Snow Tires

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Originally Posted by Eki

Greg said he wants to use them in rallies, so he probably didn't just mean wet or dry tarmac.

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he also said something about denver to chicago, so he probably didn't just mean rallies.

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Originally Posted by Mark

But that's Winter Tyres, different to snow tyres. Although they are often confused.

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Look for the snowflake symbol on the sidewall and you have a winter/snow tyre with a minimum snow grip performance compared to a standard reference tyre (SRTT). Anything else (fancy wintery name, M+S on the sidewall etc) in no way defines a tyre's Winter/snow performance (or lack of).
How good the performance is, is like the shades of blue. There's no such thing as different shades of blue either, they're all blue :erm: or bluey green, whatever :confused: :p

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Originally Posted by Mark

But that's Winter Tyres, different to snow tyres. Although they are often confused.

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Well, with 24 pages worth of posts, maybe there's a slight chance that we may have wandered off topic a bit (I know - very unlikely - doesn't happen around here :p ) and discussed snow tyres as well. :)

Being a Canadian prairie boy, winter pretty much means snow.
But I just stick with my all-season's.

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Originally Posted by BleAivano

either go with the latest edition of Gislaved Nordfrost or the latest edition of Nokian Hakkapelitta.

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I'd go with the Gislaveds as well if you can get them. Excellent in snow

WT

I thought the NordFrost was studded...
oh I see... "studdable"

I'd go for the ExtremeWinterContact if I were on the other side of the pond:
Continental ExtremeWinterContact

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Originally Posted by donKey jote

he also said something about denver to chicago, so he probably didn't just mean rallies.

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I believe he intends to drive to rallies....although in Ontario and Quebec and the one US winter rally in Northern Michigan, the surfaces are usually pure ice and so everybody with a clue has fresh, new modern "Ice" road tires, not FIA or Swedish/Finnish spec real studs.
The 3 winter nationals i did when i was out East I had good new snow compound tires and was massacred.
A Subaru with diffs still working should work well with anything and he's right, go slightly narrower, and look for or make the shoulders square-er.

Driving to the rally I can expect some bad snow near Lake Michigan, and snow covered roads around the rally (and of course on the stages). Normally there is enough newly fallen snow to get traction, and I will go down most stages before the competitors turn them to ice slicks. For the long drives to Colorado the weather is always a complete mystery. It may be perfectly clear or there may be fog, ice and blizzard conditions for a few hundred miles. I've been stranded in Colorado due to highway closures on the plains before, but I can think of wose places to be stuck.

I'll take a look at the Continentals; in my size the price looks very agreeable and I've always had good service from the Tire Rack.

I changed my winter tires on today. I didn't remember their brand earlier, but now I do. They are Michelin X-Ice North.

Donkey was wrong about Finnish tester being partial to Nokian. In the winter tire test of a Finnish magazine Tekniikan maailma, Continental ContiIceContact was deemed the best studded winter tire:

Tekniikan Maailma talvirengastesti 2011

2011 Talvirengastestin lopputulokset:

Nastarenkaat:

1 Continental ContiIceContact 8,7
2 Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 8,4
3 Bridgestone Noranza 2 8,3
4 Pirelli Winter Carving Edge 8,3
5 Michelin X-Ice North XIN2 8,1
6 Goodyear UltraGrip Extreme 7,8
7 Vredestein Arctrac 7,7
8 Hankook Winter IPike 7,3
9 Agi Sarek 2 7,0
10 Yokohama IceGuardStud ig35 7,0

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Originally Posted by donKey jote

I'd go for the ExtremeWinterContact if I were on the other side of the pond:
Continental ExtremeWinterContact

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I ordered them this afternoon. Next week they'll be going on the original wheels that came with the car; those have been in storage for the last seven years.