Continental Sport Contact 7 on 20"/19" Evora S

[PeterHD]

Bought these tyres fourteen months due to the great reviews on wet and dry handling and breaking over the PS4S.

They are great overall but now with the rears at 4.5mm I am finding aquaplaning on standing water a problem. Gets very alarming when the car snaps. Never had an issue before with PS4s.

Is anyone using these tyres and having the same problem?

Continental are happy to examine the tyres for manufacturing defects for free but I have buy two new tyres in the meantime!

[Gadzooks]

Not wanting to point out the obvious but.. Are the pressures all correct! With 4.5 mm of tread the tryre shouldn’t be able to be deflected that easily as it hits the water

[PeterHD]

Yes 35psi front 38psi back on 285/30/R20 tyres.

I think maybe it is the nature of the beast as when the tread is 8mm new it is able to move the water less though at 4.5mm.

I was going to replace the backs at 3mm anyway so it not so bad.

You gain more in the other parameters compared to PS4s.

[Phaeton91]

Those pressures sound v high, certainly compared to the specification for Michelin PSS on the 400.

I’m wondering whether there’s a different pressure that works better for the Contis than what the original spec tyres were for the S.  

Could that make a difference?

[EGTE]

I seem to remember NA/S pressures were much higher than the -4XX series cars. However, higher pressure makes tyres more resistant to aquaplaning, so you definitely don't want to drop the pressure!

I was giving these tyres serious consideration, but on this basis, maybe not......

[Markindevon]

My n/a has a sticker in the drivers door that says 36 rear / 33.5 psi front.  It’s wheels are 19/18 of course.

its quite a bit higher for ‘fully loaded’, low 40s iirc but it only has me in it usually so I stick to those as hot pressures.

don’t you have a sticker with recommended pressures?

[Rambo]

What's the wear pattern like over all 4 tyres?

When was the last time you had a wheel alignment check?

Have you checked the correct pressures in the S owners manual?

 

Edited March 9 by Rambo

[PeterHD]

Factory recommended tyre pressures are 35psi front and 38psi rear for 19/20"wheels.

All four tyres were bought at the same time fronts 6.6mm - 6.9mm, rears 4.0mm - 4.5mm nearside wear more the offside. Wear across the tyres is pretty even.

Four wheel alignment carried out four months ago. The front caster angle was adjusted and made a big improvement to steering feel.

Incidentally my old PS4S fronts had 5.5mm tread left but because they were six years old had started to crack on the 30mm inside edge which was hard to detect.

This was causing the car to hop at the front when doing slow speed manoeuvers!

[mik]

17 hours ago, PeterHD said:

Factory recommended tyre pressures are 35psi front and 38psi rear for 19/20"wheels.

That was for the OEM-fit Pirelli’s though remember. Significantly lower pressures quoted for the 400 which had Michelin as OEM fitment.

The original owner of my car had ditched the Pirelli’s - it was on MPSS originally and now MPS4S. I run them at 31.5F, 34.5R. Putting them at book pressure makes the car skip around excessively.

 

 

[pat_t]

I'm running SportContact7s on 19/20s on my 400 and haven't had any of the issues you describe, I'm only about 2000 miles and 1x trackday on them so far though. 

I'm running mine at nowhere near those pressures. 31-32psi (hot) all round feels good to me. I agree the car feels skittish with the pressures anything above 34...

[mik]

@PeterHD I haven't tried the Conti7's (mrs mik's e-tron is on Conti 6's) but there are a lot of comments on their performance vs PS4S on line. FWIW this was one from 911UK "PS4S last longer, imo still better in standing water, in fact hitting deep water with a conti takes the wheel out your hand the PS4S ride though deep puddles, this is back to back driving same cars same weather." , so maybe it is a negative characteristic vs their other strengths?

[PeterHD]

Useful information.

It will not make me change to another brand as apart from the the high speed aquaplaning they are better.

They are also about 35% cheaper than the PS4S so I am happy to live with the higher wear compared to performance.

I will also carry on using my present tyre pressures