Continental Has A New Winter Tyre For Sports Cars

If you thought winter tyres were the squidgy, highly compromised enemies of the performance car, Continental wants you to think again.

High-powered cars are arguably the ones that most need winter rubber, because acceleration becomes a bit tricky when you’re trying to put many, many horses down on a surface with all the surface grip of a greased otter.

Designed to deliver shorter stopping distances, greater traction and better safety through corners than even the stickiest summer tyres can hope to offer when there’s snow and ice around, the flagship TS860 S is now on sale.

The development priority was on outright dry grip. Since most sports cars only come out of their garages in the dry, especially in Winter, the C wet grip rating shouldn’t put too many people off.

To begin with it’s an aftermarket option, but Continental is also speaking to car makers about producing bespoke OEM versions tuned to specific cars. Its predecessor, the TS850 P, eventually secured almost 50 manufacturer approvals.

From launch there are 14 sizes available from 18 to 21 inches, six of which have run-flat tech. The width options stretch from 225mm to 315mm with aspect ratios between 60 and 30 per cent. The maximum speed rating for the highest-performing versions is W (168mph).