The failure characteristics of asphalt mixtures should be known in order to be able durable pavements. Tension and compression tests performed at a range of strain rates and temperatures are needed in order to obtain a full picture of these failure characteristics. Tension and compression tests are not simple tests and will most probably not be used for practical situations. Therefore a study was initiated at the Delft University to develop a model which allows the tensile and compressive strength to be estimated from mixture parameters. This paper describes the materials tested, the test equipment as well as the model that was derived.