ExtremeContact club!!

[jcauseyfd]

Just thought I'd drop a line and mention that I just put some new tires on the MINI. Opted to go with Continental ExtremeContact DW in 205/55R16. That's the same size as the S.drives I just had. The EC DWs got excellent reviews everywhere I looked. I believe several of our members have the DWS, which is the all season version. I opted to go with the summer version as the S.drives, which are also summer tires, did fine during the winter as long as there was no ice or snow on the road. In case anyone is wondering, on the Conti's, the starting tread depth is 9/32nds. Tire shop (Discount Tire) only inflated them to 32 psi, which seems low to me. Will need to do a little research to see if I should bump them up a bit.

As for the S.drives, I squeezed 25k miles out of them. They wore through the first few 32nds quite quickly, but slowed over time. Road noise started to set in pretty good starting just before 20k. By end of life, it was so bad, my family was like "what is that noise? Is something wrong with your MINI?" when they would ride with me. Noise notwithstanding though, the grip was excellent, both wet and dry and I never really detected any increased propensity to hydroplane on wet roads even as the depth dropped below 4/32nds. And they had picked up a bit of a vibration in the last 2k miles (probably due to me not getting them rebalanced on a regular basis). Even though I decided to slightly upgrade this time, I would definitely recommend the S.drives, especially if budget is an issue. Get a good rebate and you might be able to do less than $70 a tire.

[BThayer23]

Definitely bump that pressure up a bit. 35psi cold is a good place to start for street tires. I think they just have a bunch of air hoses set to pressures at regular intervals, and they grab whatever's closest to the recommended pressure, so it's within a few pounds but by no means exact. Mine always come out at 32psi and I bring 'em up to 35 or 36.

Good choice on the EC DW. I've heard lots of good things about that tire.

[maacodale]

I agree 100%!

Just took off the S Drives. Good grip and was really ahppy at first. But as the got older, they really got loud. Even louder than the mud tires on my Jeep Wrangler.

I put on a set of EC DW about 1200 miles ago. I think the S Drives might have been better in the wet at first, but I'm hoping the DW's will have a better life for the long haul.

[jcauseyfd]

Thanks guys. I was running the S.drives at 35 cold. I'll bump these up as well.

[Miniboomer]

I have the S drives now (22,000 miles) and the noise is awful. I agree with your assessment and I am just trying to get the most out of them while I can stand the roar. I had nothing but positive comments for the S drives until the noise started at about 20,000 miles. I will have something new before the dragon or maybe even the Minipoloosa. Considering a splurge to the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus.

[Agnt006]

wow, I had no idea! I guess I know what to expect now!

[leicaguy]

I have the Conti DWS for street and they are excellent tires. I use S Drives on the track (which occasionally remain on the car for a week or so after track day). I've had a number of occasions to compare the two back and forth. I think the DW are very similar to the DWS in basic construction. If so, one thing you will notice is a softer side wall. The steering isn't quite as snappy as the S Drive. But the ride is nicer and they should be EXCELLENT in rain. So far wear on the Conti's have been good. I have about 10K on them and no signs of real wear yet. Good choice.

[Hunter99]

Have the DWS as well. I have about 5k on them and no real signs of wear, nice and quiet, and a smooth ride. Had the Goodyear F1's before and about halfway through their life they started getting loud and unbearable and riding harshly. The DWS seem to loose a little bit of handling but the ride is really worth it.

[Harmless Dave]

Hey,

I just put new shoes on ours also. We have the Hankook Venta 205/45/17 and I got some second hand wheels that are Excel at 7.5". The offset allows the wheels and tires to move out and fill the wheel wells. I think they look nice.

Discount mounted them for me and they set the tires at 32. I had a long weekend in the mountains coming, so I move them up to 38 front and 36 rear. So far so good and the grip is great!

Harmless Dave

[Hunter99]

Just a quick follow up on the DWS. Had them rotated and balanced about 2 weeks ago at Performance Chassis. Wear is not evident and they are holding up extremely well. They are still super quiet except and concrete roadways (540 east) and are now a little noisy on that type of road. On anything else they are still extremely quiet.

If this holds up I will be extremely happy and would buy again. I may get another set of wheels and put a set of summer tires on those and use the DWS for the winter. Still debating. About the only thing the tires have is some flex in the sidewall which is much more evident in hot weather. Predictable and easy to compensate for but there nonetheless. Still would keep me from buying these, though.

