Tirerack et al. always rate the PS4S as the king of the perf summer tire crop but these aren't far behind their ratings and are a bit less money. To me I can't imagine needing anything more after pushing them hard this week but then again I'll say the same about the PS4 all seasons that are fantastic.
Continental Extreme Contact Sports
- Thread starter TiGeo
- Start date
All Season tires, jack of all trades, master of none. I have never met a set of all season that perform as well as summer tires.
I will admit that my experience with summer tires is limited to the Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position and the Continental Extreme Contact. There is no question that these were far superior to any all season tire I have driven on.
Excellent tires. I had them on my BMW and used them on Tail of the Dragon, no issues in light rain. I have dedicated snow tires, and previously had a long commute. I noticed on those "in-between" season days that would dip below 40 the Contis definitely were a bit squirrelly. I ended up going with Michelin AS4 this time, but will likely go back to the Continentals next since I no longer drive 100+ miles a day.
I have no idea why people use an all season on a sporty car, completely neuters it unless you're not using the car to its intention.
I can run a 245 on my 18x8.5s but the price on these was right! Stock on mine is 225 so 235s are 1 step up.
When I got them/had the mounted it was December so took them out in the mid-to-upper 30s...yeah no thanks. PS4 AS were the ticket.
All based on where you live and if you want to buy/store a second set of wheels/tires. If you live where you can't use these year around then a tire like the Michelin PS4 all season makes a whole lot of sense for a lot of people sporty car or not especially if you don't need a dedicated winter/snow tire like where I live here in central VA. I've never had an issue hanging on on full-send mountain hooning etc. on a set of UHP AS tires....whether it's ideal or "neutered" feeling is a different discussion.
Uhh, yeah. That was the point I was making.
If giving up a good deal of performance and feel is worth not having a second set of wheels/tires, that's cool. For me it's not worth it, not even close. The tire you have now is vastly superior on aggressive back road driving and that gap widens the warmer the tire gets.
I would agree just based on the last few days of hooning around on some of my "secret spots" at nearly 80 deg F - I certainly am not going to be able to over-drive these on a public road. Very planted/controlled/great feedback. I'm doing an HPDE this weekend on these so interested to see how they do!
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My favorite thing about the Conti ECS wasn't the overall level of grip, but it's smooth and progressive breakaway past its limits of traction. I have never had a tire that was so easy to drive at the limit. My Bridgestone RE-71R tires yielded faster lap times than the Conti's (as they well should) but they weren't nearly as much fun to drive.
I also raced with some guys that used Conti ECS as their wet track tire because they couldn't justify the price jump to a Hoosier H2O. The ECS wet performance was that close. Now that is high praise if I've ever heard it.
I also raced with some guys that used Conti ECS as their wet track tire because they couldn't justify the price jump to a Hoosier H2O. The ECS wet performance was that close. Now that is high praise if I've ever heard it.
It has always been in the shadow of the PS4S but I never understood why other than simple euphoria. It is a fantastic tire.
Wow! Great feedback. I'd like to get some wider 200 tw tires mounted on a set of 17s just for track use at some point so that I'm not hammering my daily tires and get a bit more grip/braking for the couple HPDEs I'm doing per year. Will be curious how these do on the track.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
I like on track more tires like ECS than RE-71.
I use Yokohama Advan V601 on track. Excellent tire, progressive loss of traction, etc.
This has been my experience as well. 200TW and super 200s are great for hot laps, but require a lot more finesse to drive. I personally don't mind going slower, since I'm not trying to win the track day. I'll have to try the Yoko's.
Speaking of Yokohama, I have experience with their A052. This is their Super 200 autocross tire. They were mounted on to my friends Mk 7.5 GTI setup for GS class. (Stock class, so very much a less than ideal setup, mainly due to camber limitations). We ran into severe delamination issues with this tire after just one season with him driving and myself co-driving. The tires were fast, but had an abrupt breakaway, which made the car tricky to drive at the limit. Required a lot of restraint to not push it too far, because once you did, it was game over. It was certainly an expensive lesson for grassroots guys like ourselves. My friend ended up closing out the season first in his class (GS), and 6th overall. He moved back to Conti ECS because "while winning my class was fun, the driving wasn't".
Sorry for the novel, just another opinion to consider from some random guy on the internet.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
To be honest I find them very good for fun track day. Take into consideration I run track days after leaving kids in kindergarten and daycare, so still have their seats in. Definiately not trying to be fastest nor my BMW is anyway.
Got them bcs. brand name for $106 per tire! A win!
I'm there too - doing this for fun, not track times. I was told by the 2 instructors I've had at HPDEs that street tires are the way to learn to drive on the track b/c they give more feedback vs. the stickier ones. The only downside I see is you are using street tires that are $$ and beating them up. Most of these 200tw tires however are actually street legal so we aren't talking about R-compound slicks here. They are v. popular in the MK7 VW community to run even as daily tires. At some point I'll move to a dedicated set of 17x9s with some 255/40 200s.
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I personally think it is silly to daily on 200tw tires. Far too many trade offs in order to achieve outstanding dry traction. Standing puddles on the highway will not be for the faint of heart. Also, plan on having all of your rocker panels and lower doors/fenders sandblasted by pebbles and road debris. Their high wear rate would be the least of my concern. 200tw tires belong on a track.
I don't disagree. I'm perfectly happy daily-ing UHP all seasons...hahahahaha. I will note that as I continue to put these Contis to the text, you do get more road bits kicked up.
