Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus is a top-notch tire that delivers reliable traction all year round. It promises an improved handling experience, whether the road is dry, wet, or icy. And yes its enhanced set of technologies also mean, you get a comfortable ride with that as well. Let’s check out this tire in greater details.
Table of Contents
Starting with Sizes
The Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus comes in 16 to 22 inches rims. And all those sizes have following specifications.
- Speed ratings: W and Y.
- Load ratings: SL and XL only.
- Tread depth: 10/32″ on all.
- Weight range: 18 to 35 lbs.
- Treadwear warranty: 50k miles.
- UTQG rating: 560 AA.
Tread Design
The ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus comes with a very complicated asymmetric tread pattern.
It’s tread can be divided in to 4 parts (where there are 2 shoulder ribs and 2 central ones).
Starting with the main central rib on the left, it features a variety of block sizes, each equipped with “plus-shaped” siping and sharp edges. Notably, these blocks also incorporate snow vices oriented to the right.
A similar design, including snow vices, can be observed on the subsequent central rib to the right.
The blocks here also come with in-groove notches and linear (lateral) siping, enhancing the tire’s traction and performance in diverse conditions.
Moving towards shoulders, they exhibit significant similarities between them, characterized by lateral linear siping and prominent tread voids.
Though one of them (left in the image), also carry snow vices (like the central 2 ribs).
Find all the tires compared with Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus.
Overall Dry Performance
To thoroughly assess dry performance, we consider not just the tire’s grip and handling, but also its ability to maintain stability at high speeds. Let’s break down these components.
Longitudinal Grip
This tire’s linear or straight-line grip:
- Depends on the central tread footprint, as the lugs here make the most contact with the ground when the tire rolls straight.
- Is predominantly measured by the tire’s braking, since it’s a directional metric.
The Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus excels in this area. It features well-designed central ribs, with one rib enhanced by angular lateral notches and the other by multi-directional in-groove notches, ensuring outstanding longitudinal grip.
Additionally, the tire’s lighter construction significantly contributes to its grip and promotes a more even distribution of pressure points across the tread.
In simpler terms, its well-engineered contact patch, combined with a lighter weight, limits momentum and inertia. This means the tire is able to stop quicker, enhancing its braking capabilities.
That’s why the Continental DWS06 Plus outperforms nearly all other tires in its ultra-high performance all-season category during testing.
To give you an idea, the tire stops a feet quicker compared to Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus (review).
Overall Handling
There are two key areas affecting tire’s overall handling, predominately:
- It’s lateral traction.
- And steering response.
And the Continental DWS06+ excels in both these areas, showcasing impressive performance.
The lateral grip depends on shoulder’s footprint (on the tread), as they connect/compress against the road more, as the tire corners, (and weight on it shifts towards tread edges).
And here, the Continental, with its densely packed shoulders and effective biting edges, consistently provides one of the best lateral grip values, as evidenced by its top-tier lateral G-force measurements.
Similar, the tire also offers superb steering response, as seen by its leading Slalom tests.
These tests involve maneuvering a vehicle through a straight line of cones at a consistent speed, offering a different challenge than overall lap time assessments. This slalom testing is basically a direct way of measuring tire’s steering feedback.
Consequently, the DWS06+ delivers exceptional handling times and lateral traction values, measured in terms of lateral G-forces, outperforming nearly all in its category.
Wet Performance
Essentially, the tire’s wet performance hinges on two critical components: overall traction (consisting of grip and handling), and resistance to hydroplaning.
Let’s start with hydroplaning.
Wet Grip and Handling
The overall wet performance of a tire is largely determined by its ability to efficiently clear water from its path as it rolls, enabling direct contact between the rubber and the road surface.
That’s why the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus stands out here, providing superb water clearing abilities, earning a spot in my list of best ultra-high performance all-season tires.
The exceptional performance of this tire is attributed to its intricately designed multi-directional grooves and a dynamic array of full-depth linear sipes with varying angles across the tread.
These multi-angled grooves excel at expelling water effectively, reducing the dependency on sipes for water clearance.
Moreover, these sipes are remarkably efficient on their own.
They, along with robust lateral slits and in-groove notches operating at various angles, contribute to the tire’s exceptional wet handling capabilities.
Basically, these sipes, though small, expand upon contact with the road, absorbing moisture and helping to dry the road surface.