Actually hope to get a snow day this year just to see how they do in the light snow.

If you do a lot of road driving (Blimey) then these would be excellent tires for highway trips. Not the best for aggressive twisty driving.

[slimjimtell]

I had the conti DWS for 100 miles, took them off. They were WAY too soft and squishy. You could feel them rolling under the car. I switched to bridgestone potenza RE760 Sports. They are so much more responsive. I wanted to try something new, if I had it to do again, the hankook Ventus v12 is a great tire.

[jcauseyfd]

End of Life Update - Continental ExtremeContact DW

Just thought I'd resurrect this thread to post end of life results for the DW tires. I ended up squeezing just over 31k miles out of them. That included several aggressive Dragon runs which I figure cost me about 5k miles of normal tread life. They were all down to 1/32nd or less with one completely lacking any tread over about 2/3rds of the width (really just a smidge on the shoulders). I will say that throughout their entire life, I never felt like they gave up anything as far as dry or wet traction. Picked up some very slight road noise over the last 5k miles or so, but nothing overly bothersome. Overall, a very impressive tire, held up extremely well throughout its life. I have no reservations about recommending these for someone looking for some good grippy tires at a low price point (low relative to some others on the market).

So did I get the same tire as a replacement? No. I probably would have, but I was planning to go down one of two paths. Either A) try some Bridgestone RE760 Sport tires, just to try something different. Hey, I enjoy testing stuff (and just for kicks, I had some Firestone Firehawk Oval Indy 500s in the mix for consideration). Or B) try some Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires which come with a 45,000 mile warranty. Although I would be giving up some performance by going back to all seasons, I'm kind of hoping to skip a year of annual tire purchases.

At the last minute though, I discovered that Continental actually has a 50,000 mile warranty on the ExtremeContact DWS tires and they are only a couple dollars more per tire than the DW and similar in price to the Bridgestones I was looking at (and much cheaper than the Michelins). So the DWS tires is what I went with. I realize I'll give up a bit in performance, but that will hopefully give me much longer life and a smidgen more confidence when driving on the cold January/February streets (and occasional snowy streets) around here. And who knows, maybe with a break from replacements I can save up enough for some new rims (my dream of white rims to go with my Wolfpack Red and White MINI lurks in the background) and a good set of summer tires to use just during the summer months.

[colejd]

I had 215/45-17 DWS's two tire changes ago. At this time the 205/45-17 was not available. They were a little spongy in the sidewall but got better over time and gave me 28,000 before replacement (which meant a prorated $52/tire refund). I used the rebate to help buy 4 Bridgestone RE050 (now known as S-04's) Pole Position ((tread wear rating 280 miles). These were excellent summer performance tires with great stick and little to no noise. However they only lasted 14,000 miles and have no warranty. I now have Bridgestone G019 Grid's and while not RE050 performance they are very nice and have a 45,000 mile warranty.

[Mildred_Mini]

I have 20,000 miles on my DSW's and they're still running great. I will probably get another 15,000-20,000 on them unless I make a lot of trips to the dragon or other twisties. I don't have a lot of exciting driving back and forth to work. They are a little soft, but that gives a better ride than the runflats I replaced.

[Mildred_Mini]

Sorry, typo. Continental DWS.

[Hunter99]

Still have my DWS with about 30k on them. They are getting close to the wear bars and have maybe 2k of life left in them. I have been very happy with them and they have performed excellently in the dry, wet, and snow as advertised. The only problem I have had with them is they became a little noisy the last 3k to 5k on them but that started after I went through a blind drain trough I was rounded through in a parking lot a little fast. Have checked out the tires multiple times and never found anything so I was told it could have done something to the belts in the tire. Either way they are safe to drive on but have some noise.

Am I going to get the same tire? Probably, but I have looked at others. My only frustration is the popularity has raised the price about $20 since I got them. What I am thinking of doing is using them for 6 months through the winter and using dedicated summer tires the rest of the year. Been looking a Michelin Pilot Super Sports for that. Figured if I go that route I would put the DWS on around the beginning of October and run them through the end of March. That way I cover freak cold events early and late in the year and completely keep the summer tires out of any temps below 50 degrees. Figured the 2 sets should last better this way.

Anyway, i got off topic but the tires have been great and I would recommend to anyone looking at them. I always kept mine at 37lbs of pressure and still had decent handling.