GET A GRIP: Everything you need to know about Ultra-High Performance Summer rubber

Tire categories, right? There are so many of them. How do you know what you need? How do you know what your car needs? There’s some vagueness among the slew of tire sectors, but one thing’s for sure: Ultra-High Performance (UHP) is pretty self-explanatory. If you drive a sports car, have the need for speed and a taste for thrills, look no further – Continental has you covered with their ExremeContact Sport. Before we dig into the meat of it, let’s hit the highlights. 

• Killer grip in dry & wet
• Incredible braking in dry & wet
• Long tread life with 340tw
• Developed by professional racecar drivers
• Preferred tire of:
  • ROUSH Performance
  • BMW Performance Driving School
  • AMG Driving Academy

Do we even need to continue? Did you catch those last three bullets? ROUSH, BMW and AMG… If brands like that are choosing this tire instead of the hundreds of others out there, it’s safe to say Continental is doing everything right. 

You see, when it comes to spirited driving, grip is literally, everything. You can have 500hp, race-tuned suspension, heavily bolstered seats and an exhaust system that’ll set off every car alarm in a five-mile radius, but if you can’t put the power down or effortlessly transition through twisty, cambered turns, you might as well be in a golf cart. Ask any real driver if they’d prefer power or grip. Don’t believe us? Test your luck and share your findings in the comments below. The ExtremeContact Sport lives and breathes this philosophy – grip owns all.  

Thanks to SportPlus Technology, this Continental Tire UHP has sashimi knife precision, lightning quick response and enough water-evacuation channels in the tread to turn a slick, wet road into a crisp Sunday drive. When driving on or near the limit is your style of choice, you’re going to want to carry that whole confidence thing in each and every one of your movements behind the wheel, and all that good stuff above means you can relax and have trust between you and your machine. 

Trust issues are the demise of all relationships – car parts included. Trust in your tires is everything (if you still aren’t grasping the concept at this point), but Continental is on the case. We present to you some seriously groundbreaking tech: tuned performance indicators. What?! The letters ‘D’ (for dry) and ‘W’ (wet) are molded in the tire tread. When you’re done hooning about and have thoroughly enjoyed miles and miles of roads, you’ll eventually see the letters disappear. At that time, the tire is no longer providing optimal grip in either dry or wet conditions. This doesn’t mean your time with the ExtremeContact is over, just that it’s time to start thinking about buying your next set. 

Anyway, enough about trust issues and relationship drama, let’s get back to fun. ROUSH, BMW Performance Driving School and the AMG Academy are a button click away from an insane experience. These programs offer driving training, seat time in actual racecars – cough, BMW M4 GT4!!! – and neck-bending ride-alongs with pros. We are talking about brands at the tippy top of the automotive sphere, charging you substantial cheddar for the experience of a lifetime. Whether you’re refreshing old skills, honing new ones, or simply want to see what your tolerance is for sustained g-forces in a racecar, these are the places to do it. And the tire they stand behind, day in and day out, putting their customers’ safety in their hands, their drivers’ safety, while also making sure there’s substantial grip to exploit every ounce of performance from their high-end sports cars? Yeah, it’s the Continental ExtremeContact Sport. This is definitely a real, ‘If it’s good enough for them…’ scenario. 

Ultra-high performance tires should be on ultra-high-performance cars. It’s as simple as that, but of course we’ve given you more reason to consider them because we care about your wellbeing, and we’d feel bad letting you cruise around in your beast on some sub-par all-seasons that scream for dear life at the first sign of a high-speed sweeper into an off camber double apex off-ramp. Right? Right.

Sponsored by Continental Tires.