all season high performance or winter performance tires?
 

Well I'll be getting my brz soon and i'm assuming they're going to be including the summer tires and since winter will be coming shortly, can't decide which one would be better. I know NYC sometimes is a hit or miss for the snow and I may need to drive to work during the snowy days, but I don't really want dedicated winter performance due to his mediocre handling in dry pavement so any suggestions? and does 16 make a big difference compared to 17?

Winter tires are what you really want, regardless of snow or not. Winter rubber is designed/engineered to be softer at lower temperatures. Summer rubber hardens up once you get to the mid to lower 40's.

All seasons are great if you are on a budget and want to have a tire on all year, but are not great at both summer or winter performance. THe phrase, "Jack of all trades, but master of none" is applicable here. If you live somewhere where snow only happens once in a blue moon, and your average winter temp is in the mid-40's, then by all means get all-seasons.

The only other issue I've ran into, personally, is the lack of a lower price tire in the stock size. I've heard that the smaller sized tire/wheel combo helps "cut" through the snow. I'm not sure I believe that 100%.

Even if you disregard the inherent benefit of handling in the snow, winter performance tires will still work better in cold temps than all seasons, even on dry pavement.

Very good advise so far. Make sure you go with 4 which should be obvious. The front tires will help stop the car. Mixing a snow tire with an all season or performance tire would be like wearing sandals on one foot and a snow boot on the other. Stay narrow and not wider. Think of a snow shoe. It's wide and sits up on top of the snow. Keep in mind a tire is a compromise. As others have stated an all season can be looked at as a tire that does everything well or a tire that does nothing well. I believe the latter to be true. A good winter tire can be the difference between wrecking your car or keeping yourself and others safe. It's cheap insurance.

http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=1...kapeliitta%20R

basically this will be 100% insurance for winter temps. i wish i could afford them though lol.

I would say get a good set of snow tires and run those until it gets warm. Then run the stock tires until you can afford some nice summer tires

great dvice so far.

the key thing to remember is that all season are just that, average at best in every season.

because the BRZ is so light and not awd you actually want a softer compound liek a studless snow tire offers for more grip. just dont get something with a super low speed rating and then highway driving will be fine. i went with blizzak WS70 and will post up when they are on.

basically even if you dont get snow you want a compound that wont turn into a hockey puck when the temps drop. also its not only the dry and snow you have to worry about but in winter there are a lot of wet and 'awkward' condition days you know? you want something that will make good contact with the road, summer tires and some all seasons do not get warm enough in super cold days thus they remain hard and its actually pretty dangerous for a car that is as light and rwd like the brz. winter compound is much softer and those ridges that give you great traction in low speed actually close up at highway speeds.

NOTHING will beat a dedicated winter and a dedicated summer setup. not only is it more cost effective in the long run, but your car will perform better.

here are tires you should consider.

Nokian hakkapalita (or however you spell it)
Nokian WRg2 (if you are REALLY set on all seasons)
Blizzak ws70
dunlop wintersport 3m or pirelli sottozero II (i had both on my sti and they are more performance orriented so not as soft as studless snows)

if you want something really cheap General altimax but these are pretty soft so at 70+ you feel like you're floating but the snow grip is amazing.

i bought my old STi in december. the week i got it we got snow and my snow tires didn't arrive yet. it had BRAND NEW summer tires needles to say even with awd and the ability to lock differentials AND me starting off in 2nd that car would lack too much grip for me to be able to feel safe driving it. any throttle input and it broke loose. just some first hand knowledge...

yeah my buddy has KDW's on his 04 sti and last winter he left my house as it was just starting to snow out barely anything on the road , he went around a turn slowly and it lost control and slowly slid into the only car parked on the side of the road for no reason the guy should have parked in his driveway and didnt stupid *facepalm* so he had a crushed in rear 1/4 panel thank god insurance claimed it as no fault since the asshole parked his car on the side of the road rather than in his driveway

I would add Continental ExtereWinterContact to this list. Amazing tires - I had them on STI for 2 winters. Same performance as Blizzak WS tires but more civil in everyday snow free driving. I went with Michelin X-Ice Xi3 this time to try them out after reading all good reviews about Xi2s. will report once I get some driving done with them.

+1 for x-ice3's. Driving home today from work in the snow wasnt a problem at all. Everyone was driving ass slow on the highway, so I just kept a safe distance behind the vehicle in front just in case they couldn't stop. 90 degree turns at a stoplight on an incline weren't an issue at all. Even did some swerving back and forth just at ~30 mph to get a feel for them in the snow and very little slipping.

When I got back home there is a small parking lot (no snow accumulation but wet) where I turned tcs off, just did a quick whap on the throttle coming out of a turn and it caught surprisingly very quick.

As others have mentioned above, summer tires should not be driven in the winter. I would highly recommend a dedicated set for summer/winter especially since this is a rwd car. Question really comes down to do you have room to store an extra set and is budget an issue?

:word:

Couldn't agree more. If you're going to driving in the winter, you need a dedicated winter tire setup. The summer tires will not cut it. Barely had traction over 25 on a slightly snow covered road. Now that the tires are on, going 50mph in slush felt like it was rain on the road.

I run these on my Forester (now on the fourth winter) and love them. Nokian markets them as "all weather" tires since they can be run year 'round, but they do get the severe service mountain/snowflake emblem like a true snow tire gets. IMO, this makes them perfect for the NYC area.

http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=1...me=Nokian+WRG2

http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...jsp?techid=125

http://www.nokiantires.com/faq

-Dennis

This is just a complete myth. In cold dry and wet conditions a high performance all season will outperform a snow tire. The snow tire will outperform in the snow.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20209

i hear a lot about Blizzak WS70, but what about Blizzak LM-60? anybody have experience with this?