Continental AllSeasonContact vs Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF2: All season tires have always been the go to tires for the American market and this segment has been well established across the years. However things were only starting to take off in Europe after the launch of Cross Climate in 2015 revolutionizing the whole all season market. We have seen from our previous post on Continental’s AllSeasonContact performance against Goodyear’s Vector 4Seasons Gen 3.
This time around we would like to pair Continental’s AllSeasonContact with another big all season market player which is Pirelli’s Cinturato All Season SF2. It was launched in 2021 with a 3 peak mountain certification to compete in this all season market. Continental over the years has only stuck to AllSeasonContact despite being launched way back in 2017, it has done fairly well. To find out which is the better tire, we will pit Continental AllSeasonContact vs Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF2 head to head in an all season showdown!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from the 2022 Tyre Reviews All Season Tyre Test. A total of 10 tires were tested this time around. The graph below shows the comparison between Continental AllSeasonContact vs Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF2 based on the relevant performance category. The AllSeasonContact was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.
As both tires are categorized as all season tires with a 3 peak mountain logo on it, an extensive snow testing was conducted. However ice testing was left out which was quite disappointing to our dismay. The tire size of interest is a 225/45R17 which is a common tire size for Audi A3 and Hyundai Elantra. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle of choice is a Volkswagen Golf.
Wet
The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria.
AllSeasonContact performed much better against Cinturato All Season SF2 in wet braking by stopping 2.7m earlier. The advantage obtained was carried forward in wet handling as AllSeasonContact was 2.2 seconds faster per lap than Cinturato All Season SF2 in wet handling.
Aquaplaning was a close affair as AllSeasonContact slightly edge ahead with an aquaplaning slip speed of 78.3 km/h compared to Cinturato All Season SF2’s 77.9 km/h slip speed. While in curve aquaplaning, AllSeasonContact has an +0.3m/s2 advantage. Overall in the wet category, AllSeasonContact is clearly the better performing tire in wet.
Cinturato All Season SF2:
- -7.5% in wet braking
- -2.2% in wet handling (lap time)
- -0.5% in straight aquaplaning
- -4.5% in curve aquaplaning
Dry
As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. Cinturato All Season SF2 dominated the dry braking competition by out braking AllSeasonContact by 2.1 meters.
However in the dry handling performance criteria, things were different as AllSeasonContact had a 1.8 seconds per lap advantage against Cinturato All Season SF2. From these results, it has been shown repeatedly that having a good dry braking performance does not necessarily guarantee a good dry handling performance. Overall on dry surfaces, Cinturato All Season SF2 leads in the dry braking while AllSeasonContact is better in dry handling.
Cinturato All Season SF2:
- +5.3% in dry braking
- -2.2% in dry handling (lap time)
Noise
In the exterior noise test, Cinturato All Season SF2 has a pass by noise value of 69.5 dB which is 0.2 dB quieter than AllSeasonContact.
Cinturato All Season SF2:
- +0.3% in exterior noise (-0.2 dB)
Rolling Resistance
When it comes to all season tires, rolling resistance is definitely not at the highest priority as the engineer has to handle the most important winter vs summer target conflict. However with the sustainability topic being more prevalent, rolling resistance has been widely used as a competitive marketing tool as it could be easily seen in the label values.
Both tires featured here are labeled “B” in the EU label rolling resistance ranking. With this label ranking, we would expect both tires to be fairly equal when it comes to rolling resistance performance. However upon measuring the rolling resistance coefficient values, the expectations were not met. Cinturato All Season SF2 was found to have a much lower rolling resistance with a coefficient value of 7.5N/kN which is the best in the competition while AllSeasonContact on the other hand obtained a 8.1N/kN rolling resistance coefficient which does not even reflect the “B” status based on the EU rolling resistance regulation. Hence as demonstrated time and time again, the EU labels sometimes do not reflect the tire’s true performance.
Cinturato All Season SF2:
- +8% in rolling resistance
Snow
As with most all season tires in the European market, both tires here come with a 3 peak mountain symbol to legally certified them as a winter tire. In layman terms, Cinturato All Season SF2 and AllSeasonContact have to pass a legal snow test in order to certify themselves as a 3 peak mountain tire.
Cinturato All Season SF2 was just slightly better in snow traction by taking only 6.7 seconds to accelerate from 5-40 km/h while it took AllSeasonContact 6.8 seconds. Snow braking was once again dominated by AllSeasonContact as it out-brake Cinturato All Season SF2 by 2.5 meters. AllSeasonContact also took the lead in snow handling with a lap time advantage of 1.2 seconds. Overall, it is clear from the test results, AllSeasonContact excels much better in snow compared with Cinturato All Season SF2.
Cinturato All Season SF2:
- -7.2% in snow braking
- +1.5% in snow traction
- -1% in snow handling (lap times)
Price
The tire prices for both Cinturato All Season SF2 & AllSeasonContact are as below:
Tire size: 205/55 R16
AllSeasonContact: €86.6
Cinturato All Season SF2: €84
Difference: -3% more expensive for Cinturato All Season SF2.
Summary
Overall, AllSeasonContact shows great masterclass in wet & snow performances while Cinturato All Season SF2 excels in dry braking & rolling resistance. It is hard to make a clear recommendation in this case and it depends on your requirement. If snow is a clear intention for your all season usage, AllSeasonContact would be a wise choice. If there is minimal winter coverage in your driving location, Cinturato All Season SF2 would be a wiser choice. Enjoy!