New Continentals vs Corsas

[former345bhpLS1]

Hi all,

My 2015 Viper SRT is in need of new rubber. The fronts are original and the rears are now 5 years old. The traction loss is now noticeable and I’m trying to decide on new Corsas vs the new Viper specific Continentals.

I only do street driving at present and have been happy with the Corsas for the most part. My only irritation is the recommended minimum temp for the Corsas of 45 F. There are few times where I was tempted to take the car on an overnight where the ambient temp would fall to a low of the mid-30s so I skipped it. This is common in NorCal during the spring, even if day time temps are the 60s.

Also, I’ve heard that the stock of new Corsas available are actually a 2-3 years old given the small market share. Is this a common issue?

My primary concern with my new tires would be to maintain the sharp steering response offered by the Corsas and to have predictable rear traction for acceleration. Seems that early feedback on the Continentals is good, but many are transitioning from Toyos or Michelin tires.

Thank you for the input!

Best,

Nick

[Jack B]

Why not the Toyo's, they corner as well as the Corsa's and have better straight line traction. You wiil lose some rain capability.

[Steve M]

Why not the Toyo's, they corner as well as the Corsa's and have better straight line traction. You wiil lose some rain capability.

I could never recommend the Toyos in good conscience. Worst tire purchase I've ever made, bar none.

They tramline something fierce, which makes driving more of a white knuckle experience than I'd like. And the noise...my God the noise. Sounds like a truck rolling on mudders at 60 MPH. Get close to triple digits and they start their characteristic whine that I don't find appealing at all, but at least everyone in a mile radius knows what tires you are running.

And that's coming from someone that doesn't put a lot of miles on their car. They're that bad IMO.

[Whiskey]

Kumho V720's ???

[StrokerAce]

I am looking at new tires this summer, too. My NT-01's have 500 miles on them so they are like new and boy are they noisy, much like I hear with the R888R's. Luckily, that car is louder than the Viper so it sort of covers the sound but not all together.

If I can get some Corsas that have date codes within a year or so I will go with them but if it's true I hate to put 3+ year old tires on my car.

[former345bhpLS1]

Thank you for the lead on the Toyos and Kumhos. I considered these, but want to have solid wet performance. There are beautiful roads here in NorCal, but it is so dense that I generally need to get out of the house before dawn and it is common that there are still wet patches on the road. I also want to have the flexibility in case the weather turns so well rounded performance is important. I'd also rather not change my wheels - I really like the TrackPack wheels. :)

Best,

Nick

[Jack B]

I have the Toyo's on my track-pack wheels.



Thank you for the lead on the Toyos and Kumhos. I considered these, but want to have solid wet performance. There are beautiful roads here in NorCal, but it is so dense that I generally need to get out of the house before dawn and it is common that there are still wet patches on the road. I also want to have the flexibility in case the weather turns so well rounded performance is important. I'd also rather not change my wheels - I really like the TrackPack wheels. :)

Best,

Nick

[Jack B]

Have you driven on the latest R888R series, they are as good or better than the corsa's for every day driving. Personally I think they run smoother. I have had them out in the rain and did not have any issues, however, I never hit standing water. On the other hand, the corsa's are an excellent rain tire when new.



I could never recommend the Toyos in good conscience. Worst tire purchase I've ever made, bar none.

They tramline something fierce, which makes driving more of a white knuckle experience than I'd like. And the noise...my God the noise. Sounds like a truck rolling on mudders at 60 MPH. Get close to triple digits and they start their characteristic whine that I don't find appealing at all, but at least everyone in a mile radius knows what tires you are running.

And that's coming from someone that doesn't put a lot of miles on their car. They're that bad IMO.

[SRT_BluByU]

I've said this a bunch but the Pirelli Corsa's are my bar none favorite tire every for versatility. Excellent Grip, Wet weather capabilities, and comparatively wear like iron. I have no track time on mine.. jsut daily driven. Over three sets on my Vipers, I average 16,000-18,000 miles/ea! I find this hard to beat for a 060 Treadwear tire.

