I drive a little... agressively so my reviews might be a little slanted towards the performance aspect.
The stock ContiSport Contacts only lasted me about 20,000 miles with 1 autocross. The autocross really took it's toll on the tires at around 8k miles. Granted I was scrubbing the tires a bit, but it was just too much fun to plow into a corner and use the e-brake to get the back end around a corner. By 25k miles the tires were down below the wear bars and starting to cup.
The Conti's were not bad tires... just not what I want in a tire. They didn't impress me in either wet or dry traction and with the hard driving they tore and wore quickly.
At about 25k miles I replaced the 16" Conti's with 18" Dunlop SP01's courtesy of a new GLI which also upgraded.
I was actually pretty impressed with the Conti's. They held up much better to abuse than the Conti's (which was expected) but the traction was much much improved. They were better in both the wet and the dry and of course the additional sidewall stiffness was much appreciated. The picture below is right after the "Fastivus" event at Willow Springs. The Dunlops lasted me around 35k miles before becoming slicks. Not bad!
These tires would benefit from a heavier shoulder lug to reduce the tearing and chunking at the edges.
At 60k miles I replaced the Dunlops with some cheaper tires, GTRadial Champiro UHP1's. WOW, just WOW!!! They are almost as good as the Direzza Star Specs I am running on my track car! They grip like stink and don't get greasy when they get hot, which the Dunlops would do eventually.
Because they are a summer performance tire I was not expecting great tire wear. I am currently at around 73k miles and expect to replace these before I reach 80k miles... but the shoulders are not all torn up and they went through a pretty torturous run at Fontana at Fastivus 2015. If you notice in the picture, the wear is very uniform and there is no sign of chunking or tearing of the lugs. This is really a great, CHEAP tire. I already have a 2nd set in the garage because my local Discount Tire Manager said they were discontinuing the tire
. While I don't drive a lot in the rain, when I did the UHP1's kept me going in the direction I wanted to the whole time, even through deeper water.