Continental Extreme Contact Force - First Impressions

[JustJames]

I haven't heard too much about this tire yet, so I wanted to share my experience to hopefully help others as they search for the tire that fits them best. I had the opportunity to shake it out at Lime Rock this past weekend, and overall my impressions were very positive. I’ll give my street impressions as well, but this is mainly a track performance review. Also I’m not being paid for this… I just like being helpful where I can

My setup:
2016 ZCP 6Spd
BM3 Stage I
AFE intake (Pro 5R)
Vorshlag Camber Plates (not sure of exact camber, likely around -3, they were not maxed out)
Apex EC-7 18x10/11 with ECF 275/35/18 & 295/30/18 (5mm spacer in front, but not necessary with the camber I had set up)
PFC 08 pads, RBF 660

Disclaimer:
While I’ve spent many days on many different tracks across the west coast, I’ve just moved to the east coast, so it’s my first season at many of the tracks over here. This was my first time at Lime Rock, and also my first time on track this season with camber plates, the intake/tune, and the tires. All of this to say that there are a lot of variables at play here, and I’m aware of that. Just being transparent up front and giving my impressions considering all of these different variables. Unfortunately this was my last track day of the year, so I’ll have to wait until next year to get back out at a track I’m a little more familiar with to have a better benchmark to compare with. As far as driver level, I’ve raced in the past, been an instructor for a few years, and always drive in the advanced classes at track days, so I know enough to be able to make some grounded comparisons.

The track:
Being the end of November in Connecticut, the temperature during the first session was 34F. Over the course of the day, it warmed up to the low 40s, but still, it was very cold. The engine loved it, of course, but I definitely struggled to get temperature into the tires for the first few laps/sessions.

The tires:
Immediately upon mounting them, I noticed an increase in sidewall stiffness. I would still be comfortable on these on the street, but definitely not as comfortable as my previous street tires MPS4S or Conti ECS. Also, their cold grip is not great which they would suffer from on the street. This is expected from a 200 TW tire, but still worth noting. I ran them about 33 psi on the street. Also worth noting is that it is not an especially loud tire, and would not annoy me on the street at all.

Lime Rock being what it is, as well as with the cold temps, it took me around 3 or 4 laps to really start feeling usable grip, and that number didn’t really change throughout the day. I targeted 32 psi hot, and had to use the first three sessions to get the tires to stay around that target as they warmed up enough to stay consistent.

The tire has excellent feedback feel, and I noticed this especially after I took MDM off after the first few sessions. With MDM on, the car really struggled, under braking especially. It was very squirrely in trail braking situations, as well as trying to put the power down out of a turn. With MDM off, the car’s rotation under heavy braking and mid corner became so much more predictable. I never felt an extreme drop off of grip, but rather a very manageable progressive decline past the limit. These tires also feel like they do well with relatively high slip angles, which I think is why MDM struggles to manage it. Honestly after I turned MDM off, I feel like I fell in love with the car again by how predictable everything felt and immediately shaved a couple seconds off my lap times.

As far as consistency, the car was very comfortable doing 1:00-1:02s back to back, and I never felt a decrease in grip from overheating the tires. I managed a 1:00.3 on my last session of the day (using free TrackAddict), but the setup definitely has another 1-2 seconds in it for someone with more experience at Lime Rock (or someone who isn’t as worried about having a 3hr drive home!)
I would also say that they are wearing very well, considering they only have about 2 hours of track time at very low temps. I would estimate that they would handle about 5-7 more days like this. Of course, I would rotate them after another day or two if I was just doing Lime Rock, as the left tires showed marginally more wear than the right tires as expected.

As far as price, they’re pretty much right in the ballpark compared to the Toyo R888R and Nitto NT01 for R comps and the Yok A052 for 200 TW. They definitely have more feel than the A052, and I would expect them to lap longer and more consistent than the A052. Unfortunately I haven’t run the R comps in my F80 so I can’t compare with those. Also worth noting is that they make a 315/30/18 which I think would be a great option for the rear of this car. Whenever I wear this set out, I will get that and let everyone know how it fits!

Overall, I am very happy with this tire. The level of feel was incredible, consistency was excellent, and I was very happy with the grip considering the conditions. I would definitely recommend it for those looking for a track day tire, but hesitate to recommend it to those looking for an autocross tire (I think the A052 is a better option for that). I can’t wait to get back out there next season on a track I’ve spent more time on and get some times to compare. I’ll be sure to update or do a new post for those who might be considering this as an option.

[kevin_at_BW]

We have the 315/30/18 at all four corners wrapped around our 18x11 TA5R wheels on our project F82 M4 GTMore and love them. Ran them at the Sandhills Open Road Challenge and they had tons of confidence and grip on a very unpredictable surface - old 2 lane road NOT designed for our 145mph pace.

