Out of both, the Avid Ascend GT is a grand touring tire, designed for comfort and longevity, making it ideal for drivers seeking a smooth and durable ride. On the other hand, the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06+ is an ultra-high-performance all-season tire, engineered for superior grip and handling. Let’s find a better fit for you here.
Table of Contents
Bottom Line
So overall, the Avid Ascend GT is better at:
- Providing a quieter ride and reducing road noise.
- Absorbing road imperfections for a smoother ride.
- Offering longer tread life due to its distinct rubber composition and deeper tread depth.
- Maintaining flexibility and grip in cold temperatures, enhancing winter traction.
Review Yokohama’s tire: https://tiredriver.com/yokohama-avid-ascend-gt-review/
Whereas the ExtremeContact DWS06+ is doing comparatively better in terms of:
- Superior dry grip and handling, offering directional stability and traction.
- Enhanced wet performance, efficiently displacing water and resisting hydroplaning.
- Providing a more immediate and responsive steering feedback, especially in mid-corner maneuvers.
- Exhibiting better overall braking efficiency due to its multidirectional grooves and biting edges.
Review Continental’s tire here: https://tiredriver.com/continental-extremecontact-dws-06-plus-review/
Sizes Info
| Specs | Yokohama Ascend GT | Continental DWS 06+ |
|---|---|---|
| Rim Sizes | 16 to 20 inches | 16 to 22 inches |
| Speed Ratings | H and V | W and Y |
| Load Ratings | SL and XL | SL and XL |
| Tread Depth | 12/32″ | 10/32″ |
| Weight Range | 17 to 30 lbs | 18 to 35 lbs |
| Warranty | 65,000 miles | 50,000 miles |
| UTQG Rating | 740 A A | 560 AA |
Wet Performance
The effectiveness of a tire on wet roads hinges on its ability to displace water from its tread, emphasizing two crucial performance aspects: wet traction and hydroplaning resistance. Let’s examine each aspect in detail.
Wet Grip
Now, grooves play a crucial role in displacing the bulk of water from beneath the tire treads on the road. However, it’s the minute water droplets lingering under the tread blocks that often lead to slippage.
And this is where sipes prove invaluable. These tiny slits effectively absorb those residual water particles.
So, for optimal wet traction, a tire must possess a generous amount of sipes, which should also be sufficiently flexible to create the necessary suction for leftover water particles that grooves don’t take out.
Understanding this, it makes sense why the Avid Ascend GT excels here, featuring an array of linear and wavy slits that enhance wet braking speed. Yet, when it comes to overall handling, it still falls short of the ExtremeContact DWS06+.
This shortfall is primarily due to the Yokohama’s predominantly lateral sipe arrangement, which tends to stiffen during aggressive maneuvers, leading to disrupted over/under-steering balance.
Though don’t get me wrong, its still a pretty great tire, its just that, being a grand touring, it can’t outperform an ultra high performance tire, that is actually the best when it comes to wet handling.
The DWS06+ basically features multidirectional sipes, ensuring efficient water clearance from all angles.
However, its superior wet handling isn’t solely attributed to the sipes, as a significant portion of its performance is due to its exceptional resistance to hydroplaning.
Hydroplaning Resistance
If water isn’t efficiently removed from the tread, a layer can accumulate beneath the tire, leading to hydroplaning. In this situation, the tire essentially “floats” on the water, losing its grip on the road.
In preventing this, the effectiveness of grooves is paramount.
That’s why the Continental DWS 06+ excels in this aspect with its intricate network of multi-directional grooves. These grooves create, relatively more efficient pathways to expel water in every direction, significantly enhancing the tire’s resistance to hydro or aquaplaning.
And with more water going out through its grooves, there’s less left for sipes. So in-directly, this thing is another factor of why this tire is the best in overall wet handling.
Overall Comfort
The ease of driving is greatly affected by two essential variables: the sound produced by the tire tread and the tire’s capability to dampen the effects of road irregularities. I will detail each of these variables in turn.
Noise Reduction
Road noise originates from various factors, including rolling resistance, groove resonance, and the overall construction of the tread design.
In this regard, the Avid Ascend GT distinguishes itself with its more sealed shoulder design and advanced tread compound.
But why does this matter?
Well, because noise is primarily generated by air particles colliding with the tread walls, entering chiefly through the gaps in the shoulders. It’s the impact of these particles against the tire’s rubber that creates the noise.
And the Yokohama tire, with its tightly constructed structure, serves as an effective, you can say, “sonic barrier”, markedly reducing rolling noise.
On the other side, the ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus, with its more open structure, tends to register higher noise levels, as evidenced by its greater decibel readings on my tests.
But I guess, you saw this coming, since Continental, as an ultra-high-performance tire, is naturally noisier. It’s a common trade-off in the pursuit of enhanced performance.
Impact Comfort
The smoothness of a ride largely depends on a tire’s ability to absorb road imperfections, which in turn is influenced by the tire’s design and the material composition of the tread.
