What does speed rating V mean?

The step to V is the biggest on the chart

Below this point every neighbouring pair of symbols is ten kilometres per hour apart, all the way up through H at 210. The next rung is V, and it is thirty further on rather than ten. The increments stay wide from there — another thirty to W, another thirty to Y. The scale changes character at exactly this point, from a fine ladder for ordinary road tires to a coarse one for a much smaller population of high-performance ones.

V used to mean something looser

Before the upper symbols were introduced, V was the top of the scale and denoted a tire capable of more than 210 km/h with no stated ceiling. When speeds rose beyond what that open-ended marking could usefully describe, W and Y were added above it and V was given the fixed 240 km/h value it now carries. The related ZR marking in a size code belongs to the same period and the same problem — a designation for "above 240 km/h" that predates the symbols which now express it precisely.

What carries a V today

Sports cars, and the sportier versions of ordinary ones. The same model line frequently offers H-rated tires on one trim and V-rated on another, with the difference lying in casing construction and compound rather than in anything a driver would encounter below three-figure speeds.

What the rating is and is not

It is the result of a standardised test at a specified load and inflation on an undamaged tire. It is not a recommendation, not a legal permission, and not a property that survives under-inflation, damage or age. Decode a full service description to see the symbol alongside its load index. For the full chart, including the letter that sits two rows above V in defiance of the alphabet, see the speed rating table.