The Continental SportContact 6 is here, and it's fantastic!

Launched 1st September, the new SportContact 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.

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Designed for sports and high-performance vehicles

• Black Chili for maximum grip in all directions enables supreme driving experience
• Vectoring for maximum control, a new era in tread pattern development
• Aralon350, the new adaptive hybrid cap ply for maximum stability at high speed up to 350km/h

Shorter braking distances in all weather conditions

- Black Chili for maximum grip in all directions enables a supreme driving experience

The new Micro Flexibility Compound ensures an optimum interlocking between tyre and road surface. This guarantees better acceleration and shorter braking distances at high and low temperatures – in wet or dry conditions.

Force Vectoring for maximum control, a new era in tread pattern development

The improved inner and outer tread pattern ensures best steering precision and support for lateral forces during cornering. The advanced Macro Block Design keeps you safe and in control at any manoeuvre. Stiff centre ribs and asymmetric concave longitudinal grooves greatly support overall stability.

Aralon350, the new Adaptive Hybrid Cap Ply for maximum stability at high speeds of up to 350 km/h

The sophisticated Aralon350 technology accelerates your vehicle safely up to 350 km/h. This newly designed strong Hybrid Cap Ply provides a controlled tyre growth – even at highest speeds.