A little over two years ago, Canadian Tire Corporation invited me to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) to introduce me to its new Motomaster Performance Edge performance tire. As we all know, Canadian Tire is a retail company. It does not own a tire manufacturing plant. As a result, to produce its Motomaster Edge tires, it must rely on one or more outside manufacturers.

In the past, Canadian Tire had also invited me to discover its Motomaster Winter Edge winter tire. At the time, that tire was made by South Korean giant Hankook. For the Performance Edge, however, Motomaster turned to Chinese manufacturer Sailun. I was a little skeptical at first, because I had a somewhat negative opinion of Chinese tires. Still, after a few laps in Mustangs fitted with Sailun-built Motomaster Performance tires on CTMP's driver development track, I quickly changed my mind.

It should be noted that Sailun has been in Canada for years and has carried out research and development work here. Over time, through hard work and advances in materials, technology and tooling, Sailun had no choice but to evolve. Its product has clearly evolved as well.

This time, a few days ago, it was back to CTMP to test another new Motomaster tire, once again developed with Sailun's help: the Motomaster Hydra Edge Plus, a product aimed at most passenger vehicles. To demonstrate the tire's effectiveness, Motomaster had even arranged for a water truck to soak CTMP's skid pad.

As luck would have it, CTMP didn't need the truck after all. It rained — and it poured. That gave us the perfect opportunity to put the Hydra Edge Plus to the test in its most natural element. In my first braking test, I had to accelerate to about 100 km/h in a Toyota RAV4 equipped with four Hydra Edge tires, then brake hard. The first surprise was how quickly the small SUV came to a stop, with no feeling of losing control.

The second exercise involved circling tightly around cones until the vehicle would begin to skid... which it simply refused to do. Other exercises included rapid lane-change simulations, as in an emergency situation, along with slalom runs, all of them just as convincing. The Hydra Edge Plus handled the rain thanks to its deep grooves and maintained all the grip one would expect.

Finally, after a drive on the roads surrounding CTMP, the most convincing impression was just how quiet this tire is on the road. The highlight of the day was riding as a passenger in a Mustang GT driven at high speed by IndyCar champion James Hinchcliffe, to prove that the Hydra Edge Plus is also a performance tire. Incidentally, it is produced in Sailun's Vietnamese plants.

That is certainly enough to change one's opinion of Chinese tires... at least those that appear to have made major progress over the past few years. The Motomaster Hydra Edge Plus is already on sale. It is available in 32 sizes for 15- to 20-inch wheels, in V, H and T speed ratings, and comes with a 120,000-km warranty. Thanks to a 25% discount during the spring season, pricing ranges from about $125.00 to just over $300.00.