GT Radial Champiro Tires

When it comes time to buy a set of tires, most drivers choose all-season tires. When we say “most drivers,” that means a whopping 84 percent of tire sales are all-season tires. That’s because all-season tires make the most sense all the way around for most drivers; they are a versatile Swiss Army Knife solution for vehicles, offering great wear properties and generous limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty coverage, with year-round traction. All-season tires are also designed for competent handling, low highway noise, composed road manners, and a forgiving ride, making them a great all-around choice for the majority of drivers.

The tire marketplace has really exploded with new brands in the last several years, from top-tier premium brands to more obscure, budget tires. In most cases, the more affordable tires are a caveat emptor, “you get what you pay for” equation, but then tires like the GT Radial Champiro family beat expectations and offer premium-brand value at a surprising price point. The Champiro tire lineup offers features, engineering, design, performance, and quality that check many of the boxes that most drivers are looking for, and swing far above their weight class when it comes to value. The Champiro lineup includes ultra-high-performance (UHP) tires for sports sedans, coupes, and crossovers, Grand Touring tires with an emphasis on refined ride comfort, solid road manners, and low noise, versatile all-season tires, and purpose-built tires for the challenges of winter driving. Let’s go in for a closer look:

GT Radial Champiro SX2 RS

The UHP GT Radial Champiro SX2 RS is an official tire of the Formula Drift circuit, and for good reason. It’s an upgrade of the proven Champiro SX2 and its features; the advanced tread formulation of the Champiro SX2 RS is designed for glue-like adhesion to the pavement, a motorsports-inspired tread compound that’s equally suited for the street or the track. Its sharp, crisp handling comes from a combination of factors: the tread compound, a sidewall that’s designed to limit flex, internal construction that prevents deformation and tread squirm during hard cornering, and extra large shoulder blocks designed for enhanced grip for lane changes or twisty roads.

The continuous center rib of the GT Radial Champiro SX2 RS gives it solid road manners and good straight-line stability along with a steering response that’s light and immediate. Its innovative asymmetric tread design includes angled and circumferential grooves that efficiently route water away from the tire’s contact patch to resist hydroplaning on wet roads.

NOTE: the tread formulation of the Champiro SX2 RS is softer and “stickier” for excellent braking and handling traction, but will stiffen up and lose grip on colder days. GT Radial advises against using the Champiro SX2 RS if temperatures are below 40-45 degrees Fahrenheit.

GT Radial Champiro Touring A/S

Touring and Grand Touring tires are designed for the year-round versatility that all-season tires offer but with more of an emphasis on ride comfort, low road noise, and impeccable road manners. That’s exactly what you get with the GT Radial Champiro Touring A/S. The Champiro A/S’s all-season tread features circumferential and angled grooves for good water evacuation and resistance to hydroplaning, with wavy sipes and a full 10/32” initial tread depth for long wear and good year-round performance. Its solid center rib delivers great road manners and steering response, and its tread pitch is randomized and computer-tuned to negate certain frequencies and overtones for a peaceably quiet ride on the highway as well as refined ride quality. The Champiro Touring A/S is covered by the factory with a 60,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty.

GT Radial Champiro UHP AS

UHP tires are the best way to extract the most from your sporty sedan, coupe, or crossover and its performance potential. UHP tires have a downside, though: they use a tread compound that’s softer and stickier for tenacious traction while cornering or braking, but that softer tread formulation will also wear quickly and will harden and lose traction on colder days. That’s why tire manufacturers advise against using UHP tires when temperatures are below 40-45 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Champiro UHP AS from GT Radial gets around that problem by offering the best of both worlds: it’s a UHP tire that also has the design features of a premium all-season tire, for year-round performance. Its nanometer silica-rich tread formulation is designed for all-season grip and long wear, with an emphasis on traction in rainy conditions. It features the symmetric tread design, full-depth sipes, lateral, angled, and circumferential grooves of an all-season tire, with the large shoulder tread blocks and reinforced construction of a performance tire, resisting the deformation and “tread squirm” that go along with hard cornering and maneuvers. GT Radial covers the Champiro UHP AS from the factory with a 45,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty.

GT Radial Champiro SX2

GT Radial’s Champiro SX2 is a UHP tire that’s designed for sporty sedans, coupes, and crossovers, giving you the confidence you need for spirited driving and squeezing the last drop out of your vehicle’s performance potential. The Champiro SX2 uses the same tread compound as the SX2 RS, a racing-derived rubber formulation that’s designed for a tenacious grip on wet or dry roads. The SX2 also has a similar tread pattern as the SX2 RS, with an innovative “gradient step” design that helps with reduced heat generation in the tire’s center tread ribs (important, since excess heat buildup is the enemy of any tire’s wear and internal structure). A wide center rib gives the Champiro SX2 excellent stability and braking performance, and the stiffer sidewalls and large, reinforced shoulder tread blocks mean cornering ability that’s accurate and controllable. Like the SX2 RS, the silica-rich tread compound of the Champiro SX2 is softer and more pliable for traction on warmer days but will stiffen up and lose grip in cold weather. The Champiro SX2 and SX2 RS should not be used if temperatures are below 40-45 degrees F.

GT Radial Champiro IcePro

Winter driving in heavy snow, slush, and ice presents a unique set of challenges to drivers, and in most cases, all-season tires are just not going to be capable of getting the job done for you safely. That’s where a tire like the GT Radial Champiro IcePro comes in.

The Champiro IcePro is a dedicated winter tire that’s pre-drilled for easy installation of studs in case of icy roads (always check your local and state laws for the legality of studded tires where you are, and any calendar restrictions on their use). Its specialized silica-rich tread compound is engineered to stay flexible for traction in subfreezing weather (like all winter tires, the Champiro IcePro will wear quickly on warmer days and shouldn’t be used if temperatures are above 40-45 degrees Fahrenheit). Its aggressive directional winter tread pattern features sweeping angled grooves and circumferential grooves that efficiently drain water and slush from the tire’s contact patch to resist hydroplaning on wet roads. A dense pattern of sipes multiplies the tread’s surface area and traction with hundreds of biting edges that slash through snow and ice, and the Champiro IcePro’s stud pattern is strategically placed to enhance traction while keeping road noise to a minimum.

Other GT Radial Champiro tires

In addition to the above tires, the GT Radial Champiro family of tires also includes the:

• Champiro HPY: Max Performance summer tire with an asymmetric UHP tread pattern designed for excellent control, turn-in, and grip in the curves as well as top-notch braking and traction on wet or dry roads.
• Champiro IcePro 3: studdable winter tire with aggressive directional winter tread design, angled grooves, optimized stud placement and distribution in tread pattern.
• Champiro IcePro SUV: a studdable winter tire with many of the same design features and innovations as other winter tires in the Champiro line, but with beefed-up construction and load rating for the added weight, power and torque of SUVs and crossover.