And here, the Yokohama with its relatively softer rubber, offers superior ride comfort, where its proficiency primarily stems from its internal construction, which adeptly neutralizes minor surface irregularities.
Whereas, the ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus falls short due to its stiffer nylon cap ply, particularly around its shoulders.
This rigidity compromises its capacity to effectively dampen road vibrations, resulting in a notably jittery feel, especially during turns.
So overall, the Yokohama takes the upper hand here, which is again no wonder, as its the grand touring tire.
See my list of top grand touring tires here.
Overall Dry Performance
Unpacking the three principal aspects of dry performance — dry grip, handling, and steering response — is my goal for a thorough exploration.
Linear Grip
In discussions about tire grip, the central tread area is crucial, as it bears the majority of the tire’s weight during straight-line movement.
This is a key factor in understanding why the Avid Ascend GT falls short in performance, demonstrating longer braking distances indicative of reduced linear grip.
Basically, the Yokohama tire’s heavier composition contributes to increased momentum, resulting in a slower stopping response, despite its greater footprint, with ribs extensively contacting the road.
Conversely, the ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus excels, offering superior directional stability as well as traction. That’s why my comparative analysis with high-performance tires ranks it among the top performers.
See it yourself in my list of top UHP All-Season tires here: https://tiredriver.com/best-ultra-high-performance-all-season-tires/
Although Continental DWS features numerous grooves/voids running in various directions, which theoretically should lower the grip by reducing rubber-road contact, they actually do the opposite, enhancing overall traction.
This is because these grooves function as notches within the tread, providing bite in multiple directions and augmenting the tire’s overall braking efficiency.
Overall Handling
Handling primarily hinges on how effectively a tire adheres to the road (lateral grip) and its responsiveness to steering inputs.
Focusing on lateral traction, or the tire’s ability to maneuver side-to-side, the tire’s shoulders play a pivotal role. Basically, they are the sections (of the tread) that intimately contact the road during cornering.
Now, here, the Yokohama Avid Ascend GT demonstrates impressive traction, as it offers slightly higher average lateral g-forces on my comparative tests. However, it falls short in overall handling, lagging by about half a second in average lap completion times.
And of course this is because of the tire’s less impressive steering feedback performance. I mean its still pretty great, but when pushed to its limits, it tends to exhibit a (relatively more) disconcerting feel.
To be more specific, rapid steering with this tire, leads to a loss of front grip, resulting in understeer, (a condition where the car doesn’t turn as sharply as intended and continues along a straighter path).
This happens mostly due to the tire’s relatively greater weight.
Conversely, the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus, despite feeling somewhat synthetic, offers a more immediate response.
I mean, it provides enhanced feedback, particularly noticeable during mid-corner maneuvers, and delivers a robust sensation post-turn. And this directness translates to an improved and more confident handling experience.
That’s why the tire offers better slalom and overall lap times, compared to Ascend GT.
Wear Resistance
Tread life longevity is influenced by various factors, including the tire’s weight, material composition, and tread depth.
The Yokohama Avid Ascend GT, with its distinct rubber composition, shows remarkable resilience to high temperatures and retains robust structural integrity.
As a touring tire, it’s designed to generate less rolling friction compared to the DWS06+, which further enhances its longevity.
Additionally, its deeper tread depth means it takes longer to reach the 2/32″ legal tread depth limit, further extending its lifespan.
On the other hand, the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus, as an ultra-high-performance all-season tire with a speed rating up to Y, naturally produces more rolling resistance due to its aggressive lug interaction with the road.
This increased friction, while beneficial for grip, accelerates wear.
As a result, it typically offers only up to 40k miles, whereas the Yokohama can go up to 70k, under right conditions. Speaking of which do check this out: How To Increase Tread Life?
Winter Performance
When it comes to winter traction, both tires deliver decent performance, despite lacking the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake certification.
And here overall both tires end up with equal scores, according to my tests with them.
The Yokohama tire offers a rubber compound that adheres well to snow, coupled with lugs specifically designed to boost snow acceleration and traction.
Notably, its rubber remains flexible in cold temperatures, which enhances its grip on both snowy and icy surfaces.
On the flip side, the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus matches this performance with its own set of features.
I mean, it’s equipped with central interlocking lugs and an array of biting edges, including snow vices, to trap and compact snow effectively.
This design maximizes the natural propensity of snow to stick to itself, thereby improving snow-on-snow traction and ensuring dependable performance in winter conditions.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, comparing both tires here, each have distinct strengths.
The Continental DWS06+ excels in dry grip and handling, while the Yokohama offers superior comfort and longer tread life.
Moreover, surprisingly, both perform equally well in winter conditions.
Other than this, the Yokohama is quieter and absorbs road imperfections better, while the Continental provides better wet traction and resistance to hydroplaning.
So ultimately, choosing between them depends on prioritizing comfort and longevity (Ascend GT) or handling and wet performance (ExtremeContact).
