Snow Tires

[Rossman]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Having driven through a winter with mine already, you might want to re-think your choice. The dry grip difference between a ice/snow tire vs a performance snow is quite minimal, but the grip difference in actual snow is much bigger. You'll also want a narrower tire for snows, too wide of a tire will just float on top of snow and not give you any real bite.

As for the Torsen diff, that's not going to magically give you a ton of traction, I had a couple days where I could barely get up a small incline with ice/snow tires when the snow was really wet and packed down into almost ice easily.

At the end of the day these are light RWD cars that don't have a ton of weight on the back tires, they need good ice/snow tires if you plan to drive it on anything but dry/wet pavement.

I found that with good snow tires this car was extremely sure-footed...

[wparsons]

When moving, or when trying to get moving from a dead stop on an incline? I had zero stability issues with mine, but I did have big trouble getting up a tiny incline in a relatives driveway one day when the snow was packing to almost ice by compressing it.

I could let the clutch out very slowly without touching the gas and get out of the car to watch the rear tires spin in place.

By comparison, their 993 911 had zero issues with the exact same incline just minutes later. Both RWD, both on snows, 911 just has a lot more weight on the rear tires.

[Enemies]

So, last year I got myself an incredibly ugly set of steel wheels and would like to cover them up this winter. Anybody have any recommendations for things that look relatively slick considering the situation? :P

[khan]

Originally Posted by tinma

Im on the hunt for winter tires to put onto my stock rims. Right now im stuck between the two choices... Either Bridgestone Blizzak or Goodyear Ultra Grip. The place that I am planning on buying my tires from say that they basically have the same stats, but im mainly paying for the name with the blizzak. Anyone have experience with the Ultra Grip? Ive been a lot of reviews with the blizzak's on this thread, but nothing with Ultra Grip

I would be interested in knowing more about the Ultra Grips too. Could you find anything out yet?

[chanomatik]

Originally Posted by Enemies

So, last year I got myself an incredibly ugly set of steel wheels and would like to cover them up this winter. Anybody have any recommendations for things that look relatively slick considering the situation? :P

I had some really bad ones last year too.


So I painted them!

[FLYFISHR]

Check PCTIRE out of Quebec they have rating on all the brands of tires. It's the reason I went with the Yokahma's as they rated better that the blizzak's for about $50 less.

Originally Posted by tinma

Im on the hunt for winter tires to put onto my stock rims. Right now im stuck between the two choices... Either Bridgestone Blizzak or Goodyear Ultra Grip. The place that I am planning on buying my tires from say that they basically have the same stats, but im mainly paying for the name with the blizzak. Anyone have experience with the Ultra Grip? Ive been a lot of reviews with the blizzak's on this thread, but nothing with Ultra Grip

[Zook@SimplyTire]

Originally Posted by tinma

Im on the hunt for winter tires to put onto my stock rims. Right now im stuck between the two choices... Either Bridgestone Blizzak or Goodyear Ultra Grip. The place that I am planning on buying my tires from say that they basically have the same stats, but im mainly paying for the name with the blizzak. Anyone have experience with the Ultra Grip? Ive been a lot of reviews with the blizzak's on this thread, but nothing with Ultra Grip

Blizzak are ranked higher than Ultra Grip on the consumer report

Ultra Grip are what my customers call "Squishy" in the corners and their Mascot is a Blimp lol :P

However Michelin X-Ice Xi3 is ranked #1 for 3 (Xi & Xi2) years in a row, i guess next year will be a Xi4

[tinma]

Originally Posted by Zook@SimplyTire

Blizzak are ranked higher than Ultra Grip on the consumer report

Ultra Grip are what my customers call "Squishy" in the corners and their Mascot is a Blimp lol :P

However Michelin X-Ice Xi3 is ranked #1 for 3 (Xi & Xi2) years in a row, i guess next year will be a Xi4

Ahhh damn. Just bought the ultra grip yesterday... Oh well we will c how it holds up!

EDIT:
Put my snow tires on today... Road noise isn't bad and the driving is pretty good. Gonna have to baby these wheels for a while before the snow drops... If I notice n e thing that I don't like about these wheels I will update this thread

[Bringiton]

Anyone have an experience with Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2?

I'm thinking of throwing a set of 205/50R17 93R XL on the stock rims for the winter. Haven't made up my mind yet tho.

[that_guy]

I ran Conti ExtremeWinterContacts in 205/55R16 last winter without a hitch. Even made it to work and back during "SNOWmageddon" which crippled the city in over a foot of snow.