[JD03Cobra]

I just swapped out my OEM Pirelli P-Zeros for Pirelli Corsa's and couldn't be happier. The amount of grip/handling is night and day difference. I do not track my car but for street driving I'm extremely happy. My tire code shows made in 2020.

FYI - The 8 year old tires had plenty of tread left, no sign of tire rot. When they pulled the tires off the rim and flexed them in by hand, tire rot everywhere...scary actually!

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[mikesax]

When the corsa's were out of stock in 2019- I got a couple sets of the Michelin PS2-worked great- no problems! Now that the Corsa's are in stock- I just got 2 sets from Jon B-thats the tire that came on my Vipers-love everything about them! I do not track- but wet and dry nary a problem! Produce October 2019 from the code-they also last about 12,000 miles NP! Good luck!

[Steve M]

Have you driven on the latest R888R series, they are as good or better than the corsa's for every day driving. Personally I think they run smoother. I have had them out in the rain and did not have any issues, however, I never hit standing water. On the other hand, the corsa's are an excellent rain tire when new.

Yes, these:

https://i.ibb.co/r5GVgxF/R888R.jpg

I haven't driven on Corsas, so I can't comment. I can't imagine they'd be as loud as these things though.

Keep in mind that although my list of mods is getting lengthy, I'm still on a mostly stock exhaust. Stock manifolds, high flow cats, and stock mufflers, so my car isn't all that loud. That unfortunately means I hear nearly everything, or at least used to until the R888Rs. At highways speeds, it sounds like a wheel bearing going bad...I don't like spending my drives wondering if I have a problem or if it's just the tires.

[former345bhpLS1]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the advice! After considering your different experiences and my current driving; I think I'll stick with the Corsas. They have performed very well for me until fairly recently. For the past year, the rears grip about as well warm as they used to cold. Given the age, seems like new tires is the solution.

Best,

Nick

[Lawineer]

I am looking at new tires this summer, too. My NT-01's have 500 miles on them so they are like new and boy are they noisy, much like I hear with the R888R's. Luckily, that car is louder than the Viper so it sort of covers the sound but not all together.

If I can get some Corsas that have date codes within a year or so I will go with them but if it's true I hate to put 3+ year old tires on my car.

You got Nt01 in sizes for these cars? Different wheels?

If you think NT01 are loud, wait till you hear R888R.
They're just a completely inferior tire. Louder, less traction, slower around a track.

I dont get the infatuation with R888R. I couldn't stand them.

[Steve M]

You got Nt01 in sizes for these cars? Different wheels?

If you think NT01 are loud, wait till you hear R888R.
They're just a completely inferior tire. Louder, less traction, slower around a track.

I dont get the infatuation with R888R. I couldn't stand them.

I think he has them on his F-body Camaro.

[sharmut]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the advice! After considering your different experiences and my current driving; I think I'll stick with the Corsas. They have performed very well for me until fairly recently. For the past year, the rears grip about as well warm as they used to cold. Given the age, seems like new tires is the solution.

Best,

Nick

I use the CORSA on the TA and swap to R888Rs for track use for their lower cost. What I observed on-track between them, the CORSA is able to reach temp much faster than the R888Rs. Once up to temp they both seem to perform similarly in terms of dry performance. I recall several years back when I drove the R888Rs home after a track day and they were definitely loader on the road compared to the CORSA. It wasn't too bad really given the viper is loud to begin with.

[MoHaWk2003]

Has more than just a few people gotten and tried the Contis??? Looking to hear from more than just the 2 or 3 that got them on their Gen Vs...

[StrokerAce]

I think he has them on his F-body Camaro.


Yes, sir.

I wouldn't want NT-01's ona a DD Viper. Dangerous tires for daily work.

[Lawineer]

Yes, sir.

I wouldn't want NT-01's ona a DD Viper. Dangerous tires for daily work.

Lol, you daily your GTS? I figured that's what the Ram is for.