We'll be testing them further at more events in 2022.

[bimmerboyE92]

When are you going to release your formula for how to run 315 square? I know others have done it, but nothing like an large vendor/racer backing the setup.

[Driver407]

Ive only ran NT01 at the track and been really happy with them. Someone I know mentioned the nittos are still in a shortage atm? I had bought a set in august when i first heard that was happening. Still on them.

However, I have been debating what i would run if i had to try another pair. I have always heard AO52 are nice. Interesting to see this post the day after i was looking at t200 stuff. Then bimmerworld repping them also.

I see OP has the same EC7 specs as me. Was curious how the 295 would fit on the 11. I have only ran 305 so far. I dont mind dropping size. Good to know they fit either way.

How many track days should you expect outa a set of these? Anyone else have any info? Curious if that 5-7 is accurate.

[jfritz27]

Originally Posted by irokdayellup

Ive only ran NT01 at the track and been really happy with them. Someone I know mentioned the nittos are still in a shortage atm? I had bought a set in august when i first heard that was happening. Still on them.

However, I have been debating what i would run if i had to try another pair. I have always heard AO52 are nice. Interesting to see this post the day after i was looking at t200 stuff. Then bimmerworld repping them also.

I see OP has the same EC7 specs as me. Was curious how the 295 would fit on the 11. I have only ran 305 so far. I dont mind dropping size. Good to know they fit either way.

How many track days should you expect outa a set of these? I know you mentioned maybe 5-7. I am getting 4.5 - 5 days outa my nittos.

Also in same boat as to what next after NT01, with the standard 10"/11" Apex setup. Decided I'm going to go with the Nankang CR-1, 285/30/18 and 315/30/18. The 285 in theory is perhaps a bit too big for a 10" wheel, though it has been documented here that the 275 CR-1 runs slightly narrower than the 275 NT01. Have a set of 12mm spacers on-hand to hopefully deal with any strut clearance issues up-front (I'm on B16 Damptronic)

[kevin_at_BW]

Originally Posted by bimmerboyE92

When are you going to release your formula for how to run 315 square? I know others have done it, but nothing like an large vendor/racer backing the setup.

We are VERY close. We have been testing a few options to make sure what we offer is THE best option and pass all our tests. Much like the rest of the world/industry sometimes parts supply is a bit of a hold up so we've hit a few delays and snags throughout the process of testing our setups. That and trying to finish off our year of racing, SEMA, traveling, etc. We should be full steam ahead trying to get this car's suspension package wrapped up very soon.

Trust us, we are very excited to announce this package as soon as we can - but we aren't about to rush something to market just to say we did it.

[Gomeler]

Good place as any to consolidate feedback on this tire.

I'm in a ~3300lb ~300whp M235iR running 18x10 with 275/35r18. Target of 34 PSI hot. I have run them for 240 miles on one day. Ambient temperatures started around 30F and and peaked around 50F. Camber is around -3.4* front, -2.25* rear. PFC 11 front/rear.

I can confirm the tire is slick with cold tarmac and no heat in the tire, but most are. Once the shakedown session was over we hot-lapped the car for 5 hours, so the compound never cooled down to ambient. I found it to be a very forgiving and communicative tire. There was no hard break in grip, it progressively slid and seemed to do very well in this zone of slippage. At slow speeds the tire communicates the slippage well, between the audible screaming and in my case the front-end understeer you could easily gauge how much slippage you were working with.

The tire wore between 2/32 and 3/32 of tread in 240 miles with most drivers turning ~2:10 with me setting a 200TW PB of 2:00 that day. At this track that is fantastic wear for a relatively fast tire.

The previous tire that I had on the car was the Yok A052, and I found the Conti to be the better tire. The Yok corded 2/4 tires in ~300 miles with me rotating tires aggressively(every ~70 miles) to manage wear. In the Yok's defense we ran it on a warmer day, ~60F to ~90F. Perhaps the cold temperatures assisted this heroic wear.

Lastly I found I could cut ~5 2:00-2:02 laps before I overheated the front. This presented itself via extreme slippage under threshold braking at the end of straights. Checking in the hot pits, pressures were still within ~2psi of the 34psi target, the compound just overheated. After 5 laps I had to enter a tire maintenance cycle, drive half a lap at 7/10 and then roll into the next lap at 10/10 for ~2 laps. IMO this is fantastic performance for a 200TW tire.

I will replace these with another set when I cord them. I have more wheels arriving, the intention is to add another 200TW compound so I can better compare tires and settle on a practice tire.

I did not gather pyrometer data, there was not time with 4 drivers in the car. In 2022 I'll set aside a day to gather better data on alignment + tire pressure.

