Continental ContiSportAttack 5 Race Track Test

The ContiSportAttack 5 comes with a clear promise: more sportiness than its predecessor, without sacrificing its road manners. Continental positions it as an 80/20 tire — mostly for the road, but with enough reserves for ambitious track days. Whether this concept actually works is something we checked where such claims are confirmed or disproven fastest: at the Pannoniaring. Our test bike was a KTM 1390 Super Duke R EVO — a bike whose roughly 145 Nm of torque mercilessly challenges any rear tire. With asphalt temperatures reaching up to 50 degrees, conditions pushed both rider and material to their limits alike.

The ContiSportAttack 4 was already an unmistakably sporty road tire. With the fifth generation, though, Continental has stepped things up in several crucial areas. The centerpiece is the new MultiZoneBelt technology. The differently wound steel belt provides high stability in the center of the tire and a larger contact patch in the shoulder area. Together with the new BlackChili compound and a reworked tread pattern, the tire is meant to work more homogeneously and inspire more confidence, especially at maximum lean angle.

What's interesting here is Conti's approach to the rubber compound. While many competitors use different compounds across the tire's cross-section, Continental continues to rely on a single compound. According to the manufacturer, this is meant to work optimally in every area, both on twisty roads and on the race track.

A major plus point was already evident in the first laps. We deliberately rode without tire warmers. With air temperatures of nearly 30 degrees and asphalt already at 35 to 40 degrees, it admittedly doesn't take long for the tire to get up to temperature anyway, but it's still striking how quickly the Conti builds confidence.

The TractionSkin surface also contributes to this. Since there's no classic release agent on the tread, the tire delivers surprisingly high grip from the very first corners. Naturally, you approach the first few meters with a bit of respect, but there were no unpleasant surprises. Very early on, you can already get properly on the gas. Still, the tire only reaches its full grip level once it's fully up to temperature.

We started with 2.5 bar front and 2.5 bar rear. Due to the enormous heat, however, the rear tire pressure rose to around 3.2 to 3.3 bar over the course of the sessions — an increase of up to 0.7 bar. That's remarkable under these conditions.

What was truly remarkable, though, was something else: the Conti still works astonishingly well even at this high pressure. Even at around 3.5 bar on the rear, the tire remains rideable and still delivers clean feedback. This is exactly where it differs from some competitors, which already lose noticeably in performance at such high pressures. For track days, this also means: dropping tire pressure extremely low doesn't necessarily bring any advantages with the Conti.

The KTM 1390 Super Duke R EVO in particular is an outstanding test platform. Its enormous torque puts massive stress on the rear tire, and we rode with rider aids either heavily reduced or switched off entirely. The goal was to put as much engine power as possible directly onto the asphalt and let the tire do the work.

This is exactly where the ContiSportAttack 5 impressed. Even when the KTM sends its full torque toward the rear wheel, the tire builds up plenty of traction and converts the power cleanly into forward drive. Especially when accelerating out of corners, it becomes clear that there are enough reserves to ride sportily even on a powerful naked bike.

Things got particularly interesting in the afternoon. A complete session without any breaks was meant to deliberately push the tire to its stress limit. The tread pattern remained impressively clean. Even at asphalt temperatures of around 50 degrees, the tire showed no tearing or thermal damage.

Only after five to six fast laps does the behavior begin to change slightly. At maximum lean angle, the rear tire becomes a bit softer and slightly greasy. However, this "squishy" feeling remains controllable at all times. As soon as the bike is stood up even slightly and more load comes back onto the rear tire, it immediately builds up strong forward drive again. For a road-legal tire, this behavior is on an exceptionally high level.

A similar picture emerges up front. Under hard trail braking over bumps or at corner entry, the tire moves around slightly under extreme load. It then feels minimally soft and conveys that slightly squishy sensation.

It's important to put this into perspective, though. These impressions occur at very fast lap times, on a bike that isn't itself considered a textbook example of absolute high-speed stability. That's precisely why the KTM was such a great fit for assessing the tire's feedback and stability. The basic setup remains stable at all times; it's only under extreme thermal stress that the tire becomes somewhat softer.

Of course, a slick reaches an even higher performance level under such conditions. That's what it was developed for, after all. What's impressive, though, is how close the ContiSportAttack 5 gets to that territory while remaining fully street-legal.

This is exactly where its greatest strength lies. You can ride to the race track on your own wheels in the morning, complete fast sessions there without tire warmers, and then roll back home again with license plates on. For the typical track day rider, this means an enormous gain in convenience, since changing tires or carrying extra wheel sets often becomes unnecessary.