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

Since your topic is "New Conti vs Corsa" I invite your call / comparos

Have both in stock. [price diff of $400+ helps make up many minds.]

JonB@PartsRack.com

Thank You

[StrokerAce]

Lol, you daily your GTS? I figured that's what the Ram is for.

The Ram gets driven about the same as the Viper these days. It rains a lot here in FL and NT-01's get scary with even high humidity. lol I joke of course but any rain makes them sketchy at best.

[Dan Cragin]

Got caught in the rain on Toyo's once. It was not good.

[Whiskey]

If your car is stock or mild bolt-ons and you are willing to give up a small amount of corner carving in favor of excellent wet weather grip and a smooth ride with better than expected straight line grip. Look at the Nitto Invo.

It's my preferred "daily driver" tire on my "mostly daily driven Gen5". I personally love them. They gripped just as good or better than the P-Zero (non corsa) in the corners but WAY better in a straight line. They ride smooth, silent and you are able to drive with 1 hand on the wheel no matter how ugly the road surface is. Heavy rain...standing water....forge a creek in these things they are fine.

[chris_lee]

This thread seems like a good spot to drop my recent impressions of the new Continental Extreme Contact Sport. First off… HUGE THANKS to JonB (JonB@PartsRack.com) for the best price and fast shipping! Great guy to work with. To keep this honest I should start off with what I was looking for out of these tires. I needed a street tire for weekend spirited driving, random trips to work, and to ride well on our crap-tastic Houston roads. I originally wanted a more track focused tire but had to be honest with myself about how I was using the car. The Pzero Corsa tires these replaced had a production date of mid 2013 so it’s not fair to make a direct comparison. I have a 2014 base SRT and since I’ve owned the car “3+ years” the ride has been very harsh. I’ve also noticed the car tramlining and darting pretty bad on some surfaces. Until the tires began to age out, those were my only real complaints. Grip and steering response felt great.

I just got finished putting about 400 miles on these tires and so far, I’m VERY happy with the Contis. I have a cobble stone exit to my neighborhood that has always felt jarring and rough and I could instantly feel the difference. I don’t have the ability to change ride modes on the base SRT but, that is how I would describe it. It feels like I changed the car from Track to Sport. For a weekend fun car, this difference in comfort was well worth the slight lack of instant steering response. My wife noticed the difference almost immediately in the passenger seat. Road divider markers are no longer harsh and make more of a nice “thump” sound vs a “pop”. That could have been a symptom of the Corsas being old, but it made the car ride like shit and not daily drivable.

As far as grip, I’ve pushed 2nd gear pretty damn hard and had zero wheel spin. 2nd to 3rd felt super solid. One thing I really like about a true street tire is how they perform cold. Most of my drives are pretty short and I’ve gotten into trouble with a lead foot on cold track focused tires. I feel like the tire is plenty grabby even when cold and I think they have come a long way with this improved compound. I don’t launch the car so can’t report much on how they are from a dig. In parking garages I’ve also noticed the tires to not stutter or skip when taking a super sharp turn at a slow speed. From the other reviews I've seen these tires are said to be fantastic in the rain but I hope to never test this out. Living in Houston, rain is always possible so it's nice to not have to think about that.

Fitment is nice and meaty. I don’t like the look the tire/sidewall and rim being flush. I like the rim to sit inside from the sidewall a good bit. I’ve tried to include some pics to show this, but the rim protection and overall “beefiness” of the tire looks great on the Viper. Vette guys don’t like the rounded look of the tire but IMO it looks perfect on the Viper.

Side note: I'm fully aware that the tires being brand new are going to feel great in comparison to aged out tires. I was happy with fresh Corsas but for street use only and improved ride quality for less money... these are hard to beat. I'll report back after about 2500 miles and see how they are holding up.

Cliff notes: I like the tires.

Here are some pics as I know some people "like me" are picky about the looks of a tire. If you need tires installed in Houston let me know. I finally found my tire guy, and he is fully mobile! Not a single mark on the wheels :-)

47337
47338
47339
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[chris_lee]

This mobile installer rig was pretty damn sweet! Takes his time and for the first time my rims were unscratched by an installer.
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[Bruce H.]

