Continental ExtremeContact DW vs Michelin Pilot Super Sports?
 

Hello Guys! So I've been in the market for some new tires for my frs. I've always had my eyes set on MPSS but because of the price I sometimes stir away from them. I've never rode in a car with MPSS, especially on our car, and I was wondering if anyone can comment on road noise on them, particularly on the highway at cruising. My car is a DD and I take it on occasional spirited driving. Other than that I'm not looking to do any tracking or autox with the car other than maybe one track/auto event this year.

I've been looking around and was first considering Hankook Ventus V12's but have heard good things about Continental ExtremeContact DW. Can any comment on this tire as well? Is it worth saving the extra $100 vs the MPSS? Thanks again!

I had a set of MPSS in 225/45-17 on a 17x8 wheel and loved them. They lasted damn near the entire 30k that was warrantied (an achievement for me) and I was impressed the whole way. However, when it came time to replace them, I really wanted to go 245/40 for switching up to 17x9 wheels, but could not stomach the cost difference of MPSS in 245. The DW was rated not very far behind the Michelin, but was a hell of a lot cheaper, so I went for it.

The DW is louder under stress. Pushing the car a bit in turns makes them a bit vocal, but they still hang on. The MPSS was a stickier tire, to be sure. But I think it FELT even better because you just don't hear it screaming. Honestly, neither one of them bothered me during commutes, so I can't really comment on the sound difference there, other than to say I had no complaints. I'm always listening to music, anyway, and I realize I did not buy a Mercedes (or sound-dampen my whole car).

The DW is also a lighter tire. The 245 weighs about the same as my 225 MPSS. Along with the light wheels, that helps a lot.

The DW won't last as long, but they're cheap. I have been happy with them, and I DD nearly 70 miles/day, and a few mountain runs now and then. I'm a hardcore onramp racer. And I liked the fact that I could get a wider tire for cheaper vs. the MPSS. For me, it was worth it.

Hope that helps.

Edit: one more thing to add...you didn't mention size of tires or wheels, so I'm going to assume you're on stock right now. While I'm not a fan of the stretched tire look, I noticed a big difference on a 245/40 tire when going from an 8" to a 9" wheel. On the 8", it felt so much sloppier compared to the 225 MPSS I had before. But after going to the 9" wheel, the 245 feels much crisper. Actual grip aside, that sharpness is a characteristic of this car that I don't want to diminish if I can avoid it. So if you're on stock or other narrow wheels, don't go too wide on the tire.

i've gone thru several hankook set of tires, both v12s and then a set of RS3. Love them, but compared to other brands, such as michelin, seem to wear out faster. so in the long run it wont really be saving much, if any money.

MPSS. DW wears....fast.

The PSS is a better tire all-around. This is how the DW sounds when you're making em scream.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FkCXleL8MI"]Subaru BRZ Drift at Streets of Willow Springs - YouTube[/ame]

Appreciate all the comments! @2point0 @CSG Mike @vroom4 @Xuningshen
Yea I will be usually running stock wheels. In terms of the tire sizes, would you guys recommend going stock size for the tires? Or should I go for like a 220 or 225 for better grip? Any downsides to going wider on stock wheels? Thanks!

FYI - tire sizes all end in 5, so your choices are 215/45 or 225/45. Either will fit on the stock wheels, difference in diameter is not going to be a big deal.

The only downsides to going wider are a higher price and maybe a little bit more squirminess. Hard to say if you'd notice the difference or not, but nothing wrong with a good tire in 215 with this car.

Thanks alot! I'm very new to purchasing tires so I don't know much. Yea I will definitely probably go stock size. Is Tirerack usually the cheapest place to purchase MPSS or can I get them cheaper if I buy local?

If you can find them local, you can probably get them at a competitive price when you calculate the savings on shipping costs.

Try your local Costco, they have a pretty good price/deal going on Michelins.