[D_SheerDrivingPleasure]

Originally Posted by kevin_at_BW

We are VERY close. We have been testing a few options to make sure what we offer is THE best option and pass all our tests. Much like the rest of the world/industry sometimes parts supply is a bit of a hold up so we've hit a few delays and snags throughout the process of testing our setups. That and trying to finish off our year of racing, SEMA, traveling, etc. We should be full steam ahead trying to get this car's suspension package wrapped up very soon.

Trust us, we are very excited to announce this package as soon as we can - but we aren't about to rush something to market just to say we did it.

Would this application make sense on a dual duty car?

You mentioned 11x18 TAR5 wheels. What offsets? Square set-up?

thx

[JustJames]

Originally Posted by irokdayellup

I see OP has the same EC7 specs as me. Was curious how the 295 would fit on the 11. I have only ran 305 so far. I dont mind dropping size. Good to know they fit either way.

How many track days should you expect outa a set of these? Anyone else have any info? Curious if that 5-7 is accurate.

Yeah the 295s fit fine, and I would guess that the 315s would fit also. It doesn’t seem to run very wide from what I can see, but I haven’t precisely measured to be sure. And 5-7 days is probably a conservative estimate, but I’ll push these as far as I can and let people know how they do.

[JustJames]

Also worth checking out if you’re considering:

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by D_SheerDrivingPleasure

Would this application make sense on a dual duty car?

You mentioned 11x18 TAR5 wheels. What offsets? Square set-up?

thx

This will be dual duty for me, not for a normal, sane human

[drroc]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

This will be dual duty for me, not for a normal, sane human

Quite a few people in CA drive on R compounds to the shops, track, and on the track. Looks like with the latest droughts, this can be done year round...

[drroc]

AmericasTire told me that Nitto NT01 in 305 35 18 is on a national back order and they have no idea when they can get some. Looks like I will have to get the Contis Extreme Contact Force for the upcoming track season. Many thanks for the review!

[D_SheerDrivingPleasure]

I use NT01 or similar from April to November here in the northeast. It's a weekend family car that also does track duty.

My question relates to the yet to be announced BW 315 square set-up and whether it would be insane for me to consider this on a dual duty car. I assume I'll lose steering lock but how bad is it? Trying to get answers asap before my 10.5 square order gets finalized.

[JustJames]

I wouldn’t put 315s on 10.5s… that would be quite aggressive. I think the 315 square setup is on 11s. Even that is pretty nuts for dual duty. I would imagine the need for some hefty spacers and neg camber. Curious to see how the setup works though.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by D_SheerDrivingPleasure

I use NT01 or similar from April to November here in the northeast. It's a weekend family car that also does track duty.

My question relates to the yet to be announced BW 315 square set-up and whether it would be insane for me to consider this on a dual duty car. I assume I'll lose steering lock but how bad is it? Trying to get answers asap before my 10.5 square order gets finalized.

You'll lose a good amount of steering lock. It is not meant for a dual duty application at all.
It is a 'streetable' setup for someone who has a dedicated but street legal car.

[NYG]

Thanks for posting this.

Given that the sidewalls are extra stiff, did you find yourself running higher pressures than usual or struggling to get heat into the tires?

[sc_tr0jan_m3]

Bumping up this thread... has anyone confirmed if the 275/35/18 on a 18x10 wheel, fit under the 288mm width measurement tool for NASA?

[JustJames]

Originally Posted by NYG

Thanks for posting this.

Given that the sidewalls are extra stiff, did you find yourself running higher pressures than usual or struggling to get heat into the tires?

I targeted 32-33 PSI and didn't have an issue getting them there. It took a couple 20m sessions to get them there, but that was also compounded by me not being familiar with the tires and the track. You could get them to temp in one session just fine.

These pressures are actually slightly lower than what I ran on Michelin 4Ss/Cup 2 (33-34) and Conti ECS (35-36). Generally, I prefer higher pressure with softer sidewalls.

[JustJames]

Originally Posted by sc_tr0jan_m3

Bumping up this thread... has anyone confirmed if the 275/35/18 on a 18x10 wheel, fit under the 288mm width measurement tool for NASA?

I'm not familiar with NASA regulations... how exactly is this measured? I have the 274/35/18 mounted on apex 10'' in the front. I can measure and let you know.

[b_w.]

How are you feeling about these tires now that you have had them a while?

[polarbearz]

Originally Posted by b_w.

How are you feeling about these tires now that you have had them a while?

These tires are great. They never overheat and you can push them for 20 min session nonstop. The pace is great and better than RS4. You can know the limit of the tire easily. It’s kind of beginners friendly because of their consistent grip throughout the session. I think 32 is too low for this tire, I have found 34 is best for this tire. When it reaches 36, it’s too high for them. The only cons is the really thick sidewall that protects the rim. The 275 on my 10.5 has the thickness of 295 that may contact the shock.