Virtual methods have allowed to shift many tasks to earlier phases of the vehicle development. Tire development is a key part in the vehicle’s performance development. Planning and predicting the vehicle ride and handling performance including the influence of the tire has become a crucial task. Driving Simulators (DS) offer the opportunity to experience the virtual vehicle’s performance using direct inputs from the driver, allowing therefore a subjective assessment of technical solutions without the need to build them first. From that background Goodyear and Hyundai agreed to run a back-to-back comparison between subjective handling evaluations done on real track vs Driving Simulator evaluation. The process starts off with a careful design of the of experiment, development of evaluation methodology and then a comparison of the obtained results. We will discuss the results in detail, identifying the potential candidate items that could be substituted virtually in future developments.