New 200 TWR tire coming out from Continental -- with some Hoosier DNA.

[Speedboosted]

Tire Rack has the 315/30-18 at $386. I don’t think anyone pays full price at Track Day Tire, so with discount about $368. A bit higher than the RT660, about even with the Rival S and a bit lower than the A052. I don’t expect them to be as quick as those 3, but hoping for long life. One thing that drives me crazy with Time Trials is making a few hot laps in the morning sessions with sticky tires, and then skipping the afternoon sessions to preserve the sticky tires. Going forward I will run A7’s in the morning and then go HPDE mode with the Contis in the afternoon and run full sessions. All about the seat time.

Was checking them out on TireRack and I see their weights are quite a bit higher across the board compared to this PDF Phils Tire Service has: https://philstireservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Conti-ExtremeContact-Force-Specs.pdf

Please weigh your 315s once they arrive, I'm quite curious what they come out to be.

 

[67GTA]

Was checking them out on TireRack and I see their weights are quite a bit higher across the board compared to this PDF Phils Tire Service has: https://philstireservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Conti-ExtremeContact-Force-Specs.pdf

Please weigh your 315s once they arrive, I'm quite curious what they come out to be.

The wait is over!! Well, almost over - still need to get them mounted and get a track day on the calendar in near future.

Cory, looks like Tire Rack revised their weights (and their prices) from a few weeks ago. They now show 28#, Phil’s says 28.8#, and my official bathroom scale has them at 28.6#.

 

[PatientZero]

Holy Cow! TireRack has these priced HIGHER than A052's! I hope they are worth it.

 

[67GTA]

Holy Cow! TireRack has these priced HIGHER than A052's! I hope they are worth it.

Which size are you looking at? The A052 315/30-18 are $28 higher. Different animal - hoping to get most of a time trials season out of 1 set by switching to these for afternoon sessions and saving the stickies.

 

[PatientZero]

I was looking at 295/30-18.

 

[67GTA]

A bit of a delayed review here on the new Conti ECF’s. We managed to sneak in a “staycation” at the beach in Orange County all of last week. I capped off an awesome week with a Buttonwillow track day on Sunday. Spent the rest of this week paying the price for being off, and here we are at Friday and I haven’t shared any initial impressions.

As expected, these tires stay very consistent over a full 20 minute session - even in 100+ degree temps. You can push them lap after lap without them getting greasy. They’re very predictable at the limit, providing just a faint amount of audible feedback. They’re very neutral on turn-in; definitely not twitchy and if anything lean more towards the numb side of the spectrum. After 4 sessions, tread wear is negligible - pictures below.

Where I’m perhaps a bit let down is pace. My PB on Buttonwillow CW13 is 1:59.8 on Goodyear SuperCar 3, 295/30-19. I left plenty on the table that day, damaging the car in session 2 on a flyer lap that was 1.1 seconds faster at the point I went off. I felt like sub-2 was a minimum expectation for the Conti ECF. Yes, temps were much higher comparatively, but the Conti’s are also 315/30-18 width compared to the 295 Goodyear’s. The best I could get out of the Conti was a 2:02.7. I started the day a bit rusty - it’s been a bit over 60 days since I was last on track so that is some of the time gap. By the time I was really comfortable with the car/track, it was 105 degrees out and I took a passenger out with me in session 4 and still went high 2:03’s. Full circle though, I didn’t buy this tire for pace. I bought it hoping for a long-lasting, consistent tire that’s easy to drive at the limit for full sessions of driver mod. For that I would say we have a winner.

LF, CW configuration:



RF, CW configuration:

 

[Quick]

A bit of a delayed review here on the new Conti ECF’s. We managed to sneak in a “staycation” at the beach in Orange County all of last week. I capped off an awesome week with a Buttonwillow track day on Sunday. Spent the rest of this week paying the price for being off, and here we are at Friday and I haven’t shared any initial impressions.

As expected, these tires stay very consistent over a full 20 minute session - even in 100+ degree temps. You can push them lap after lap without them getting greasy. They’re very predictable at the limit, providing just a faint amount of audible feedback. They’re very neutral on turn-in; definitely not twitchy and if anything lean more towards the numb side of the spectrum. After 4 sessions, tread wear is negligible - pictures below.

