<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  LAS VEGAS \u2014 I&amp;#039;m strapped into the driver&amp;#039;s seat of a BMW M5 equipped with the seven-speed sequential manual gearbox. It trembles slightly with each rotation of the crankshaft as I wait in the pit lane of Las Vegas Motor Speedway&amp;#039;s road course. I&amp;#039;m trembling a little myself, because an M5 has enough power to seriously humiliate a careless or inexpert driver. And I&amp;#039;m here to explore the M5&amp;#039;s limits so I can learn about Dunlop&amp;#039;s new ultra-performance tires. Hopefully I&amp;#039;ll do so without embarrasing myself. I&amp;#039;ve had plenty of seat time in previous, current generation M5s, and a couple of hundred (blissfully uneventful) laps at this track. What&amp;#039;s different today is the tires: Our test cars are shod with Dunlop&amp;#039;s new SP Sport Maxx GT, which is aimed right at the middle of the cost-no-object sticky performance car market\u2014the M5, Porsche 911, Audi S5 and the like. The unsymmetrical tread pattern is optimized, Dunlop says, for quick response and ultimate grip in warm, dry weather. Splice-free circumferential belts and the crafty tread pattern allow users to rotate the tires side-to-side regularly for improved tread life\u2014especially compelling on cars with different sizes front and rear. All of which sounds good on the press release, but doesn&amp;#039;t mean squat when you&amp;#039;re hotfooting a 500-hp car into a decreasing-radius turn at triple-digit speeds. (I love this job.) Okay, so does that marketing hyperbole hold any water? I&amp;#039;m about to find out. It takes a couple of laps for the Bimmer and the tires to warm up. It also takes a couple of laps for driving coach and racing pilot John Paul Jr. to point out the fast line on Las Vegas Motor Speedway&amp;#039;s tight little road course. Paul exits the passenger seat and the track is open. Now I start some serious lapping. Hey, that hype isn&amp;#039;t hype anymore: The BMW has ferocious grip both in braking and cornering. The traction control is still on, in deference to the amount of rubber the M5 could potentially turn into testosterone-flavored smoke exiting every corner. Transitions from off-throttle at the corner entrance and all the way to full-throttle by the corner apex are amazingly smooth, considering the prodigious torque available at the rear wheels. I could do this all day. Every day. Unfortunately, after a couple of hours, it&amp;#039;s time to move on. Next up is a dry autocross through a forest of innocent yellow pylons. Our victims are a brace of Subaru WRXs shod with Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 rubber. What&amp;#039;s so new about the Direzza Sport Z1? It&amp;#039;s wrapped in a gummy compound that&amp;#039;s optimized for performance driving styles, such as autocrosses and track days. That translates into serious grip. The directional tread pattern provides a seamless transition from acceleration to cornering to braking. And unlike a lot of radial tires, the belt ply has no splice, eliminating a discontinuity in the tire&amp;#039;s construction that can make for highway-speed vibrations. It&amp;#039;s a great tire for performance cars that are driven daily in traffic and used competitively on weekends. The Z1 does a good job avoiding pylons while providing quick turn-in and controllability at impressive slip angles. Next up is a second pylon autocross course and a brace of BMW 328s shod with Dunlop&amp;#039;s SP Sport Signature\u2014also an ultra-performance tire, but suitable for all-season use. That&amp;#039;s accomplished by using a solid outer shoulder area for good grip while cornering. The inboard third or so of the tire has a tread pattern calculated to scavenge water. A tanker truck is spraying water onto the course, and it&amp;#039;s deep enough you could probably float one of the gondolas from the Venetian casino in it. The Bimmers we use are RWD, and while there is a definite loss of grip when I hit the water, the directional stability is excellent. Just to prove to the Dunlop officials and technicians that I&amp;#039;m trying, I turn off the stability control and push the TL hard enough to provoke a 180-degree spin through one of the deeper puddles. Whee. The next morning gives us a chance to drive around the desert in a variety of cars shod in the SP Sport Signature. It being Vegas, there&amp;#039;s no chance of rain. What we do get an appreciation for is a smooth ride\u2014and an astonishingly quiet one. Aggressive tires can generate a lot of noise that&amp;#039;s transmitted to the interior. Combined with the Sport Signature&amp;#039;s all-weather grip, that&amp;#039;s pretty good. \u2014Mike Allen TEST DRIVE: Subaru Impreza WRX (With Video)AUTOMOTIVE EXCELLENCE AWARDS: BMW M3TEST DRIVE: Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric  Taking the Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1s for a spin in the new WRX The 328i gets wet and coned-over at the speedway "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a4200/4232521/>