So is there any room for improvement on this tire? Well yes a little, in terms of wet braking, if we’re splitting hairs.
I mean, while the tire demonstrates leading handling and steering, it falls slightly behind the Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 (review) by half a feet in wet braking tests, on average.
Hydroplaning Resistance
The primary defense against hydroplaning involves the tire’s ability to escape water form the tread mainly through the grooves.
Because of this water isn’t able to form a layer between the tread and the road, (which basically causes tires to float or hydroplane).
In this context, the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus offers a great job, clearing water out in all directions, thanks to its numerous grooves running in all directions.
That’s why you get superb float speeds in both straight and curved running test.
For Your Info: These tests are carried out on surfaces with a few millimeters of water. Utilizing cameras and sensors, the exact moment of hydroplaning (float speed) is meticulously monitored and recorded. This method ensures precise and reliable data regarding the tire’s performance in wet conditions.
Winter Performance
During the winter season, the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus presents above-par traction, holding its own in light snow scenarios.
And even though it lacks the three-peak mountain snowflake certification, it excelled in acceleration, braking, and cornering without any surprises, offering you with confidence inspiring winter stability.
And its all due to it’s numerous biting edges all over the tread.
These pick up (and trap) snow particles in their slits, allowing for superb snow to snow contact (a factor pretty significant, as snow likes to stick more on itself compared to rubber).
Moreover, the tire’s pliant rubber is also engineered with thermal adaptive materials, allowing its biters to remain soft and flexible even under freezing temperatures.
Though still, its overall traction here was still below that of the Michelin Pilot All Season 4.
Fuel Consumption
Fuel efficiency is judged by several aspects, including the tread pattern, composition, and the weight of the tire.
All of these basically define the overall tire’s rolling resistance values.
And in all of these the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus ranks as a notable fuel-efficient choice in the high-performance all-season category.
This is mainly because the tire offers reinforced foundations underneath all its lugs. So they don’t get to bend a lot as the tire maneuvers/corners.
And with less lug bending, more energy is focused in to the rolling (and less is wasted in to the reshaping of the tread).
Moreover, this also limits the overall heat generation by the lugs, which negatively affects the overall treadwear.
In other words, even in terms of tread longevity, the Continental DWS06 again doesn’t disappoint at all, allowing for modest UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grade) value of 560 (which is good enough, in the category of high performance all season tires).
Ride Quality
The comfort of a drive hinges predominantly on two vital factors: the level of tread noise and the tire’s ability to absorb road irregularities through its tread makeup and structure.
Tread Noise
When it comes to noise, this tire emits a faint tread hum that blends effortlessly with ambient sounds. However, compared to other tires, there’s room for improvement, as it still releases slightly higher decibels.
What’s the reason behind this? It’s largely due to the tire’s tread design.
Basically, most of the noise originates when air enters the tread, primarily through shoulder gaps, and collides with the tread walls, producing unwanted sound waves.
Unlike many premium all-season tires that incorporate ridges or connectors between shoulder lugs to obstruct air entry, the Continental design allows more air to interact with the tread walls.
But it’s not all negative, I mean the tire still employs advanced pitch sequencing technology, reducing groove resonance.
This technology uses strategically varied lug angles, so when air hits them, they produce different tones that neutralize each other, dampening the overall noise.
Ride Smoothness
The smoothness of a tire’s ride is determined by its ability to cushion against the roughness of the road, wherein the tire’s material composition plays a pivotal role.
And here the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus, despite delivering stable handling, still gives you a somewhat jittery ride.
This is mainly because of its stiffer nylon cap ply (mostly covering the shoulders), which isn’t able to soak up the road vibrations before they reach the driver’s seat.
Take Home Points
So overall, the key takeaway is this. While the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus has some areas of improvement, its strengths across various domains make it a solid choice for those seeking a high-performance all-season tire.
Now the tire comes with superb performance on dry roads, where it stands out for its exceptional braking and acceleration, owed largely to its meticulously designed tread.
Similarly for wet, it excels in both hydroplaning resistance and wet grip, setting the standard for high-performance all-season tires. And same is the case for winter performance.
And if I talk about the cons, the tire’s steering response might give drivers a slightly artificial feel, potentially affecting overall driving confidence during sharp turns.
Furthermore, in terms of ride comfort, while the tire has an advanced design to minimize noise, there’s room for enhancement, where the bumps cushioning also needs a bump up.
