Put them on our Justa about three weeks ago. Great ride on roads in and around Chicago. Not bad on back roads but not as responsive as Conti run-flats they replaced. Will see how they do in 10 days on the Dragon.
I use them on my GP for daily driving. Quiet, good road feel, wear well. Let's say I road drive spiritedly and they handle the curves ok. They are a little marshmallowy on hard cornering. Really good in the wet!
I ran the Conni DW's (215 / 45 / 17 ) for a year and one trip to the Dragon and they are great tires.
I have since sold them with lots of tread left and got a set of Dunlop Star Specs (same size) for this Summer & Dragon this year.
I have a set of Michelin all seasons on R90's for Winter.
The Dunlop Star Specs have much more grip in dry and wet, but are a little noisy and wear a lot faster but great Summer tires.
I would hands down buy the Conni DW's again they are a great riding, low noise, low lasting tire with good not excellent grip. They again I am testing the grip level on the Dragon.
I run DWS in 215/45R17 on my winter OEM wheels about 3 months a year, and DW in 205/50R16 on my Enkei PF01's the rest of the year. Love both of them. Both are my favorite of all the tires I've tried for their intended purpose.
The DWS has been an excellent tire for all but the hottest days. I wouldn't run them at the track, though. I know how I drive at the track, and I'd destroy them. lol
I've run extreme performance track tires for a couple of summers and just got tired of replacing them constantly. The Conti DW is almost as good for most street conditions as anything else I've run - and way better than any of the other "street" tires I've run, and I'm getting twice my usual tread life out of them.
Are we talking the Continental ExtremeContact DW 215/45-17 here?
My Yokos are going to need to be replaced soon and while fun in the dry when warm out they leave a little to be desired when wet and/or below about 65F outside.
I am running Extreme Contact DWS on my soul crushing Civic commuter car. They're head and shoulders better than the Bridgestones that came on the Honda. They are also the only tire I've ever gotten 50K miles with them. I'm on my second set for my Civic. For comparison, I usually get 15-17K from Pirelli runflats on the front of my MINI.
I live in a twisty mountainous area, and I installed Si swaybars, shocks, and springs under my Civic when it was less than a month old. It's not a great handling car, but it corners much better than it did when I brought it home from the dealership.
I run the DW in 205/50R16, and the DWS in 205/45R17. Only because the DWS's were brand new when I got the 16" wheels... because now, knowing what I know, I would never choose to run 17" wheels on a MINI again. LOL
17" looks pretty.
But 16" looks more like "real race car wheels".
And the ride difference, at least on my car, was night and day. Some of that was going from a relatively heavier wheel and tire to a much lighter setup. But that extra little bit of sidewall makes a TON of difference.
I was sooooo proud of, and happy with, my 17's for a almost 5 years. Then I tried something different and it blew me away, how much better it was.
I run the DW's three seasons in NC. I basically take them off when it consistently is at or near freezing at night here, and put the DWS's on. Then put the DW's back on as soon as we're past frequent freezes in the spring. The DW's do very well, even down into the upper 30's.
And they handle crazy well, considering how high the tread wear rating is on them, and how long they actually last. I always thought I had to buy 10-15k tires to get the performance I get out of the DW's. I'm over 20k on this set and they're maybe 1/2ish worn. Crazy.
I went with 205 instead of 215 on the 26" DW's because 215/50R16 weren't available.
To echo what so many are saying, I've been happy so far with the DWS tires I'm running (205/55-16).. Had them on for about 11,000 miles so far. They replaced some DW tires in the same size. I did like the additional grip available with the DW tires, but got nervous when the temp was cold. And I'm looking forward to maybe going a couple years between buying new tires rather than it being an annual event with summer tread tires.
