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).
Comments
Soooo snow drift?
ill just leave this here…
If I recall that 150 million year old piece of Junk (the AE86 and I am referring to Stage 3 movie) didnt even have snow tyres on it, all it had was a monster at the wheel of the car that could drive under any condition you care to name and his name is Takumi Fujiwara
Canadian sports car owners be like:
I approve. In fact, Porsche had (I don’t know if it’s still active) a winter driving school in Quebec, to learn how to properly use a 911 in snow. However, most people would just instead get a SUV for winter and store their sports car until summer. Salt and cold would deteriorate the car on long-term use.
Genuine question: is there much point in getting winter tyres in south-east of the UK?
Tyre manufacturers recommend switching to winter tyres when temperatures drop below 8C
So in the mornings/evenings/night temperatures may be well below that, but during daytime it may fluctuate around 10C so I’m really not sure
I tried to put my foot down against a 320d off the lights to get infront (2 lane merge) and as the road was slightly damp and at around 3C I got massive stutter from the wheels trying to find grip. Probably not a safety issue unless icy but realistically to get any decent grip off the line you’ll want winter.
Depends. I never do in east anglia for my Stamford-Nottingham commute. Not worth it for a month of waning frost and a couple of days of snow. But if you live in a hilly rural area maybe.
Speaking of tyres (or tires) my dad has been running on bald ones because he cannot afford to buy new ones
thats a massive safety concern. in the UK the legal minimum tread depth is 1.6mm with recommendations to change them when you reach 2mm as they lose performance then. When the tyres are bald the chances of a blowout are really increased.
Tell him he’s an idiot putting everyone around him in danger including his Son. Absolute moron. No offence.
Our X5 has the M spec R19 rims with 255 tires. It costs too much to buy a set for winter and for summer for as much as the car was driven (~7 km on daily basis). Sure we drove it in holiday but that is another story.
So, my dad bought Chinese winter tires- whole set for 400 euros. And actually, they happen to have much better grip than the Nokians we had before.
In Latvia where winterish weather (wet snow soup) starts early and ends late so my dad decided to leave the tires on for the summer. We know it is not good but it comes out much cheaper and you don’t see that much of an effect.
Dorifto!!!!
Even with these tires I would never take my SL for a spin in the snow. Some idiot would crash into me. Also, salt will damage my paint.
Pffft salt has nothing on Mercedes paint. You be aight, go have some dorifto fun on a snowy night. I agree with the getting crashed into part though, as ive witnessed driving around in a city like toronto. the morning after a snowstorm is like a scene from twisted metal.
I drive a Lotus Elise. 18 inch….useless for my car.
Soooo what you’re saying is that these tyres will be completely useless in places like Norway, where winter actually means snow and ice…? Winter tyres from the continent are pointless in the Nordic countries, because they aren’t built for the extreme conditions we got here. We need winter tyres with nordic specifications.
Ok well seeing as like 12 people live in Norway it’s no big deal
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