In the realm of Ultra High Performance All-Season tires, both the Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate and the Continental DWS06+ shine, catering to sports cars, performance coupes, and sedans. These tires are well engineered to provide superior handling and braking abilities on wet, dry, and snowy surfaces. But, which tire holds the edge? Let me give you an idea.
Table of Contents
Main Highlights
So overall, the Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate is better at:
- Dry Handling: Offering improved lateral traction and quicker handling feedback.
- Noise Reduction: Achieving a quieter ride due to its tight shoulder design and sound-absorbing rubber mix.
- Road Vibrations: Slightly better at absorbing road vibrations due to its stiffer rubber and dual polyamide cap plies.
- Wet Braking: With its laterally arranged siping and biters.
Review this tire in greater details: https://tiredriver.com/goodyear-eagle-exhilarate-review/
Whereas the Continental DWS06+ is better at:
- Dry Braking: Excelling in stopping power with multi-directional in-groove notches for superior braking efficacy.
- Wet Performance: Leading in wet handling and hydroplaning resistance, thanks to its effective siping design and web of grooves.
- Fuel Economy and Treadwear: Attributed to its lighter structure and even force distribution technology.
Review Continental’s tire here: https://tiredriver.com/continental-extremecontact-dws-06-plus-review/
Tread Features
Starting with the Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate, this tire showcases an asymmetric tread with five rib sections.
The outer two ribs on the shoulders are pretty similar, each decked out with lugs that have linear slits and angled longitudinal sipes slicing through them.
In the middle, the central-most rib stands out with its lateral notches that stick out on both sides, linked by sipes that create a square-like pattern.
The ribs next to this central one are a bit different from each other.
One mimics the central rib’s design, while the other, although less siped, still throws in a pattern similar to the central rib.
And yes, it also includes those little notches, which face towards the shoulders.
Internally, the tire comes with two-ply polyester cord casing, twin steel belts, and two polyamide cap plies.
Moving towards the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus, although this tire also has an asymmetric design, it’s a bit more aggressive.
It’s built with four ribs, where the central one really catches your eye.
It’s packed with blocks with plus-shaped sipes, and has these interconnected web of grooves, joining up with the outer circumferential channels.
Moreover, it also features snow-vices, and very biting off-set edges.
For Your Info: Snow vices are sharp, saw-toothed patterns that enhance grip on icy and snowy surfaces.
Moving towards the shoulders, they present a unique design as well.
While both sides have similar lateral siping and grooves, one side is further equipped with extra snow vices.
In terms of internal structure, the tire is built on a robust foundation of 2-ply polyester. This is reinforced with dual steel belts for added durability. Topping off this construction is a single ply nylon cap, ensuring a balance of strength and flexibility.
Info on Sizes
The Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate comes in 17 to 22 inches rims. And these sizes have following specs.
- Speed ratings: W and Y.
- Load ratings: SL and XL.
- Tread depth: 10/32″.
- Weight: 20 to 34 lbs.
- UTQG: 500 AA A.
- Treadwear warranty: 45k miles.
The Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06+ come with sizes in 16 to 22 inches rims, having 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.
Both radial tires, don’t come with 3pmsf ratings.
Dry-Road Performance
When it comes to dry performance, it primarily consists of dry grip, handling, and steering response. I will go over each category sequentially.
Linear Grip
Now this grip is pretty “straight-forward”, as its the traction of the tire while it rolls linearly.
Now, this grip being directional, is effectively measured by the tire’s stopping abilities. And is highly dependent on the tread’s footprint, particularly from its middle.
Now, out of both tires, the Continental DWS06+, with its web of grooves in the middle, isn’t able to provide as much rubber-to-road contact, compared to Exhilarate. Though it still takes the lead, showcasing a half a feet shorter braking distance on average.
But why?
Well, this is because those multiple grooves act as multi-directional in-groove notches. And these “notches” enhance grip from various angles, contributing to its exceptional braking capability.
Overall Handling
So, when you look at how these tires handle, both of them are pretty much neck and neck in terms of grip. This assessment is based on their similar g-force readings, obtained during testing.
But, there’s more to a tire than just grip. How fast it responds to your steering is super important too. That’s where the Eagle Exhilarate takes the lead, providing quicker handling feedback, which is essential for responsive driving.
This slight edge is largely attributed to its more compact shoulder design and a firmer rubber composition. This combo means its lugs are relatively less susceptible to bending and flexing.
Why care about lug flex? Well, when these lugs bend and wiggle, they take a moment to snap back to their original shape. That tiny delay affects how the car handles. Simply put, less flex equals faster response.
And that’s a big reason why the Goodyear’s tire here, has an edge in performance. Though as both tires are UHP, the difference is pretty low between them.
FYI, you can check out all different all-season tire types here.
Fuel Economy and Treadwear
When it comes to fuel economy and treadwear, it mostly comes down to three things: how much the tire weighs, what kind of rubber it’s made of, and the design of the tread.
In this area, the ExtremeContact DWS 06+ has a slight edge. It uses Conti even force technology, which makes sure the tire touches the road evenly, spreading out the pressure of its weight, to make it last longer.
Speaking of which, the tire also comes with a pretty light structure, with a single cap ply inside, (unlike the Exhilarate, which comes with 2 ply). In fact its one of the lightest tires in its category.
