Continental ContiProContact Vs PureContact LS

Both of the contenders are grand touring all-season tires made for drivers of family coupes, sedans, small crossovers, minivans, and a wide range of domestic vehicles. ContiProContact is having a symmetrical tread design while PureContact is featured with an asymmetrical tread pattern.

Designed through PROactive Edge Technology, ContiProContact provides a superior handling facility. Also, its grip on wet, icy, and snowy roads is phenomenal. Due to its PROgressive Groove Ramp and wide circumferential grooves, its hydroplaning resistivity is outstanding. Besides being a fuel-efficient tire, it also provides a comfortable ride as well.

PureContact is manufactured through EcoPlus+ Technology, which enhances its durability even at high speed and maximum load capacity. Its central wide block column enhances its dry grip performance. Besides being the fastest tire, it is also considered to be the quietest one as well since it offers a noise-free journey to its customers.

Compared to ContiProContact, PureContact excels in having a better dry grip, enhanced durability, maximum speed & load-bearing capacity, and also in providing the quietest ride.  But when it comes to road handling, snow/wet/ice grip, hydroplaning resistivity, comfort, and fuel efficiency, ContiProContact takes the lead.

Side By Side Comparison

Specifications	ContiProContact	PureContact LS
Tire Type	Touring Tire	Touring Tire
Tire Season	All-season	All-season
Tread Type	Symmetrical	Asymmetrical
Available Sizes, Inches	15, 16, 17, 18, 19	15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
Application	Passenger Cars & Crossovers	Passenger Cars & Crossovers
Standard Limited Warranty	6 Years	6 Years
UTQG Rating	540 A A	700 AA A
Cost (195/55R16)	128.99$	149.99$

Tread Design

ContiProContact is having a symmetrical tread design with three notched-ribs, shaped like a series of ‘S’, providing continuous tread contact with the road. Its overall void ratio is comparatively higher due to its four wide circumferential grooves. It is comprised of optimized shoulder lugs with a PROgressive Groove Ramp that provides wide and rounded lateral grooves on shoulders. With its Controlled Sipe Interaction, ContiProContact has high-density & rounded sipes all over it. Besides having notches on its ribs, ContiProContact also has narrow notches on its shoulder blocks.

Unlike its competitor, PureContact features an asymmetrical tread design with three tread block columns. The central tread block column is relatively wider than the adjacent tread block columns, and it also provides a solid on-center feel for better dry traction and braking. Like its competitor, it is also comprised of four circumferential grooves. But its circumferential grooves are relatively narrower than those of its competitor’s. And that’s why its void ratio is relatively lower. Its shoulder blocks and lateral grooves are relatively smaller compared to its competitor.

Road Grip

Having a comparatively higher void ratio makes the contact patch of ContiProContact relatively lower than its competitor. And the grip on dry roads is solely dependent upon the contact patch of a tire. So ContiProContact would be inferior in the section of dry grip in comparison to its competitor. But its wet and ice grip would be much better than its rival since its curved sipes have a high density compared to its opponent. It would also perform tremendous grip on snowy tracks as well since its wide circumferential grooves would allow more snow holding capacity.

A higher contact patch and also a wide central tread block column would enhance the dry grip of PureContact. Even though its siping density is in considerable amount, which would enhance its wet and ice grip, it is still inferior to its competitor. Also, its grip performance on snowy roads would be inferior since its void ratio is relatively lower compared to its rival.

Parameter	ContiProContact	PureContact LS
Dry Grip	Moderate	High
Wet Grip	High	Moderate
Ice Grip	High	Moderate
Snow Grip	High	Low

Road Handling

The comparison of handling capability of both competitors depends upon their shoulders. With its optimized shoulder lugs, ContiProContact wins the race of handling performance on dry roads over its competitor. Since the shoulders blocks of PureContact are embedded with high high-density round sipes and notches on them, its handling performance on wet and icy roads would be superior to its competitor. Thanks to its new groove geometry, and rounded lateral grooves, PureContact would also be superior in the field of snow handling.

Despite being inferior to its competitor in terms of handling performance, ContiProContact would still have pretty decent handling over dry roads. And its handling performance on wet and icy roads would also be quite impressive due to its straight-lined sipes over its shoulder blocks, but would still be comparatively mediocre. Its horizontal lateral grooves offer a decent handling performance on snowy roads but lack behind its competitor in this respect as well.

Parameter	ContiProContact	PureContact LS
Dry Handling	High	Moderate
Wet Handling	High	Moderate
Ice Handling	High	Moderate
Snow Handling	High	Moderate

Hydroplaning Resistivity

The major constituent in determining the hydroplaning resistivity of a tire is the circumferential grooves. Now since the ContiProContact has wider circumferential grooves, it would offer a relatively high-water holding capacity. Also, its tread depth is relatively more than its competitor which increases its void ratio. On the other hand, the circumferential grooves and relatively more lateral grooves in the tread block columns would enhance the hydroplaning resistance of PureContact. But it would still be inferior to its rival since its circumferential grooves are relatively narrower.

So, in this competition, the victor is ContiProContact.

Durability and Treadwear

A major parameter in determining the durability of a tire is its tread depth. Because the more the tread depth of a tire is, the longer it will take to wear off. Even though the tread depth of ContiProContact is relatively more than that of its rival’s, it would still not be the most durable competitor. It’s because PureContact offers more mileage warranty than ContiProContact due to its reinforced internal structure made of a single ply of the polyester casing. Also, the tire’s internal structure is made up of twin steel belts which are empowered by two polyamide overlays.

All of this suggests that PureContact is a more durable tire than its rival.

Contenders	Tread Depth	Mileage Warranty (miles)
ContiProContact (195/55R16)	11/32’’	60,000
PureContact LS (195/55R16)	10/32’’	70,000

Comfort & Noise

Even though vehicles are equipped with shock absorbers, the tread of their tires also works as shock absorbers on bumpy roads. Now it all depends upon the tread depth of a tire, additional tread depth would ensure more shock absorbance since there is more cushion between the customer and the road. Since the tread depth of ContiProContact is relatively larger than its competitor, so it would also be a more comfortable tire.

At high-speed driving, the air gets trapped inside the grooves’ space and starts striking inside the grooves with the tread walls. This creates a humming noise which makes the ride uncomfortable. Now since the ContiProContact has a higher void ratio, so it would provide much more space for air particles which would increase its noise production.

Hence ContiProContact would be a more comfortable tire but it’s the PureContact that would be the quietest one.

Rolling Resistance and Fuel Efficiency

Since the contact patch of PureContact is relatively more than its rival, so it would have high rolling resistance which would suggest more energy loss, hysteresis. That’s why we can say that PureContact is a less fuel-efficient tire compared to its competitor.

Load & Speed

Speed rating and load index along with their respective values of both contenders with the same size are being mentioned in the table given below.

Contenders	Speed	Load
Rating	Value (mph)	Index	Value (lbs)
ContiProContact (195/55R16)	H	130	86	1,168
PureContact LS (195/55R16)	V	149	87	1,201

So as we can see that PureContact takes the lead in both categories as its speed rating and load index exceeds its competitor. Hence, it would provide maximum speed & high load-bearing capacity.

Quick Summary

ContiProContact;

• has a symmetrical tread design.
• offers superior ice/wet/snow grip facility.
• provides enhanced handling performance.
• offers better hydroplaning resistance.
• provides a more comfortable ride.
• is a more fuel-efficient tire.

PureContact LS;

• has an asymmetrical tread design.
• offers superior dry grip performance.
• is a more durable tire.
• offers a noise-free journey.
• provides superior speed and load-bearing capacity.
• is more expensive than its rival.