The Continental Sport Contact 6 is here, and it's fantastic!
Launched 1st September, the new Sport Contact 6 replaces the Sport Contact 5P as Continentals maximum performance summer tyre for sports cars. Initially available in 19 to 23 inches, the Sport Contact 6 pushes the tyre towards the segment the Michelin Pilot SuperSport currently occupies, and while it's not quite as track orientated, it should give the Michelin a little competition for those who enjoy fast road driving.
Already Proven
While the Sport Contact 6 is new to market, it's already a proven tyre. The Sport Contact 6 is the OE tyre for the new Honda Civic Type R, which recently destroyed the Nurburgring FWD record, setting a 7:50.63, only 10 seconds slower than a Porsche Cayman GT4! To further prove the capabilities of the new tyre, Continental invited TyreReviews to Bilster Berg Race Resort in Germany to learn about, and test the Sport Contact 6.
Development
Our biggest criticism of the outgoing tyre has always been steering feel. The Sport Contact 5 and 5P were never short of wet grip, wet or dry braking performance, or even good levels of comfort, but for a sports tyre they felt sluggish, soft and frankly, unsporty.
The engineers at Continental have worked hard to address this. They've designed the tread pattern with "force vectoring", which helps transfer the forces more evenly through the tyre to give a stable cornering force, and added a new "Aralon 350" belt to the carcass, to give the tyre structure higher stability at speed. We'll cover both these technologies in detail over the next few days, but the simple version is they give the tyre a 14% better steering precision over the Sport Contact 5P and 11% better dry handling. When combined with 7% better wear (another weakness of the outgoing tyre), 7% less noise and 10% higher high speed stability, the result is a very capable tyre.
Our Testing
Sadly at the launch Continental didn't provide the previous tyre to directly compare against, but what they did offer us was the ability to run on the tyre in both the dry and wet, on various vehicles.
In the dry, on a VW Golf R, the tyre was impressive. Bilster Berg might have a new surface with a high coefficient of grip, but the tyre was still monstered the lap, giving plenty of lovely feedback right to the limit, and a nice progressive slide past the limit. The same was true of the tyre on the Porsche Cayman GTS, Mercedes A45 and Audi RS3 in the wet, with the Sport Contact 6 harnessing the all wheel drive nature of the Audi and Mercedes to provide quite astonishing traction, and when using the RWD Porsche in torrential rain, still providing incredible grip, communication and balance.
Conclusion
Continental simply don't make bad tyres, and while the Sport Contact 5 and 5P never really excited us, they were nearly always best in class when tested.
Now with the Sport Contact 6, Continental have produced an exciting, world class sport tyre. Tyre tests in 2016 are going to be extremely interesting!
If you're interested in the technical details we'll be publishing a technical report on the Sport Contact 6 over the next few days, otherwise be sure to leave a review if you buy yourself a set.
Video
Launch Sizes
255/30ZR19 (91Y) XL FR SportContact 6
265/30ZR19 (93Y) XL FR SportContact 6
275/30ZR19 (96Y) XL FR SportContact 6
295/30ZR19 (100Y) XL FR SportContact 6
305/30ZR19 (102Y) XL FR SportContact 6
225/35ZR19 (88Y) XL FR SportContact 6
245/35ZR19 (93Y) XL FR SportContact 6
265/35ZR19 (98Y) XL FR SportContact 6
275/35ZR19 (100Y) XL FR SportContact 6
285/35ZR19 (103Y) XL FR SportContact 6
245/40ZR19 (98Y) XL FR SportContact 6
255/40ZR19 (100Y) XL FR SportContact 6
295/25ZR20 (95Y) XL FR SportContact 6
305/25ZR20 (97Y) XL FR SportContact 6
325/25ZR20 (101Y) XL FR SportContact 6
245/30ZR20 (90Y) XL FR SportContact 6
255/30ZR20 (92Y) XL FR SportContact 6
275/30ZR20 (97Y) XL FR SportContact 6
225/35ZR20 (90Y) XL FR SportContact 6
245/35ZR20 (95Y) XL FR SportContact 6
255/35ZR20 (97Y) XL FR SportContact 6
275/35ZR20 (102Y) XL FR SportContact 6
295/25ZR21 (96Y) XL FR SportContact 6
325/25ZR21 (102Y) XL FR SportContact 6
255/30ZR21 (93Y) XL FR SportContact 6
265/30ZR21 (96Y) XL FR SportContact 6
295/30ZR21 (102Y) XL FR SportContact 6
255/35ZR21 (98Y) XL FR SportContact 6
305/25ZR22 (99Y) XL FR SportContact 6
265/30ZR22 (97Y) XL FR SportContact 6
335/25ZR22 (105Y) XL FR SportContact 6
295/30ZR22 (103Y) XL FR SportContact 6
315/25ZR23 (102Y) XL FR SportContact 6
255/35ZR19 (96Y) XL FR SportContact 6
225/40ZR19 (93Y) XL FR SportContact 6
305/30ZR20 (103Y) XL FR SportContact 6
235/30ZR20 (88Y) XL FR SportContact 6
315/25ZR19 (98Y) XL FR SportContact 6
235/35ZR19 (91Y) XL FR SportContact 6
245/35ZR19 93Y XL FR SportContact 6 MO
265/35ZR19 98Y XL FR SportContact 6 MO
245/40R19 98Y XL FR SportContact 6 RO1
235/35ZR20 (92Y) XL FR SportContact 6
265/35ZR20 (99Y) XL FR SportContact 6
245/30ZR20 (90Y) XL FR SportContact 6 RO1
305/30ZR20 (103Y) XL FR SportContact 6 RO1
245/35ZR19 (93Y) XL FR SportContact 6 RO1
295/35ZR19 (104Y) XL FR SportContact 6 RO1
255/30ZR20 92Y XL FR SportContact 6 RO1
245/35R19 93Y XL FR SportContact 6 AO
Really hoping they'll add the 255/35-19 and 285/30-19 sizes in for my E63. I've been happily surprised with the 5, and there's not much choice out there for a good streetable track tire in those size.
We have 255/35 R19 fronts, so we know they're available! 275/35 R19 rears are too.
But not the 285/30-19s? FWIW just trying to stick with factory sizing on a 2011 E63.
It looks like they're just producing 275/30 and 295/30 at the moment.
As more sizes are announced we'll be sure to update the site
I chased Continental regarding the 18 inch availability, as the CS5 has been great on my Mercedes on 255 35 18 size. However, via email reply I was categorically told that they would not be releasing the CS6 in 18 inch sizes.
'Good Afternoon X
I was forwarded your email in regards
to your query about the SportContact 6.
The SportContact 6 was designed for
the 19in and above segment, so unfortunately won't be made available on any
rim size below.
Best regards
Muzzy Hilmi
Product Co-ordinator
Continental Tyre Group Limited'
I think they would be foolish not to release it in 18 inch size but there we go!
235/40R18 or 235/45R18 for my mondeo please
225/40/18 is very common size and they will for sure add avaiable in summer 2016
These look great but why aren't these being launched in 18 inches?
While the initial launch sizes are 19 inch and above, we're sure Continental are aware of the market demand for 18 inch sports tyres, particularly 225/40 R18 so we wouldn't be surprised if some 18 inch versions started to appear next year!