So it generates less rolling resistance, and with it offers superior fuel economy.
On the other side, the Goodyear Eagle falls a bit short here because it’s heavier.
A heavier tire puts more pressure on the lugs, causing them to bend more, wasting energy by turning it into heat and changing shape, lowering fuel economy, and tread longevity.
Read more in, do all-season tires use more fuel?.
Ride Quality
Two main elements influence driving comfort: the level of tread noise and the tire’s effectiveness in smoothing out road bumps.
I’ll discuss each element separately.
Vibrations Comfort
When you’re looking for a smooth ride, a lot of it comes down to how well the tire can handle bumps and lumps on the road. And this depends a lot on the tire design and what the tread is made of.
That being said, you’re not really going to notice a huge difference between these two tires here. I mean they both get similar scores, from my conducted tests.
But, just because they’re similar doesn’t mean they’re the best out there. There are definitely better options. For example, the General G MAX 07 (review), is the best UHPAS tire, out of all I’ve reviewed so far.
Now, for Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate, the tire has a bit of a downside with its stiffer rubber. Whereas the ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus also falls a bit short, with its stiffer nylon cap ply, around the edges.
Needless to say, in both cases, you might feel that they’re not great at absorbing those road vibrations. They just don’t flex as much as you might want them to.
Noise Dampening
So, when it comes to keeping things quiet, the Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate is taking the lead.
This quiet ride comes from its tight shoulder design and the clever rubber mix they’ve used. But why’s that important? Let me explain.
Basically, noise in tires mostly comes from air hitting the tread walls. As the tire rolls, air slips in, mainly through the shoulder grooves, and when it bumps against the tread walls, you get what we call “tread noise”.
Now, with more closed up shoulders, the Goodyear’s tire doesn’t let too much air in to start with, and the air that does sneak in doesn’t make much noise either, as its rubber is very absorbing of sound waves.
On the flip side, the ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus, with its roomier tread design, ends up being a bit noisier, though the difference between them is pretty small, just about 1 decibel.
Wet-Road Performance
Wet performance is contingent on the tire’s efficiency in clearing water from the tread, focusing on two key areas: traction and hydroplaning resistance. Let’s evaluate each of these in greater detail.
Wet Grip and Handling
Wet traction is mostly about, how good the grooves and sipes are at moving water out of the way. These two elements are key players in keeping things dry under your tires.
Here’s the deal: grooves act as main highways for water to get out of the way, while sipes are the little side streets that mop up any leftover wetness.
Think of sipes as tiny vacuum cleaners. They “flex” and create suction, pulling water in and drying the surface, which lets the rubber grip the road better, properly.
Now, comparing both tires, although the Eagle Exhilarate provides better wet braking, the overall handling is relatively better on ExtremeContact DWS06+, even though its only by a smaller margin. We’re talking only less than a second here, in handling lap times, on averaged tests.
Basically the Goodyear’s tire although offers a great rubber that sticks to the road, its continuous ribs and laterally oriented sipes can get a bit rigid, especially when you’re doing some aggressive cornering or braking.
The Continental DWS06 Plus, on the other hand, is loaded with much better siping design, whee it offers multi-directional “+ shaped” sipes, particularly, providing wet grip in all directions.
Resistance to Hydroplaning
Hydroplaning happens when grooves aren’t able to take out water in time, and with a layer of water coming between the tread and the road, the tire starts to float.
In other words, the “resistance” to hydroplaning, depends on the effectiveness of the grooves.
And Continental tire with its web of grooves running in all directions provides much better results here.
Whereas the Exhilarate with its unbroken continuous-running ribs, isn’t able to evacuate water out, particularly in the sideways directions.
And with less water going out (through grooves), the have to work overtime. That’s why its another major reason why we see better overall wet handling on ExtremeContact DWS06+.
Just so you know: Out of all the top ultra-high-performance all-season tires I’ve reviewed/tested so far, the DWS Plus is coming on top, in terms of overall wet handling.
Winter Traction
When it comes to winter traction, both tires do okay. However, neither come close to securing the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake certification.
This badge is like a gold star for winter tires, showing they’re about 10% better at accelerating in the snow compared to your standard touring all-season tires.
Now out of both tires here, the ExtremeContact DWS 06+ is doing a little better, especially when it comes to light snow covered roads.
This tire’s got lots of features to help it bite into snow. For example, it features grooves zigzagging all over the place and snow vices on the shoulders and central ribs.
All these bits help the tire grab onto snow better, providing superior braking and handling in comparison here.
The Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate, on the other hand, isn’t quite as equipped for the snow.
Sure, it’s got some good traction features, but it’s missing those handy snow vices. Plus, its rubber gets harder in cold temperatures, which means its traction bits don’t work as well when it’s really chilly out.
On average, the Goodyear’s tire lacks by over 10 feet in snow braking tests, compared to Continental.
The Final Word
Before ending our discussion, it’s essential to highlight both tires’ key differences and similarities.
Now here, the Continental tire excels not only compared to Goodyear, but as a whole in its category in terms of wet handling.
Whereas the Eagle tire excels in a similar manner in its UHP category in terms of noise reduction performance.
And although this Exhilarate tire lacks to ExtremeContact in terms of fuel economy, and tread life, it excels in terms of dry handling, and overall impact comfort performance as well.
But yes, it really lacks in delivering adequate winter performance.