Where I’m perhaps a bit let down is pace. My PB on Buttonwillow CW13 is 1:59.8 on Goodyear SuperCar 3, 295/30-19. I left plenty on the table that day, damaging the car in session 2 on a flyer lap that was 1.1 seconds faster at the point I went off. I felt like sub-2 was a minimum expectation for the Conti ECF. Yes, temps were much higher comparatively, but the Conti’s are also 315/30-18 width compared to the 295 Goodyear’s. The best I could get out of the Conti was a 2:02.7. I started the day a bit rusty - it’s been a bit over 60 days since I was last on track so that is some of the time gap. By the time I was really comfortable with the car/track, it was 105 degrees out and I took a passenger out with me in session 4 and still went high 2:03’s. Full circle though, I didn’t buy this tire for pace. I bought it hoping for a long-lasting, consistent tire that’s easy to drive at the limit for full sessions of driver mod. For that I would say we have a winner.

LF, CW configuration:
View attachment 68041


RF, CW configuration:
View attachment 68042

comparison to cup2? I’ve heard folks attempting to push these as an alternative to a cup2, but I find it hard to believe that. Would love real feedback.

 

[KazarS197]

Heading to Pitt Race to watch the endurance race. Looks like a nice day to get out of the house and take a cruise. I'll check out if anyone is running the ECFs and opinions.

 

[TeeLew]

Okay, that's two states out of fifty and that's not exactly a "mass market" for these specialized tires. There might be some good deals to be had in the Jan-Feb timeframe...

California and Arizona?

 

[KazarS197]

Heading to Pitt Race to watch the endurance race. Looks like a nice day to get out of the house and take a cruise. I'll check out if anyone is running the ECFs and opinions.

Not one person on ECFs. Mostly rs4s and 71rs.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Well Goodyear just started a tire war in the SCCA, at the runoffs. Seems like the SCCA rulebook specifically outlawed the Hoosier A7 compound, so Goodyear decided to introduce a new sticky tire that sat on the pole. Hoosier responded by providing a bewer compound to the top 10 Hoosier qualifiers. I think the tire on the winning Mustang was a Hoosier. If you did not see the A sedan race, you need to go to SCCA.com, a great Ford vs Chevy battle.
This was in A sedan only

 

[bob]

Well Goodyear just started a tire war in the SCCA, at the runoffs. Seems like the SCCA rulebook specifically outlawed the Hoosier A7 compound, so Goodyear decided to introduce a new sticky tire that sat on the pole. Hoosier responded by providing a bewer compound to the top 10 Hoosier qualifiers. I think the tire on the winning Mustang was a Hoosier. If you did not see the A sedan race, you need to go to SCCA.com, a great Ford vs Chevy battle.

That was for AS not the other classes iirc

 

[blacksheep-1]

That was for AS not the other classes iirc

Yep, fixed it

 

[Duane Black]

Does anyone find it curious there are no reviews from Grassroots Motorsports or TireRack comparing this tire to the Hankook RS4?

 

[SlowstangGT]

Does anyone find it curious there are no reviews from Grassroots Motorsports or TireRack comparing this tire to the Hankook RS4?

The reviews are finally here!!! https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/track-tire-buyers-guide/

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Really interesting graph, but the key is to read the full description for each tire a driver is considering. The tires are not necessarily listed in exact order , because what might be insane for autocross could be a poor choice for endurance or HPDEs. Overall, nice guide along with description there is a good chance this will be used heavily to study and determine the best tire for many TMO members usage.

One note, I would check tire sizes used by your car before getting drawn deeply into using a specific tire, because there are many tires on here without fitments optimal for quite a few Mustang wheel widths and choices.

Example -- if you have heard from friends the Bridgestone RE71 R is a good choice this tire is only available in 3 sizes , none really applicable to Mustangs. The tire is essentially out of the market in the US since they redesigned it. It may be awhile since it reappears because tests have not been favorable for the new model. The description of each tire is helpful but check your sizes.

 

[Duane Black]

I find this chart to be highly suspect and curious about the timing. It gives a Hankook RS4 and a Continental Extreme Contact Sport both a C in Time Trial pace - I own both tires (daily on Contis, track on RS4) and I can attest that in dry conditions there is a 4-6 second pace difference! How then is a Hankook a C and most other 200TW a B? Where is the line for a C to a D? or a B to a C?

I used to own Falken RT615K+ too, those are also faster than the Conti Sports in dry conditions as well.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Duane,
With only 2 tires in the 200TWR ( Endurance ) listed in a B or D rating , it almost appears the listing is more to show these tires are not going to be the best for a Time Trial. I understand what you are saying, but considering that the serious Time Trialers may only run a few laps to post their time, a broad grade to show these tires are just average in that category makes sense. The graph and the description of each tire in the article is pretty helpful, and since this graph is taken from many of their tests on the tires ( not all of them at one time ) it can't be perfect , but it can offer a balance of characteristics, imho.

The serious Time Trialers I know are using the Super 200s and not the Endurance 200s.