Tire Review - Continental ExtremeContact DW / DWS Tires

Seemingly one of the most successful, cash-infused tire companies at the moment, Continental Tire went balls to the wall for the launch event of the Extreme Contact DW (Dry Wet) and DWS (Dry Wet Snow) tires. California Speedway, now Auto Club Speedway, played host to the event with the oval, infield, go-kart track and parking lot rented out for testing. On hand in the parking lot were a wet skidpad, wet braking test and two tight autocross courses (dry and wet, see our video HERE).

Continental Tire’s test fleet of BMWs and Mustang GTs were on hand for journalist abuse and we delivered. The BMW 3-Series proved to be an easy low-speed drift machine on the wet autocross course, while the Mustang GT left us pining for a competent limited-slip differential (LSD) to be installed in the rear axle. Muscling the Ford pony car around the wet skidpad became an exercise in understeer and throttle management as the V8's torque refused to properly overcome both of the rear Continental DWS tires with power-on oversteer. Luckily, the DWS tires provided enough traction and wet surface feel that balancing the Mustang around the wet asphalt was no problem.

Still, the star of the day was the Extreme Contact DW tire. We’ve driven on Continental’s previous ContiSportContact 3 performance offering and found it to be very consistent and with a pretty good level of grip. The DW was our main focus for the day and it did quite well for an all-season tire (all season in CA at least, we only get dry and some wet - Ed.). The DW doesn’t provide the outright dry grip of uber-top tier rubber, like Yokohama’s Advan AD08 Neova tire, but, then again, Neova’s cost an arm and a leg and will wear out faster than you can say burnout. For the average real world driver, the Continental ExtremeContact DW provides a better balance between cost and performance and will provide more than enough grip for the street and, occasionally, the track.

We pushed the DW on the autocross course, on CA Speedway’s massive oval (in an ex-Toyota Pro/Celebrity Celica racecar) and in a timed “time attack” session on the infield course. Even tith the launch event full of club racers and karting enthusiasts, we took the 3rd place trophy. The DW tire proved to be very responsive and had an easy to find limit of grip, making learning both easier and faster.

While out on course, the DWs delivered. They were very consistent over the driving period and delivered more grip than we had originally anticipated. The current generation of street tires have progressed with amazing leaps and bounds, almost matching racing tires for consistency and grip. The Continental DW and DWS tires are quiet, comfortable, consistent and have a decent amount of grip. These weren't designed as one-shot wonder Street Touring autocross tires but If you’re looking for a grippy tire that you can slap on to your street car all year round, the Continental DW and DWS are very good choices.

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Update (Nov. 2009):

Our very own Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution track car test bed, Project Evo IX, recieved an invite to the annual Evo vs. STI Shootout. The time trial competition is run on a spec tire, the Continental ExtremeContact DW tire, meaning all competitors would be on the same exact tire. This evened out the playing field, making for closer competition.

After a day on track, Project Evo IX emerged as the fastest car of the day, beating full racecars. Equipped with an aftermarket KW suspension, 400hp and 265/35/18 Continental ExtremeContact DW tires, we set a laptime on track faster than both the Porsche 911 Turbo and the Chevy Corvette Z06. Our car is registered, driven regularly and is full weight.

On track data - 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, 265/35/18 Continental ExtremeContact DW tires