Project E90 M3: Head to Head with 2016 Mustang GT

The Continental ExtremeContact DW is one of my all-time favorite tires for a daily driver sports car or sports sedan. I’ve been using DWs on my personal daily drivers for over 5 years and they are absolutely excellent in the wet and hold up to occasional track time.  I feel the DW is one of the best tires on the market for that purpose.  The M3 (left) and Mustang (right) are almost identical in size.

The DW stands for “Dry – Wet”, which is Continental’s Max Performance Summer Tire developed for sports cars and performance sedans, which is soon to be replaced by their brand new ExtremeContact Sport tire.  The DW features an asymmetric design with chamfered tread blocks and a continuous, outboard notched intermediate rib to enhance responsiveness and cornering stability.  The DW also has a continuous center ribs to reduce noise and provide constant rubber-to-road contact to control longitudinal forces during braking.  A high void-to-tread ratio with open outboard lateral grooves, wide circumferential tread grooves, and notched shoulder blocks on the inboard intermediate rib and shoulder help disperse water to enhance hydroplaning resistance.

The M3 is equipped with 245/35-19 front tires (left) while the Mustang GT rolls on slightly wider 255/40-19 front tires with a thicker sidewall and larger overall diameter.

All of this makes the DW one of the best performing tires in the wet with class leading hydroplaning resistance.  It’s also one of the quietest and best riding tires in its segment, as well as having a long life and a 340 treadwear rating.  Yes I said it despite UTQG treadwear ratings being useless – click here to understand why they are useless.  The only downsides of the DW is its soft sidewall that lacks steering response of some of its competitors and due to all of the small tread blocks and high void-to-tread ratio (which means less rubber touching the road), the heat management and durability for extended periods of time on a hot track isn’t the best.  These areas are addressed and improved on in their new ExtremeContact SPORT tire.  From purely a dry grip standpoint, the DW is near the top of its class, even if though it’s not as durable as some of its more track focused competitors.  For a daily driven performance tire that may be tracked occasionally, the Continental ExtremeContact DW is hard to beat.

To put the power down, the M3 relies on 265/35-19 rear tires while the Mustang GT has marginally larger 275/40-19 rear tires.

Before hitting the track, we decided to weigh these two competitors, so we topped up the gas tanks with fuel and stopped by to visit our friends at Top Flight Speed Shop / Xtreme Supercars in West Palm Beach, FL.

We know our optioned up M3 is going to be heavy.  The 4-door’s chassis is said to be 22lbs heavier than the coupe and both the DCT transmission and sunroof are said to each weigh 45lbs heavier than a manual or carbon roof.  In addition, the electronics and cold weather package add weight in the form of a LCD navigation display, and heated and powered leather seats. That should make our car at least 112lbs heavier than the manual transmission E92 M3 which Ford benchmarked for the Mustang.

Next up was the Mustang GT.  Equipped with Performance Package wheels which are wider in the rear, the Mustang also has a heavier electronics package with the awesome Sync 3 infotainment system, Shaker speakers, heated and cooled seats, and is otherwise stock.