From the noteworthy and made-of-rubber file comes the news that Continental has released its new ExtremeContact Sport summer performance tire. The successor to the ExtremeContact DW, the new tire is intended to be durable, daily drivable, high performing in dry conditions, and capable of delivering high levels of wet-weather grip and braking. But where the DW prioritized wet performance, street manners, and dry handling—in that order—the Sport moves dry handling to the top of the list while still shooting to improve across the rest of the spectrum.
To that end, the Sport’s sidewalls feature a new two-ply construction and a stiffening insert, which Continental says combine to deliver a big 86 percent increase in sidewall strength and—perhaps as important for a tire meant to be driven daily—only a 6 percent increase in ride stiffness. As you’d expect of a high-performance tire, the tread pattern is fairly minimal, incorporating large shoulder blocks and chamfered edges to prevent buckling and deliver precision and predictable feedback to the driver on the track and street. Tread life is said to be 20 percent greater versus the DW as well.
The DW wear indicators from the, uh, DW return here (you can see them in the top photo). Basically, each tire is imprinted with a DW marking; the W wears first, signifying compromised wet traction. Next, the D will disappear, which means it’s high time for a new set. That shouldn’t break the bank, as the Sport in the 225/45-18 size, for example, costs less than $150 per tire at Tire Rack.
We recently sampled the Sport at the Thermal Club in Palm Springs, California, a country-club facility that features a five-mile road course, a go-kart track, and large black lakes. Our first experience came during an autocross-style event in BMW M235i coupes. None of these wore competitive tires for comparison, but the Sports proved up to the task of repeated hard runs in the desert heat, and oversteer was both well communicated at onset and easily corrected—the tires’ predictable feel meant we could simply focus on getting quicker.
Next, we drove the Sport back to back with the DW in a steering-and-ride exercise using BMW M3s in their (very) firm Sport chassis setting. The cars riding on the new rubber responded to steering inputs in more linear fashion, which would translate to increased confidence. Ride harshness and initial impact behavior also were clearly improved when traversing rippled, high-frequency track curbing and small speed bumps. Put simply, the Sport took more of the edge off big impacts and also was noticeably quieter.
Our final runs were conducted on a wet/dry handling course in Subaru WRXs and more M235i coupes. Here, Continental provided competitive tires for A/B testing, and while the Sport was subjectively neck and neck with the Michelin Pilot Sport in feel and performance during the dry portions, it was demonstrably better than the Michelin and the other two tires (Hankook Ventus V12 evo2 and Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position) in wet handling and braking, a conclusion we also reached with respect to the DW in our last big comparison test of performance tires.
Our brief exposure was admittedly curated, although it showed the ExtremeContact Sport to deliver a nice balance of predictable and capable handling, exceptional wet performance, and overall comfort. But the benchmark in the performance-tire segment—and our favorite—the Pilot Sport, has just been redesigned, and it proved to be a capable wet performer when we recently drove it at the same facility. We definitely look forward to seeing how the Sport stacks up when next we gather gumballs for a group test.
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