Yeah, TireRack has good deals, but sometimes it's good to buy from a local tire shop and make friends. Luckily, a guy I went to high school with works at Discount Tire locally and TireRack can't touch the bro prices.

When you get into modding cars, it's always a good idea to be friendly with the local shops.

Hmmm, a friend of mine swears that DWs last forever while giving up a little grip to stickier tires. I've not had mine long enough to know.

They are nice and light though. Great street tire.


Sent from Tandy 400

The DW is a great tyre. Can't compare them to the mpss which I wanted but as you could not stomach the extra price.

The DW's are rated with more tread life than the PSS I thought? I've had mine on for 20k miles and they still have tons of tread left from street driving.

You might not want to compare the tread rate of two different brands.

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I have a set of MPSS in my basement waiting for spring to get here (currently in a 15" blizzard today), and can't wait. Considered the DW, but ended up in a situation where it didn't make sense...

My finalists in that class were the V12 EVO and the MPSS. Main reason was that if I didn't want to spend the money for the michelins, I may as well save the most and get the hankooks. No point in the DW since they aren't clearly better than the hankooks in the way the MPSS is. So my thought is go with the best in class or go with the cheapest one that is still decent.

I chose the DW as a step up tire from the Primacy. Bought new wheels (17x8) and went with a 225/45. I actually didn't want to go as sticky as possible, I wanted to gradually increase stick while I roast a set of less expensive tires. Ill go stickier after i do the suspension. Plus, my new tire and wheel combo came in at barely over 37 pounds - the DWs are pretty light. The noise in corners will just be a little warning for me. :)
I heard turn in can be slightly sloppy on DWs. I thought I may correct a tiny bit of that with a slightly aggressive fitment. Hope the 8" wheel and 225 tire works in that regard, if not I'll be tossing another set of brand new tires.

Wow, that is a hell of a scream. One of my friends was having problems with his DWs chunking at the track, have the DWs you've seen held up to track abuse?

That's a setup issue more than a tire issue. All tires will chunk with enough heat, but if the setup is right, then it'll chunk EVERYWHERE, not just the outer edges.

That's what I figured, although he's had no issues on the same setup and track with PSS.

That is moderate tire noise. A friend of mine once ran his Jaguar XJ12 at the track shod with new Dunlop D40 M2's which were the newest, hottest tire of that era. The car made so much noise around the corners that you could just listen and hear him go through every corner on the 3+ mile track from the grandstand. That was a fairly large car though, with 12 cylinders and two gas tanks (or maybe it was just two tank fill locations).

I don't have any experience with the MPSS, but I have had the DW's for about a month now. I went from stock wheels/tires to 245/35 front and 265/35 rear DWs.

I'm very satisfied with this tire. I don't race, but I do occasionally push my car within reasonable limits on back roads.

On one particular road surface near my house, I find the DW's to be louder than stock tires, but everywhere else, I don't notice any difference.

TireRack usually has best price, but you also have to deal with shipping them to an installer and then schedule/pay for mounting/balancing on top of that. Just a few extra steps.

I don't believe Costco keeps MPSS in stock, so you'd have to special order them. Same with America's Tire. Their prices should be pretty good though.

I got mine from Seever & Son's in Pleasanton. Small shop but a huge customer base, so you'll need to make an appointment. They stock MPSS in most sizes, and will usually price match. They also include free rotation and repair, should you run over a nail (happened to me twice already) for the life of the tires. I trust their work in particular because it's the same experienced techs working there every time I go in, rather than seeing a new fresh face out of high school each visit.

Another plus for MPSS is the warranty... in most cases you can get a brand new tire for free if it gets damaged or wears out prematurely, or at least get credit for your old ones.

How's the tread life on the DW's? Anyone with some miles on these?

I'm leaning towards them because of the price difference and similar performance rating.

Watch out for Costco. They have great prices, but if they cannot easily get your car on the lift for install, they will not even try.

