Test Drive: Continental ContiSportContact 3

Last winter we visited the Uvalde Proving Grounds, Continental Tire's own playground, 80 miles from San Antonio. The 5000-acre estate features an eight-mile high-speed ring, five off-road courses and an assortment of different wet and dry tracks to test a variety of tire applications on real-life road conditions. The land is also home to various snake and deer species, but we were fortunate not to encounter any during our strenuous driving tests.Our main plan was to go behind the scenes and uncover the capabilities and limitations of the sequel to Continental's ContiSportContact 2, the SportContact 3.

We should note the CSC3 was unveiled in Europe last year when we attended its launch in Spain (et 6/06), but the North American market has only recently being supplied.

Tire Technology
The CSC3 is designed with a focus on high-powered RWD cars, which are more capable of losing traction than FWD or AWD models. The two key improvements for the new tire are its tread pattern and compound.

An asymmetrical tread helps during sharp cornering. In a turn, a tire is subjected to greater force than driving in a straight line. The CSC3 provides more stability in turns, which results in more grip for faster cornering. The design also contains sipes in the tread ribs, allowing braking pressure to be distributed evenly. This improves the braking performance over the CSC2.

The second ingredient for the tire's success is the compound. Since the silica compound is more flexible, it gives better traction in both wet and dry. Typically, tires are geared toward one condition or the other, but the CSC3 performs well in both.

Available in 17-21" sizes, these tires are a good choice for all-season high-performance cars.

Driving Time
Continental offered a fleet of '07 BMW 328i for us to tear around in on the different tracks. There were also some Mustang GTs, but we avoided them as much as possible. Other cars were fitted with competitor tires so we could make direct comparisons in performance.

The first test of the morning was the wet skidpad, which was set up like an autocross, incorporating tight turns, a slalom and a couple of wide hairpins. There were three tires to try and each gave more traction, ending with the CSC3 as the best. Although I'm not accustomed to driving aggressively in the rain, the CSC3 was very accomodating. In order to spin out or lose control, we would've had to intentionally over-crank the steering wheel or accelerate too hard.

The next test was wet braking. Using four different tires we cruised to 50mph and slammed on the brakes in a wet area. As anticipated, the CSC3 stopped on a dime, much faster and more controlled than the other three tires.

Perhaps the most exhilarating test was the dry-handling course. Unfortunately, we couldn't test tires side-by-side with the same car, but we compared a BMW 328i on CSC3s to a Mustang GT with the General Exclaim UHP tires. As expected, the Mustang was heavy and the tires didn't provide enough control, unlike the nimble 3-Series on the right set of tires.

Throughout the day, the CSC3s were driven hard but performed well, even after groups of drivers had abused them.

These tests convinced us the CSC3 is an exceptional tire for all-season driving. Having used CSC2s on Project Silverstone, we wouldn't hesitate to use 3s as our next set.

Conti SportContact 3 versus
ContiSportContact 2Although the increase in performance shows small percentage numbers, they equate to bigger gains in actual driving. The improvements have been made across the board, except for noise level. But who cares about tire noise anyway?
5% better rolling resistance
3% better dry braking
5% better mileage
3% better handling
3% better hydroplaning
5% better wet braking
0% better noise

Continental has its own helicopter, so we took the opportunity to check out other drivers on the skidpad from the air.