Sailun Pushes Performance To The Limit

Put high-performance tires on a heavy, powerful Mustang GT and rip around a track. Mount all-terrain rubber on a pick-up and wail around a Baja-style racecourse. Throw off-road tires on a Jeep Rubicon and goat around an off-road test trail.

If these sound more like fun than tire testing, you’d be right, but Sailun Tire knew what it was doing when it chose these activities to demonstrate the capabilities its newly expanded lineup of rubber. The manufacturer recently hosted a one-day test event at Burt Brothers Motorpark just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, inviting customers and media to try out a trio of tires in real-world conditions.

The event was designed to showcase new product, and also to highlight the strides Sailun has made in bringing a complete lineup to market since starting sales in North America in 2014. “We’re thankful to now have a full lineup of tires,” said Jeremy Lai, vice-president, marketing and market intelligence at Sailun Tire Americas.

“We started predominantly with touring tires and an HD tire that could be for a pickup, could be for an SUV. We have the touring tire now, we have an SUV-specific tire, we have a pickup, we’ve got the ultra-high performance all season, and the RT and AT with the that are 3PMS certified. We feel now we can talk about the tire brand as a whole and satisfy probably 99.9% of our customers,” Lai said.

Sailun has invested over U.S.$1 billion in new factories in recent years, with one in Cambodia just coming online and another in Mexico slated to start production soon. The tires that we receive in North America are currently all made in Vietnam, and are specifically designed for this market alone. This is a deliberate strategy for the company, said Jamie McIntyre, Sailun’s senior vice-president of sales for Canada and product development for North America.

“Before, some of the Chinese product used to get a bad rep because it would be developed for another market and then just brought here – not really geared for us,” he said. “Now look at any of the products that we’re showing today up against domestic manufacturers or tier 2 or tier 1 manufacturers – the look, the feel, the warranties, the size range, it’s all very much North America-focused.”

The company’s newest release is the Atrezzo SVA2 Ultra-High Performance all season. It replaces the Atrezzo SVA1 in the U.S. and the Atrezzo Z4+AS in Canada. “The UHP market has taken off,” McIntyre said. “We’re really trying to meet the market by investing in testing and benchmarking. Before we release a product, we make sure it’s going to compare to what else is in the market.”

He said the new SVA2 was benchmarked to come in at 95 per cent compared to a competitor’s tire (he wouldn’t say which one) across a set of tests, and they overperformed, coming in at 99 percent. It’s available in 54 sizes from 16 to 20 inches with a treadwear rating of 600 and A grades in both stopping distance and temperature resistance under the UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grading). It comes with an 80,000-kilometre warranty.

While we didn’t have the chance to drive side-by-side with a competitor, our track test in the Mustang GT let the SVA2 show excellent traction, cornering and stopping qualities. They were also extremely quiet until we really put them to the test in some challenging high-speed corners where we were able to make them chirp. But despite their slight complaints, they let us power through without losing grip.

The company said the SVA2’s unique tread pattern is designed to reduce noise and absorb bumps, while the contact patch is as large as possible to deliver better control. Our drive in the Utah desert didn’t include any wet testing, but Sailun said the tire’s groove layout increases the number of edges, giving it better wet grip, and resulting in a 10/10 rating in the rain.

Second in the Utah lineup, the Terramax AT2 has updated the Terramax AT4S. The tire has been out since early 2025 and offers all-terrain capabilities for SUVs and light trucks. There are 48 sizes available for rims from 15 to 20 inches. “We listened closely to our customer feedback and engineered the AT2 to deliver enhanced off-road traction, smoother on-road comfort, and greater durability,” McIntyre said.

A new silica-based compound increases traction, particularly in the wet, while also improving the tire’s longevity. The AT2 also sports a new tread pattern with aggressive shoulder blocks that help it gain grip in loose dirt and soft terrain, while the stable centre blocks allow for smoother highway driving, the company said. It’s also received the three-peak mountain snowflake (3PMS) rating for capability in ice and snow.

Put to the test over a sandy, rocky and rolling Baja course in Utah, on Dodge Ram 1500 trucks running in four-high, the AT2 provided a predictable feel, good grip on loose gravel and great traction through a swampy mud hole. They also demonstrated excellent stopping power on a washboarded, sandy track.

Rounding out the Sailun offerings for testing in Utah was the Terramax RT. It’s not new, but it is the company’s most rugged off-road tires for light trucks and SUVs. It’s got a wide tread that extends into the sidewall for better traction, as well as stone ejectors to keep the voids clear of the buildup that reduces grip. It is available in 39 sizes, ranging from 17 to 22 inches, with flotation sizes available in 33, 35 and 37 inches. It is also 3PMS certified.

The RTs looked great with their wide, extended tread on the fleet of Jeep Rubicon off-roaders we drove over a man-made handing course. They stuck like glue on steep climbs; incline crawls and drops as steep as an amusement park rollercoaster. There was no doubt that these tires are capable in an off-road environment. Sailun said they have good road manners as well, although we didn’t get a chance to test that claim.