Edit: Every Costco is different so make sure they will before purchase.

That must be specific to your Costco, they'll pull out low profile jacks here if need be.

On a side note Costco currently has $70 off a set of 4 Michelins plus an additional $60 off the install(Which covers the entire mount, balance, warranty) for Exec members.

2 track events and 20k miles on the MPSS here, and barely any sign of wear! I haven't even rotated them yet, and yet they stick like glue. takes a bit to warm them up to proper temperature though. Kind of understand why expensive sports cars use them as OE tires now.

Not to hijack this thread, but like a lot of others I am finally going to upgrade from the stock Primacy HPs when the snows come off in a few weeks. I'll be using a reasonably lightweight set of 17x8 rims, probably GTF1s @ 15.5 lbs a piece. There has been a lot of discussion about whether MPSS are better than Continental DW. Since my otherwise stock BRZ is my DD and won't be tracked, and since the roads around here are crap, ride comfort is nearly as important to me as ultimate grip. The DWs are lighter than anything else I have seen and have a softish sidewall, both of which should be good for ride comfort and traction on rough roads. So rather than worry about MPSS being "better" than the Contis, I'd like a comparison of the DWs in 225/45 versus the Primacy HPs. Would anyone with direct experience of the Contis care to comment about their grip, balance, limit handling, steering feel, noise, etc.? Any better info than just what is in the Tire Rack reports?

TIA!

Between the two, I would go with DW. Great traction on dry and wet roads. The NT555 is my second choice.

I have a couple of problems with the Conti's. The first thing is treadwear. I wore out the rears in less than 12,000 miles. The fronts are still good but the rears are slicks.
The other problem is the sidewalls are as soft as any tire I have ever seen. I didn't really think much of it at the time but the car tends to snap the rear around on spirited cornering. Not a nice gradual controllable slide but a snap around.
I have since replaced the rears with some super cheap Champiro UHPI's. The sidewalls are really stiff so they give you a nice gradual slide through the corners.
I figure if I'm going to have to buy 4 sets of tires a year, then they may as well be fun while they last.

Thanks for the info, WNDSRFR. What other mods on your car? I recall you have the Phantom ESC, but what about suspension? Did the Contis snap out worse than the Primacy HPs? I find the transition to oversteer is pretty abrupt in my BRZ but I suspected it was just traction related, as the inside rear just spins up a bit on corner exit. Should be better with more grip (until I decide to go ESC...).

No experience with the continentals. All I can say is I love my 245/40/17 PSS's. I havent pushed to 10/10ths since I got them, but I have tried to kick on my traction control a few times and haven't been able to. They grip so hard.

I was considering Costco to purchase my michelins, but I read on their tire section of their website that they will not perform service on anything besides OEM matchups. Meaning, non oem size wheels tires = no service.

Are they more flexible than they make it seem?

Don't bother with letting costco mount your wheels. They wont touch any car thats lowered at all. Go pretty much anywhere else.

Ive been torn between Potenza S-04 Pole Position and the MPSS in 265/35-18 one day i have my mind set on one the next it changes back to the other.. its only 100$ difference so in the end ill probably pick the MPSS..

-Thomas

I have the Eibach Pro Kit springs on stock shocks. And of course I have the OFT tune and OFH.
And yes the DW's snap around much worse than the stock tires. Actually I thought the Primacys handled quite well. They are now on my VW.
By the way, I've been on 235/45/17's on the stock wheels so that makes a difference.

I have not tried the DW but I love my MPSS. solid grip and a great overall tire.

Every tire shop I've ever been to has a similar disclaimer, it can be dangerous to install the wrong size tires.

As long as it's reasonable you shouldn't have an issue. If you're trying to stretch a 205 onto a 9" wheel they might turn you down though.

Sigh. I know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna talk myself into buying the MPSSs for the grip and handling and I'm going to swear at them everyday for the ride...

MPSS delivers a great ride for me.