Continental VikingContact 8 vs Michelin X Ice Snow

The Continental VikingContact 8 is the more complete winter package. It pairs excellent snow and ice handling with class-leading rolling efficiency, low noise, and very solid dry/wet control. It also showed a meaningful step forward in aquaplaning resistance versus its predecessor, helping it secure two clear test wins. In real-world terms, it delivers confidence across mixed winter days-from slush and rain to packed snow and urban ice-while keeping fuel use and cabin noise down.

The Michelin X-Ice Snow counters with very strong straight-line stopping and traction on ice and wet surfaces and stable high-speed manners. However, several tests flagged lower cornering grip, slower transient response, and variable aquaplaning and wet-braking results, which limit its overall ranking. Choose it if you prioritize ice braking/traction and calm, linear steering; pick the Continental if you want the best all-rounder with better efficiency, quieter ride, and more composed handling in varied winter conditions.

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Footnote

This page has been developed using tyre industry testing best practices. This means we are only comparing tests which have had both tyres in the same test.

Why is this important? Tyre testing is heavily affected by things like surface grip levels and surface temperature, which means you can only compare values from the same day. During a tyre test external condition changes are calculated into the overall results, but it is not possible to calculate this between tyre tests performed on different days or at different locations.

As a result you will see other tests on Tyre Reviews which feature both the %s and %s, but as they weren't conducted on the same day, the results are not comparable.

Lots of other websites do this sort of tyre comparison, Tyre Reviews doesn't.