Continental ExtremeContact Sport vs DWS 06 PLUS: One of the most common questions a tire purchaser has to answer is what segment tires should I buy? With such a huge variable of temperatures across the North America region, users are usually faced with the task of choosing an all season tire, a high performance summer tire or a winter tire. In this article we would like to address the first 2 segments which is the all season vs high performance tire segment. We will illustrate this by using 2 tireline from Continental’s current line up: ExtremeContact Sport (summer) vs DWS 06 PLUS (all season). From first glance, you are definitely looking at better wet & dry performances for the ExtremeContact Sport while you will also expect DWS 06 PLUS to totally out perform in winter testing. However the question is how much do you tend to lose in summer performances in pursuit of having reasonable winter performances. Hence let us pair the 2 tires head to head to see which tire comes out on top!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from Tyre Review’s UHP All Season vs UHP vs 200tw Track Tire Test. A total of 3 tires were tested this time on Continental’s Uvalde track in Texas. The graph below shows the comparison between Continental ExtremeContact Sport vs DWS 06 PLUS based on the relevant performance category. The ExtremeContact Sport was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.
Note that for subjective evaluation, we equate 1 point as 5%. Hence for example if tire A is graded 7 while tire B is graded 6, A is better than B by 5%. The tire size of interest is 235/35 R19 which is a common tire size for Audi R8 & Volkswagen Golf R. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle is a Ford Focus ST which is a very fast car relative to its size.
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. With regards to our comparison, ExtremeContact Sport was totally blazing when it came to wet braking as it managed to out-brake the DWS 06 PLUS by 10.2 feet (3.1m).
In the wet handling category as DWS 06 PLUS was 2.1 seconds off the ExtremeContact Sport’s lap time. While the lap times clearly favor ExtremeContact Sport it is important also to note some of the subjective wet handling feedback from the driver.
DWS 06 PLUS:
Very impressed with the level of grip & feedback for an all season tire. Slight understeer. No issues with aquaplaning
Test driver feedback on DWS 06 PLUS
ExtremeContact Sport:
Provides a little more adjustability, turning & braking. It builds up progressively step by step throughout the lap. A little more oversteering allows more playing thus giving a faster lap time.
Test driver feedback on ExtremeContact Sport
Both tires were very close in aquaplaning with ExtremeContact Sport being slightly ahead with a slip speed of 68.5 km/h in comparison to the 67.5 km/h slip speed of DWS 06 PLUS. Overall in the wet category, ExtremeContact Sport due to its summer first focus has clearly the upper hand with good performances in all wet test.
DWS 06 PLUS:
- -9.7% in wet braking
- -2.9% in wet handling (lap time)
- -1.5% in straight hydroplaning
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. In this segment we would really expect the summer tire to be better than the all season tire. This was proven true as ExtremeContact Sport was better in dry braking compared to DWS 06 PLUS with a braking distance advantage of 6.9 feet (2.1m).
In dry handling, things were much closer as the DWS 06 PLUS was only trailing the ExtremeContact Sport by 1.3 seconds per lap. Overall DWS 06 PLUS was second best but the margins are relatively small considering the winter performance leap.
DWS 06 PLUS:
- -5% in dry braking
- -1.4% in dry handling (lap time)
Noise & Comfort
In noise both tires had the same rating at 10/10 while in comfort DWS 06 PLUS came out ahead with a 10/10 relative to the 9/10 rating of ExtremeContact Sport.
DWS 06 PLUS:
- 0% in noise (subjective)
- +5% in comfort (subjective)
Snow
So here is the point where I would show off the figures on how well the all season tire performed against the summer tire in snow. However as there was no snow testing done head to head for our 2 tires, we have to settle for a similar category comparison with Continental’s arch rival Michelin’s Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Pilot Sport 4S. In typical fashion, the summer tire was totally destroyed in all snow categories [-39.1% in snow braking, -75.9% in snow traction (time) & -62% in snow handling (lap time) ]. Hence this is the part I truly convinced you that having an all season tire in snow conditions makes life much easier for you 😉
UTQG rating
We have previously shown that UTQG tread wear rating can be a good indication of your expected mileage. Below are the UTQG values of both of the tirelines.
| Brand | Tireline | Size | Tread Wear | Traction | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continental | ExtremeContact Sport | All | 340 | AA | A |
| Continental | DWS 06 PLUS | Load Index <= 103 | 560 | AA | A |
| Continental | DWS 06 PLUS | Load Index >= 104 | 560 | A | A |
The mileage warranty for ExtremeContact Sport is 30,000 miles while DWS 06 PLUS provides 50,000 miles. This is somehow reflected in the UTQG tread wear rating with ExtremeContact Sport having a rating of 340 compared to DWS 06 PLUS’s 560. It can be fairly assumed that DWS 06 PLUS will have a higher expected mileage compared to ExtremeContact Sport. Something to note for the DWS 06 PLUS is that they have 2 different traction values for load indices above & below 104.
For more in depth information about UTQG, please check out this article here. We even have a free download on the latest UTQG values from the leading tire manufacturers.
Price
DWS 06 PLUS was found to be 36 dollars cheaper compared to the elusive high performance segment of ExtremeContact Sport.
Tire size: 235/35 R19
ExtremeContact Sport: $269
DWS 06 PLUS: $233
Difference: +17% more expensive for Pilot Sport 4S.
Summary
Overall, both tires demonstrated clear strengths on different conditions. ExtremeContact Sport was strong in wet & dry while DWS 06 PLUS excels in comfort snow & wear. From our point of view, there is no clear winner in this duel and it really depends which requirements (winter or summer) from your side dominates more? But we got to say the trade off in wet & dry was kept to a minimum for DWS 06 PLUS making it a really well balanced all season tire !