet surfaces, having broad grooves that efficiently remove water from the tire’s core footprint decreases the chance of hydroplaning. Asymmetrical sipes and tread slots provide an additional point of contact with the ground, resulting in better traction on wet conditions. Water drainage and stiffness in the shoulder block are also aided by jagged shoulder sipes.

For damp surfaces, the silica particles in the tire compound provide a better biting grip.

The Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 is almost unaffected by heavy rain. Because of the great hydroplaning resistance, you can drive at regular speeds without compromising traction or steering. In wet conditions, the sticky tire compound provides plenty of traction.

On the flip side of this, when the tires are wet, there is a distinct noise during turns, which could be due to the tread design.

How is HTR A/S P02MPerformance on Snowy Surfaces?

Quickly note that this tire is not specialized for deep snow or wintry condition. If you are driving in a region that experiences deep snow or ice, get winter tires. However, if you experience light snow, these tires could be perfect for your car.

There is enough traction on snowy surfaces to keep your car grounded. This tire’s 5-rib pattern, along with the sharp, biting edges, gives the driver complete control while driving on slick roads, making it safer, comfortable while driving one snowy surface. This is mainly attributed to the tire’s 3D sipes and grooves.

Handling is relatively good on light snow surfaces. The breaking distance is short, but not as short as it would have been when using winter tires instead of these all-season tires.

Is the HTR A/S P02 Good for Off-road Driving?

The Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 is not an all-terrain tire. There is a difference between an all-terrain and an all-season tire. All-terrain tires can be driven on any surface, an all-season tire is one that is suitable to be driven in any type of weather apart from in the heavy snow conditions.

Thus, the HTR A/S P02 is not suitable for driven off-road. It can still be driven off-road, although traction is decreased, especially in heavy muck, and it can’t throw sharp protruding items. Consequently, this tire will wear out easily if it is constantly driven on off-road surfaces.

Durability and Warranty

Sumitomo designed the HTR A/S P02 tire for high-speed use, so the tire compound was strengthened to compensate for the quick tread wear rate. The polyester cording feature incorporated into the tire is, of course, the secret behind it. The polyester protects the rubber from being torn easily, making it more damage-resistant. To begin with, its distinctive tread pattern avoids punctures by shielding it from sharp objects/debris to a degree.

The tires have been carefully designed with the use of a 4D nano design technology, giving them a superb aesthetic and ensuring their durability.

The Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 tires come with a 65,000-mile treadwear warranty on H- and V-speed rated models, as well as a 45,000-mile treadwear warranty on W-speed rated models.

Noise Reduction and Comfort

Although they are not the quietest of tires in the touring all-season tire category, the HTR A/S P02 are comfortable and quiet compared to most of the brands in the category. The level of comfort and quietness is high especially when installed on high-end cars like Lexus IS, Audi A4, BMW 3 series et all.
What makes it quiet? The tire’s comparatively good performance in this category can be attributed to its enhanced tire compound, as well as wider and more robust shoulder blocks. These qualities aid in the tire’s balance, handling, and noise reduction levels. As a result, this performance qualifies it as a fantastic highway all-season tire.

Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 Sizes

The Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 tires comes in a variety of sizes based on the tire’s diameter. To be precise, the tire comes in 68 different sizes of various diameter size range. The ranges are from 16-20 inches. The sizes are;

16-Inches;
205/55R16 94W
235/60R16 100W

17-inches
205/45R17 88W, 205/50R17 93W, 215/45R17 91W, 215/50R17 91W, 215/55R17 94W, 225/45R17 94W, 225/50R17 94W, 225/55R17 101W, 235/45R17 94W, 235/50R17 96W
235/55R17 99W, 245/50R17 99W, 275/40R17 98W

18-inches
215/45R18 93W, 225/45R18 95W, 225/50R18 95W, 235/40R18 95W, 235/45R18 94W, 235/50R18 101W, 245/40R18 97W, 245/45R18 100W, 255/35R18 94W, 255/40R18 99W

19-Inches
235/55R19 105W, 245/40R19 94W, 245/45R19 98W, 255/35R19 96W

20-inches
245/45R20 103W and 255/45R20 105W

Conclusion

Should one buy these tires? Yes. Especially if your budget can’t allow you to purchase tires from the same category, which are manufactured by high-end tire companies like Michelin and Goodyear. The Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 gives you some of the quality performances that one would get from the most renowned tire company, while at the same time selling them cheaply compared to those premium company tires.

They are durable, stable, and comfortable with greater traction on dry, wet, and light-snow roads.