Winter driving comes down to 2 things: the right tire and knowledge behind the wheel. No tire will make you invincible, but they are a good start.

[Suberman]

Originally Posted by Enemies

So, last year I got myself an incredibly ugly set of steel wheels and would like to cover them up this winter. Anybody have any recommendations for things that look relatively slick considering the situation? :P

You'll find the cheaper Chinese alloy wheels are cheaper than a set of steelies and plastic wheel covers.

I gave up on steelies years ago and just bite the bullet for a set of alloys for winter use. Then again, winter starts in October and isn't over until September out here.....

[Suberman]

Originally Posted by Bringiton

Anyone have an experience with Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2?

I'm thinking of throwing a set of 205/50R17 93R XL on the stock rims for the winter. Haven't made up my mind yet tho.

Nokian still make one of the best. However, Continental are nearly as good in snow and better when the roads are bare. For experienced Canadian drivers in a car like this you should consider fitting high performance winter tires. You give up so much grip on bare roads to get ultimate snow and ice grip when you get true studless winter tires. Although the studless will stop you a bit shorter in really bad conditions they will brake much less effectively on bare roads than higher performance winter tires. I go for max performance winter tires and drive accordingly. Traction won't be an issue with these cars in winter: Torsen LSD rear axle is all you will need.

I fit 225/45 x17 Pirelli Sottozeros on stock rims. Dry road handling is a hoot, more stable than those awful Primacys.

Don't fit even narrower tires for winter. The stock width is already too narrow.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by that_guy

I ran Conti ExtremeWinterContacts in 205/55R16 last winter without a hitch. Even made it to work and back during "SNOWmageddon" which crippled the city in over a foot of snow.

Winter driving comes down to 2 things: the right tire and knowledge behind the wheel. No tire will make you invincible, but they are a good start.

Snowmageddon is the only day I got stock last winter, but it was my own fault for trying to drive through about 10" of unplowed snow in a parking lot. My old jetta would plow snow out of the way, but the FRS just floats up on top of the snow (the bumper shape and flat under pan see to this!). As long as there was less snow than ground clearance I didn't get stuck, but there was a day at a relative's house where I had a hell of a time getting up a VERY slight incline with very wet snow that packed into almost ice when you drove over it. Even their S4 was struggling a bit though, so I know it was BAD.

Originally Posted by Suberman

Nokian still make one of the best. However, Continental are nearly as good in snow and better when the roads are bare. For experienced Canadian drivers in a car like this you should consider fitting high performance winter tires. You give up so much grip on bare roads to get ultimate snow and ice grip when you get true studless winter tires. Although the studless will stop you a bit shorter in really bad conditions they will brake much less effectively on bare roads than higher performance winter tires. I go for max performance winter tires and drive accordingly. Traction won't be an issue with these cars in winter: Torsen LSD rear axle is all you will need.

I fit 225/45 x17 Pirelli Sottozeros on stock rims. Dry road handling is a hoot, more stable than those awful Primacys.

Don't fit even narrower tires for winter. The stock width is already too narrow.

We've been through this already, but it still bugs me.

"Performance" snows are barely better on dry pavement, and way worse in snow/ice. There's also so much crap on the roads in the winter (salt, sand, etc) that you rarely ever get clean pavement. If it's a second car, you're fine with performance snows, but if it's your only car and you don't want to be stranded when there's snow on the road get proper snow/ice tires.

You definitely want narrower tires, going to a 225 is a big mistake IMO. My 205 snows are actually wider than the stock 215's (which measure more like a 195 in reality). There's simply no sound argument for going with a wider winter tire.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPu9lR0Egeg"]Tire Rack - Choosing Between Performance Winter and Studless Ice and Snow Winter Tires - YouTube[/ame]

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=125

Notice that on dry pavement the ice/snow actually stopped shorter, it's only in the wet that the performance snow stopped shorter.

For me it's a no brainer, I need to drive when there's snow so why compromise that? The car is still fun with studless ice/snows, unless you're racing on dry pavement in the winter that's the smart choice.

[Suberman]

Bridgestone winter tires aren't very good. I'd be interested to know what ambient temperatures tire rack tested those two bridgestone winters in dry braking.

Regardless, no Bridgestone winter tire will ever get onto my cars, they are hopeless winter tires sold with marketing hype to customers who don't know any better.

As for tire width it seems you just argued against yourself there.