I've got 10 Corsa tires on order for delivery in about a month. Lost track of how many of these I've gone through but one previous order was for 11.

If you road trip anywhere and everywhere, in all road conditions, and then track until your left knee is raw from rubbing on the door grill, then this could be the tire for you too. I have the Pilot Sport Cup 2's on the 911, and they seem excellent as well, but in the wet I still prefer the Corsa for grip and front tire feedback as you approach the limits of adhesion. Could be the difference in cars but for such a wide tire the Corsa is very communicative, and brilliant in the wet, particularly important if you track rain or shine.

Not a lot of this applies to a street only driven Viper, but I will say the Corsa with decent tread give an impressive street ride on the TA, but wouldn't be as smooth on the base SRT that doesn't have the dual mode dampers which rides noticeably harsher.

[Lawineer]

I've got 10 Corsa tires on order for delivery in about a month. Lost track of how many of these I've gone through but one previous order was for 11.

If you road trip anywhere and everywhere, in all road conditions, and then track until your left knee is raw from rubbing on the door grill, then this could be the tire for you too. I have the Pilot Sport Cup 2's on the 911, and they seem excellent as well, but in the wet I still prefer the Corsa for grip and front tire feedback as you approach the limits of adhesion. Could be the difference in cars but for such a wide tire the Corsa is very communicative, and brilliant in the wet, particularly important if you track rain or shine.

Not a lot of this applies to a street only driven Viper, but I will say the Corsa with decent tread give an impressive street ride on the TA, but wouldn't be as smooth on the base SRT that doesn't have the dual mode dampers which rides noticeably harsher.

I got mine from simple tire in 3 days. $1600 shipped

[viperBase1]

Cliff notes: I like the tires.

Here are some pics as I know some people "like me" are picky about the looks of a tire. If you need tires installed in Houston let me know. I finally found my tire guy, and he is fully mobile! Not a single mark on the wheels :-)

47338
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Good deal Chris ..glad to hear the Conti's are working out for you. 355's are monsters!
I won't hesitate to put 'em on my GenIV.

Couple weeks ago I did a mountain road run with plenty of twisties and in all imaginable weather conditions (sans snow).
They held up fantastically and never let loose ..n' at times I was doing things that were less than smart .
IMO they're a good looking tire.
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[Bruce H.]

I got mine from simple tire in 3 days. $1600 shipped

That sounds like a good price. I'm holding off delivery a bit waiting for warmer temps.

Hopefully everyone will support our VOA sponsors like Jon B at Parts Rack whenever they can.

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

That sounds like a good price. I'm holding off delivery a bit waiting for warmer temps.

Hopefully everyone will support our VOA sponsors like Jon B at Parts Rack whenever they can.

Bless you. And Chris Lee too.

Everyone LOVES this forum, but it is PAYING VENDORS who bring you the site....not Simpleton tire, Flea-Bay, privateer non-sponsor sellers, etc. If they dont support this site, or know anything about Vipers... can you afford to ignore sponsors?

Please, help-keep your Viper Sponsor-Vendors in business? at least A couple are hurting. You may "need" something and they could be GONE.

[PkB2014]

I've got 10 Corsa tires on order for delivery in about a month. Lost track of how many of these I've gone through but one previous order was for 11.

If you road trip anywhere and everywhere, in all road conditions, and then track until your left knee is raw from rubbing on the door grill, then this could be the tire for you too. I have the Pilot Sport Cup 2's on the 911, and they seem excellent as well, but in the wet I still prefer the Corsa for grip and front tire feedback as you approach the limits of adhesion. Could be the difference in cars but for such a wide tire the Corsa is very communicative, and brilliant in the wet, particularly important if you track rain or shine.

Not a lot of this applies to a street only driven Viper, but I will say the Corsa with decent tread give an impressive street ride on the TA, but wouldn't be as smooth on the base SRT that doesn't have the dual mode dampers which rides noticeably harsher.

