Best Winter Tires for BRZ?
 

Hey this is my first winter with my car. I'm in Newfoundland, Canada. Trying to figure out a good set of winter tires for the car as this is my first RWD car I've had to drive in the winter. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

Hakka R2.

What sizes can I get away with on my stock rims?

Just stick with the stock size.

I've yet to buy them but I'm getting the general altimax, they go for $460 for the whole set on tire rack which is a great price and they have great reviews, I've even seen a vid on YouTube of a guy using them on his brz with tcs off and the worked seamlessly

I've seen a vid of people rolling on wooden block w/o issues, doesn't mean you should.

Altimaxes are cheap and probably okay in terms of value for $$. But if someone wants the best grip, they aren't up to snuff relative the newest offerings from Conti/Michelin/Nokian/Bridgestone.

Altimax are best value if all you need is to get to work safely and will be driving like a granny.

Dunlop Winter Sport M3
Anyone know if they are good?

Yes they are. There is also the 3D and 4D which are, I believe, the higher bare road performance winter tires from Dunlop.

I prefer Continental, Michelin, Nokian and Pirelli but Dunlop also make very good winter tires

And Pirelli, the Sottozero is an excellent bare road winter tire with adequate winter performance.

Make sure you assess your likely winter road conditions in your area and, very important, honestly assess your winter driving skills. The less winter driving you do the more you need the really grippy winter tires. Also, if you are a good track driver you will find mastering winter driving a breeze so in that case go for Pirelli or the new Michelin PA4 and enjoy the handling.

3D are very decent for cold winter and precipitation. Light snow/slush as well. On the WRX they swallowed 10" of snow with ease, though I attribute that to the drivetrain. I don't need spikes and such, but up in Canadia I hear your winters are crazy. Might want some Blizzaks or Nokians.

I have Bridgestone Blizzak WS70's on stock wheels in stock size on my FR-S and man are they grippy. I was honestly surprised by how safe I feel, even with flat out flooring the car in heavy snow. They feel a little weird on dry roads at first, but you get used to it quickly. Plus they're not so outrageously grippy that you can't have any fun if you choose to, because they do let me take out the rear end when I feel the need to. :burnrubber:

I enjoyed last winter on Xi3s. Less grip in the dry to slip the rear end when wanted, but adequate grip nonetheless. Like .85g on OEM Michelins in the gry cold asphalt vs .75g-.8g on Xi3s. And a ton of grip in snow/ice.

Altimaxes/M3s are a decade-old technology, I'd avoid it. But those are still probably better tires for winter conditions than most current A/S tires.

+1 for Blizzaks

Blizzak LM60's on stock wheels in stock size. I used them last year and will put them back on the car this weekend.

They don't use the same soft multi-cell compound as the WS70's but still have a tread pattern with sipes designed to provide winter performance driving. It was a compromise I made between having decent dry performance during the winter months, and still being able to have control when it snows. The ice and snow performance is not as good as the WS70, but it also remains as a true winter tire even after the tread wears out, whereas the WS70 turns into an "all season" tire after the compound wears down past 50%.

Bottom line - WS series is better on ice/snow, squirrely on dry, LM is better on dry, but doesn't have the multi-cell bite that the WS has on ice/snow. Tread is considered a winter tread throughout its service life on the LM, and half its service life on the WS. Both are designed to operate below 40 degrees.

I'm in lower New York where we don't have to deal with too much deep snow and ice for prolonged periods of time, so the LM made sense to me. If I were to be driving further up north where packed snow and ice can accumulate for more than a day, I'd go with the WS.

If you folks dont know what a proper NFLD snowfall is like, think more big fuck off knobby tires, studded and wrapped in chains.

First snowfall he wont be able to find the damn car anyway.

Ah, so then Mattracks then! http://www.mattracks.com/

I was joking, but after further Google Fu, I found this Subaru:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHM9bh-qlec"]American Track Truck -- Subaru Impreza WRX -- stock 2.0 liter engine -- DOMINATORâ„¢ Tracks -- WOW! - YouTube[/ame]

Anyone who says they wouldn't want this is clearly going to be lying to themselves. That would just be incredible amounts of fun!

Absolutely, though I like this one better :D

[ame]http://youtu.be/nTDNLUzjkpg[/ame]

Cornering g is too low, acceleration and braking awesome!