On the street, these Continental Extremecontact Force tires were really impressive. For such a hard-core, track-focused ‘street’ tire, this tire has road manners of some of the best performance road tires out there.
I personally consider Continental’s Extremecontact Sport and Michelin’s PS4S the two benchmarks for a daily driven performance car due to how well-rounded they are in terms of being quiet, having an excellent ride quality, delivering great steering feel, and having extremely high wet and dry performance. I was surprised with how quiet and comfortable the new Extremecontact Force tire was. They don’t drone or “pitter-patter” over seams in the road that is common for aggressive tires in this 200-treadwear ‘street’ category.
The Force’s thick tread blocks has tapered shoulders which really improves tread stability and steering response by reducing tread squirm. This is a big improvement over the Sport and PS4S, and is right in line with the track-focused nature of its competitors.
Overall, we are really happy with the looks and road performance of our Technica Bronze Titan 7 T-D6 forged wheels and Continental Extremecontact Force tires. We have a lot of confidence in the trackability of our lightweight, stiff and strong Titan 7 wheels, and the Extremecontact Force is supposed to be fast, durable, and consistent; not a 1-lap wonder. This is ideal for track enthusiasts and endurance racers. We are looking forward to track testing them in the near future after we improve the reliability of the FD RX-7 a little more in upcoming articles. It will be interesting to see where the new Continental Force tire falls into this highly-competitive 200 treadwear category. Stay tuned.
9 comments
Great article. I can’t wait for the track test. I am also looking at some Titan 7 made wheels for my 08 Miata. Evasive Motorsports has a custom line made for them by Titan. 17×10 +47 EVS Tuning 52R, which should need just a 3-5mm spacer to fit the NC properly. They are meant for S2000’s, but luckily that offset is very close to what the NC’s need, too.
Where are the Titan’s made?
Minor correction: the reinforced wheel is on the left, unreinforced on the right.
Valve stems are placed where they are most aesthetic on modern aluminum wheels, not on the heavy spot of the wheel. It’s nice to be consistent about aligning the dot on the tire with the valve stem but it really means nothing.
That’s all well and good but the author didn’t even mention the dot.
I think he was just saying that on pro race cars, they make a mark on the tire at the valve stem to keep an eye on slip.
Correct, it’s easy to make a small line with a paint pen to mark the valve stem position to monitor tire slippage on the wheel.
Why didn’t you use 265/35 tires? That would be much closer to stock diameter and would not be stretched over the 9.5″ wheel. Were you concerned about rubbing on the front fender? With a +51 offset, I would think a 265 would have plenty of clearance.
The Titan 7 T-D6 wheel is only available for the S2000/FD RX-7 (which have the same fitment) in 17×9.5 5×114.3 +51 square. This fitment makes the 255/40-17 an ideal tire for that wheel due to its 25.0″ OD, which is right in between the stock FD’s 24.9″ 225/50-16 front tire and 25.3″ 235/45-17 rear tire. I am assuming you are referring to a 265/35-18 tire size with it’s 25.3″ OD that matches the stock FD’s rear tire. For an 18″ wheel, the Titan 7 T-R10 18×10.5 5×114.3 +51 would be more preferable with a 285/30-18 tire.
Thanks for the reply. Yes I was referring to an 18″ wheel. You are correct, a 255/40-17 is closer to stock diameter than a 265/35-17.
I don’t love the T-R10 style as much, and 10.5″ even at +51 would need some camber, stretch or fender work to fit the front.
If I go to Titan 7’s site, they don’t let you view the wheels by size, only by fitment. It seems like there would be other fitments you could use with a stagger, but their site makes that very difficult to find.