Dr. Hess wrote: I can now guarantee that as soon as I find some wheels and get these things all mounted up, we will not have another flake of snow or any ice for the rest of the year.
Think you got something there. After I bought a two-stage snow blower for $750 it didn't snow for two years.
Dr. Hess wrote: I was talking to my friend in Toronto once. I told him we had 6" of snow on the ground. He said: "We call that 'a dusting.'"
Six inches of snow won't paralyze Toronto the way it would a more southerly city, but I wouldn't characterize as a dusting either. I lived there and the city has its fair share of incompetent drivers.
I also learned that playing in the snow on these is even more fun. Scandinavian flick this thing and you can actaully pull out of a 70+* slide with the gas because the front tires can actually bite. It was awesome. Also, this engine, bouncing at the reve limiter between large buildings is glorious.
DeadSkunk wrote:Dr. Hess wrote: I was talking to my friend in Toronto once. I told him we had 6" of snow on the ground. He said: "We call that 'a dusting.'"Six inches of snow won't paralyze Toronto the way it would a more southerly city, but I wouldn't characterize as a dusting either. I lived there and the city has its fair share of incompetent drivers.
I'd vote for more than "fair share", but snow in Toronto is common enough that they can function halfway normal.
Bobzilla wrote: I also learned that playing in the snow on these is even more fun. Scandinavian flick this thing and you can actaully pull out of a 70+* slide with the gas because the front tires can actually bite. It was awesome. Also, this engine, bouncing at the reve limiter between large buildings is glorious.
That's one of the big things I noticed the first time I tried snows. The tolerance for stupidly large slip angles is much higher, leading to them letting go more progressively when pushed and making it much easier to recover as well.
frenchyd wrote: Ice racers disagree with you. Skinny tires with studs allow astonishingly fast speeds, and they use the snow on the edge of the track as assort of Berm, like sprint car drivers do to get even faster speeds
You said the key word there: "studs". That makes a big difference in the equation (which I should have mentioned in my previous post). With studs, you need lots of contact pressure (small tire) to push them into the ice for grip. With a studless tire on ice, more contact patch helps (as you can bit more of the ice and aren't digging into it anyway).
The use of the "berm" has sort of died out. Not many do that anymore.
www.icerace.com
I bought a tire grooving iron with a siping head so that I can improve the traction on my Weathermasters periodically.
frenchyd wrote: But they come off as soon as the temps hit 45 (and don't go on until snow threatens) Don't ruin them by running them in the summer.
And this is why I can't do this.... Sunday was -6F. Today is 46, tomorrow will be 53 and by Sat it will be snowing and back down to 12. Last week was cold, week before was in the 40's. I'd be changing tires and wheels more than I did for auto-x.
My formative driving years took place in eastern Canada (Quebec), so I've got tons of experience with snow and ice. I've kept the tradition of swapping to winter tires even though I now live in NYC, where you don't really get more than a handful of real snowdays each year (and you can easily avoid driving those days). But I enjoy the extra grip in low temps.
One thing that people haven't mentioned so far is that most of us don't spend that much time crawling around in deep snow and ice. Even in Montreal (where there's tons of snow and ice) you spend most of your time on dry pavement. They salt and plow the roads. Sure, there's slushy wetness, but not full-on snow/ice.
In those "real world" winter driving conditions, a tire that can be safe and responsive at 70 mph is more valuable than one that has the absolute best snow traction at all costs. Some of the best snow tires (like skinny Nokian Hakkapeliittas) don't really work all that well at highway speeds. Unless you live in the mountains, the trade-off isn't worth it.
My Blizzaks have always worked very well on dry pavement. Lots of interstate miles at 75 mph. Driving a t sane speeds on curvy roads, they work well also.
The thing is, it is possible to hit a local storm where you are glad they are on the car. I have instances more than once in my trips to far north VT.
We've had a couple of days of freezing rain and snow and rain here. Everyone is totally freaked out, schools are being opened late and they even closed the mall due to the ice on the roads.
Wimps. A set of Altimaxes and it's fun time. I was the first one to work today. And that snow load is frozen to the roof, it's not going to fly off.
I like the Altimax because it's more of a classic snow tire than a gumball ice tire. I've had Blizzaks and found the changeover point between compounds which I didn't like. Meanwhile, you can run the Altimax in any condition and it's happy. It's like a newer Nokian Hakk 1.
In reply to LanEvo:
This is a good point. One of the things I really like about the X-ICEs I've run is that they are competent whether the road is dry and clear, wet, but not icy, icy, or even drifting snow. In contrast, my Firestone Winterforces are noticeably low on grip on a clean but cold patch of highway, even though they're great in real snow.
^^^ That's been my experience as well. I spent two winters with the Michelins and they were awesome. They were on my R107 560SL roadster, which was pretty much the worst choice for winter driving: short wheelbase, RWD, torquey V8, no driver aids, etc.
The Hakka R2s on my Jeep make a pretty good all-around winter tire. They've got pretty decent grip on dry pavement, they don't get too gooey on a 50* day, they're great in snow, etc. The grip on packed snow once it gets down to single digit temps is crazy good. As in, come into a turn, kick the throttle and try to step the tail out and find there's too much grip to make it slide at reasonable speeds kind of good. They're a bit mushy feeling steering-wise, but nothing terrible. They're quite happy doing 75 on the highway too.
The one condition I've found that they're not so good in is when it's mid-30s and wet / raining. The grip goes to crap in those conditions. They do make good rallycross tires though (in the cold months, at least, I've never tried in the summer).
We have had rain/wintry mix/freezing rain/wet snow/dry snow/sleet/freezing fog since Xmas day. The MNDOT has advised no travel several times. Main roads have been clear occasionally but secondary roads are icy/snow pack. The local county purchased a new device that is supposed to remove ice. Temps are so low/ice is so hard the machine could not remove it. This is why I have used winter tires (Arctics/Blizzaks/Toyos/Ice guards) for over 20 years. The Blizzaks are better suited for my needs if I must drive in these conditions. Not all winters are like this. Many years ago I was told the secret to success by a AF Sgt. "Previous Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance"
These have been decent in the dry/wet/cold/not cold so far. The torque curve and gearing of this car lends itself to wheel spin on sticky 200TW tires.... so anything less automatically lends itself to tire smoke rather quickly.
An interesting side note, the TCS is no longer spastic and out of control. It's actually (gasp) USABLE now. Must have programmed this thing to always be on the best tires for the correct condition or something else dumb.
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