Oh man, that left knee kills me for a week after. Good to know I'm not the only one with this problem. I thought about putting a knee pad or something on like i'm in the old school NBA. :)

[Bruce H.]

Oh man, that left knee kills me for a week after. Good to know I'm not the only one with this problem. I thought about putting a knee pad or something on like i'm in the old school NBA. :)

Battle wounds...and knowing you fought well!

Cheers

[RT SERPENT]

Battle wounds...and knowing you fought well!

Cheers
Haha! I found my Gen2 was the worst for this! The speaker grill in the door was like a cheese grater on the side of my knee. lol:stickmen_burningsti

[former345bhpLS1]

Hopefully everyone will support our VOA sponsors like Jon B at Parts Rack whenever they can.

Yes, agreed! I ordered my new Corsas from JonB.

I try to support Viper vendors whenever I can, but in this case it was also self-serving since Jon had the best prices by several hundred dollars total. He also had tires available more than a month (!) earlier than other sources. My front tires are already in and the rears will arrive tomorrow.

I also really enjoyed my phone call with Jon as he educated me a bit more about the issues of tire aging in the warehouse vs mounted on the vehicle. Definitely my preferred source for Viper parts. :)

-Nick

[VRYALT3R3D]

Have you driven on the latest R888R series, they are as good or better than the corsa's for every day driving. Personally I think they run smoother. I have had them out in the rain and did not have any issues, however, I never hit standing water. On the other hand, the corsa's are an excellent rain tire when new.

The R888Rs are such an old tire design. There have been so much advancement since. It is a shame there isn't anything better in Viper sizes

[SRT_BluByU]

I thought the R888R is newer and the R888 (or something) was the older design? Either way.. happy to have options.. but sure do like the Corsas.

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

I thought the R888R is newer, and the R888...was the older design? Either way.. happy to have options.. but sure do like the Corsas.


CORRECT. And significantly different / improved.

[Lawineer]

I thought the R888R is newer and the R888 (or something) was the older design? Either way.. happy to have options.. but sure do like the Corsas.

It's just a little bit different tread pattern, not much in the way of compound.

They're loud AF when worn even 50% and don't have that much grip (by today's standards). It's probably because 1/4 of their darn profile is tread voids so they look cool. They are the most pressure fickle tire I've ever dealt with.

I wasn't any faster on R888R than Michelin Super Sports- and MPSS were way better in rain, lasted way longer, weren't as fickle and they were relatively quiet too. They did overheat for track use a lot quicker though.


Here is a profile picture
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Then cut for 1 repeated section.

Look how much is a void (red) vs black (sorry, ignore new tire stripes). I bet its' between 25 and 33% of the darn tire. And one half of the voids are facing the wrong darn direction. Look at the Rain Slicks below. Push water to OUTSIDE of tire, not into the middle, lol.

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Plus, look at the freaking side of the voids. Why does anyone think this is for anything but the look? Look at any other performance tire- MPSS, Cup2, Corsa, Wets for racing, etc- what tire has those GIANT voids? They have small, fine voids. ESPECIALLY on the outsides.

Rain slicks
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Cup2
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Kumho ACR
https://d2raphc8m6em86.cloudfront.net/10690/conversions/kumho-ecsta-v720-large.jpg

[Whiskey]

I like the look of those rain slicks...how can I get them and can I get some that would fit a Viper. Have to grip like a like mad in the dry.

[Lawineer]

I like the look of those rain slicks...how can I get them and can I get some that would fit a Viper. Have to grip like a like mad in the dry.

lol why would you run a wet slick in the dry? You'll destroy it in like one lap. Just get a dry slick.

[JD03Cobra]

I like the look of those rain slicks...how can I get them and can I get some that would fit a Viper. Have to grip like a like mad in the dry.

One year I ran snow tires on my CTS-V (600whp). Shocked how well it hooked in the spring...had a hard time taking them off lol.