Continental  ContiSportContact 5P

I have driven very high performance Italian and German cars for 30 years. i have tried 'em all - most good, some great, some overrated. These tires are the most compliant tires on a dry surface that I have ever driven - and light!! - minimal addition of unsprung weight, so steering and handling are second to none. Though Michelin Super Sports do slighly better on a wet surface, these are very good wet and I'd have to say that the Super Sports, though close, are my second choice for a great high performance tire. Both beat out anything Pirelli, Michelin Pilots 2 and 3 and any other Continentals I have driven (and anything else, and there have been so many). In fact, if I had to pick a third place high performance tire, I'd go with the Sumitomo HTR Z III over those others as well (and great if you are looking for a less painfiul price tag). But, in short, for me, the Continental The ContiSportContact 5P is the high performance king (for now - w a VERY close second to Michelin Super Sports - because of slightly better rain performance and her less aggressive driving style, i use the Super Sports on my wife's Maserati).

So far I'm very happy with the stock tires that came on the car. The day I bought it I drove home in a severe thunderstorm and the wet traction was unbelievable. Performs very well everywhere I've driven so far.

These tires came stock on my '13 C63 sedan. Overall, they're pretty great considering this car's intended purpose and intended road surfaces - great wet/dry traction, braking distance and braking pedal feel, steering precision/response. If you mostly use your car on the track and/or you live in a location with warm/moderate climate and properly maintained roads - this is a good tire model to use, just as good as (or at least very close to) the Michelin's PSS.

But! But if you're one of the very unfortunate, miserable souls who had great misfortune to live in a location with highly variable winter weather (sudden freezing temperatures quickly changing to above freezing and then dropping back to below 32F) and extremely poorly maintained roads/highways and you're still brave enough to drive your "sporty" car often on local streets - stay away from these tires. Any moderately (by NorthEastern "standards") irregular road surface combined with "sporty" suspension becomes a torture and there's a great amount of road noise being generated when driving on top of "worn out" asphalt/concrete road (even on a pretty flat surface without any bumps/potholes). I am one of such unlucky persons and I will definitely be trying out some other tire model instead which will hopefully be more quiet and at least a little bit "softer" when being driven on local roads because I really don't want to give up driving my current car or void its warranty by changing the coilovers.

Replaced my second set of Run Flats with these staggered Continentals. I was looking to put Michelin Super Sports on the car, but could not find a set anywhere. These Continentals relatively quiet, and compared to the RFT's they replaced, have much better dry grip. Reaction to steering input and turn-in response is excellent. The car feels stable throughout the corner and appears to have less body roll. The side walls are very stiff on the these Continentals; I was afraid the ride would suffer, but have been happy with the ride thus far.

This tire has been the best performing tire I've ever had on a vehicle. Came as the OEM on my Audi A5. Handling is amazing with the tires sticking to the road like clue during hard cornering, braking, accelerating. The car with these tires performs well beyond my personal comfort limits. The ride is extremely pleasant as well... firm but not harsh, very predictable and precise. I have 9700 miles on these tires and still have 6/32-7/32 of tread left so am expecting I can run these to 20k or maybe a bit more. My engine has been tuned to I'm pushing over 300hp and nearly 400ft-lbs torque so these tires get pushed in terms of performance and just absolutely deliver. Flat and predictable in the corners without any feeling of squishiness as the sidewall just holds perfectly.

Would definitely get these tires again. From what I've read, I'm not sure there is a better tire out there and these are likely right on par with the Michelin Pilot Super Sports.

I have driven them all, and this is easily the most compliant street tire I have ever used - so light. There are other great handling tires out there, like the Michelin Super Sport, but this, the Conti 5P, IMO, is the one!!

Very disappointed in the tread life of this tire. I have had other performance tires before (Michelin PS2, Bridgestone), but I have not seen such deterioration after only 8 months of use. These are OEM on my M4. Called BMW NA, was told that I am basically on my own, new BMWs do not come with any tread warranty. I am wondering is they will last one more season.

Came as OE tires on my car. After only 7,000 miles of mostly city driving in a car that's never been tracked, tires are already down to 4/32" of tread. By this point they have become extremely uncomfortable, if you see any kind of imperfection on the road you will feel it guaranteed. Also normal balancing resulted in high-speed vibration on the OE wheels, I had to have them RoadForce balanced to get it sorted out.

In terms of performance, they are pretty high up there in dry conditions and fairly predictable in the wet (at least on an AWD car), never noticed any hydroplaning. I did notice something interesting though that's never happened to me before on any other tire, summer or otherwise: I drove in the country one very hot day and over some leftover bitumen scattered about from roadworks, I then discovered afterwards that these tires had a tendency to absorb the little pieces and end up with permanent craters in the tread. I ended up extracting the bits several months later and luckly they didn't get too deep, but did make me paranoid to drive over any kind of small stones after that.

That being said, between tread wear and the progressively worsening ride quality, I wouldn't go for these again.

Questionable Quality

OE tire on new vehicle.
Tread chunking on outside of all 4 tires at 11,500 miles.