Continental Tires - Continental Rubbers

Although Continental may not have a strong presence in the USA, it's apparently the leading brand in all of Europe. When the company released two new tires, it invited us to its testing facility in Uvalde, TX, to test them out.

The Uvalde Proving Grounds is a 5,000-acre facility that offers different road conditions and situations optimal for tire testing. We focused heavily on the wet pad and dry track because that's where the performance truly shined. Think of the wet pad as a huge autocross course with up to 2" of water in some places, while the dry track is exactly what its title indicates.

One of the tires we tested was the new ContiProContact all-season tire, which comes as original equipment on Audi, BMW, Mercedes and other European marques. The other tire was the ContiCrossContact UHP, which was made for trucks and SUVs.

Continental provided us with two E46 325i cars for the test. One was equipped with its ContiProContact all-season tires; the other wore a competitor's tires of equal performance. Testing the competitor's tires, we noticed a lot of slipping and sliding, and we even spun out several times. The tires were just not cutting through the water fast enough. There was a dramatic difference with the ContiProContact. It gripped well throughout the whole course. In fact, the more it slipped, the more it gripped. This was thanks to the Proactive Edge Technology, Controlled Sipe Interaction and Progressive Groove Ramp incorporated into the tires. These three technologies help reduce road noise, expel water through the grooves faster and, most importantly, increase grip.

On the dry track, the performance was amplified. This editor was intentionally trying to lose control, but the tires wouldn't give. They just stuck to the road through the S-curves and hairpin turns. Keep in mind these are all-season tires, but they felt like performance tires. The ContiProContact tire is available in 22 sizes with speed ratings of H, V and W.

We also got to test out new tires by Continental's sister company, General. It released the Exclaim UHP and the Grabber HP. Both performed very well. The Exclaim UHP is a high-performance tire without the high price. The Grabber HP is General's first street sport tire for trucks and SUVs at a low cost. Both have great selling points and should be considered in your next tire purchase.

For more information, please visit
www.continentaltire.com and www.generaltire.com.

Conti Pro Contact	Conti Cross Contact UHP	Exclaim UHP
Grabber HP