There's generally a $$ difference too, You pay a premium for the michellins. the reason they perform so consistently is because they are dual layer, you effectively have two different layers of tread compound so they can engineer the compound of the outer layer for when it has lots of tread and then the inner layer for when the tyre has less tread so you don't get as much drop off in performance. Basically every other brand tyre has that drop in performance as they wear out, it just is what it is. That's excluding the fact the super sports aren't really a direct competitor for the sport contact 3, they have different intended markets, ones a sporty family sedan tyre and the others not far removed from a semi slick, the extreme contact is aimed at the super sport/pilot sport 4s market and as far as testing I have seen goes, performance is very similar but at 3/4 the price.