Anyone out there with recommendations for good winter tyres for an Octy VRS?

you are kidding right?? you really change your tyres depending on what time of the year it is ?

Joel

Quite a few people do Joel - particulary depending on how much driving you do in the winter. A huge number of tyres which are good in the dry / summer are absolutely lousy in the winter - personally I reckon its far better to have good winter tyres than anything else given that thats the time of year you are likely to need traction the most and when there is the highest proportion of accidents.

you are kidding right?? you really change your tyres depending on what time of the year it is ?

Joel

An considering it - I live in Central Scotland and the town I work in is at an elevation of about 350 feet, so there can be snow there when all is clear at home. :eek:

Trust me - wide normal road tyres+snow=date with bodyshop

really well bugger me... i fully agree that a good tred is essecial but..id never specifically look for diffrent tyers...i look at it this way if you drive to the conditions it shoudlnt matter what tyers you have on...only if you drive to fast in the wet or ice woudl a diffrent tyer make a diffrence, like on a race track...But id say the diffrence it make on the road is minimal if you speed is adjusted correctly..and deffenetly doesnt warrent spending money on new tyers... just coz its winter...

oh well each to there own.. i surpose

Joel

An considering it - I live in Central Scotland and the town I work in is at an elevation of about 350 feet' date=' so there can be snow there when all is clear at home. :eek:

Trust me - wide normal road tyres+snow=date with bodyshop [/quote']

ok fair point but exeptional circumstances.... that i didnt know about before

Joel

really well bugger me... i fully agree that a good tred is essecial but..id never specifically look for diffrent tyers...i look at it this way if you drive to the conditions it shoudlnt matter what tyers you have on...only if you drive to fast in the wet or ice woudl a diffrent tyer make a diffrence' date=' like on a race track...But id say the diffrence it make on the road is minimal if you speed is adjusted correctly..and deffenetly doesnt warrent spending money on new tyers... just coz its winter...

oh well each to there own.. i surpose

Joel[/quote']

Trust me - good winter tyres make a heck of a lot of a difference on snowy roads The best ones make little difference to dry road grip so you can use them for a large part of the year.

If you want to get really serious studded tyres are a hoot, but the studs wear out quickly in normal driving

But id say the diffrence it make on the road is minimal if you speed is adjusted correctly..

On most summer sport tyres, anything above 5mph in snow is too fast.

It's a revelation how much of a difference winter tyres make. The last time i drove in snow in regular tyres was in my old renault laguna, with Eagle F1 tyres on the front. 94bhp would spin the wheels in any gear at any speed, got to the end of the road, parked and walked to work.

But id say the diffrence it make on the road is minimal if you speed is adjusted correctly..and deffenetly doesnt warrent spending money on new tyers... just coz its winter...

:eek:

Tyres make A LOT of difference, especially when you change to ultra-performance tyres for ultimate summer grip. If you keep on using these in winter conditions, it's like driving on eggs...

You can only adjust so much, and as your tyres are the only thing connecting your acceleration and braking power to the road, it's very wise to go for ultimate grip in any condition. You might be adjusting your speed but others may not, and you'd want to be able to stop the car as quickly as possible. That won't work with wide sports tyres that need some heat in them in order to perform.

Your approach will only work for normal-power road cars with standard touring tyres.

Some people even use studded winter tyres. :eek:

I'll put these (Nokian Hakkapeliitta 4) on after it starts to snow:

Some people even use studded winter tyres. :eek:

I'll put these (Nokian Hakkapeliitta 4) on after it starts to snow:

Mmmm - impressive!

Studs might not be an option for you though...

If I was buying new tyres for winter, I'd have four options (for non-studded) at the moment:

- Continental ContiVikingContact 3

- Gislaved SoftFrost 2

- Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi

- Michelin X-ice

All of these are designed to be used on snowy and icy conditions ("scandinavian winter") but they still cant't beat the studs on what comes to pure grip on ice.

The ones I have used, and like, are the Pirelli SnowSports and the Conti WinterContacts. Had both in V rated so they won't melt if you go above 130

What people don't realise is that when the temp drops below 6-7 degrees (IIRC) then the compound of the "standard" tyres loses its grip. The colder it gets the worse they get. What I did notice is that when the temp goes above about 12-13 degrees the winter tyres lose their performance and it becomes like driving on a damp road even in the dry.

If you need winter tyres in the UK, you may be stuffed, especially with the higher speed rating ones as most tyre companies don't bring them in. I got mine from www.mytyres.net and they came in from Germany within the week.

What people don't realise is that when the temp drops below 6-7 degrees (IIRC) then the compound of the "standard" tyres loses its grip. The colder it gets the worse they get. What I did notice is that when the temp goes above about 12-13 degrees the winter tyres lose their performance and it becomes like driving on a damp road even in the dry.

That's right, Jon - the 6/7 degrees is the common claim used for selling winter tyres, although I feel that's a bit rich. German summer-tyre vs. winter-tyre tests - with the usual thorough German approach - have proved that it's more likely to be 2/3 degrees before winter tyres out-grip summer tyres. On average, of course, depending on the summer tyre's compound. True ultra-performance tyres will need more heat to perform, so these might start to drop off at warmer temperatures.

Winter tyres already become foul to drive at about 8/9 degrees - above that they really start to wallow!

Which ones did you rate best, the Pirellis or the Contis? Will be making my appointment for a new set sometime in November, so...

Liked the Pirellis, although the Contis lasted really well. Still going strong after 20k miles

Alrighty then, bear with me this is going to be a long post. There is a lot of emphasis on tyres here, so much that by law you have to change to winter tyres by the 1st of November. Summer tyres have a different compound to winter tyres, summer tyres being harder in compound than winter tyres. Summer tyres are less suitable than winter tyres once temperatures go below 4-5 celsius. Summer tyres use longer braking distance below 5 celsius than winter tyres and vice versa. Every year there is a test for the best winter tyres here in august and for the best summer tyre in March. This year winter tyre test was conducted in Test World, Ivalo, Finland. The test is paid by Motor (magazine, Norway), Aftonbladet (newspaper, Norway), Motor & Sport (magazine, Sweden), Tekniikan Mailma (Finland) and Autorevue (Russia). These test are very useful as there is a lot of difference between each tyres. They test abs braking on ice and snow, side traction on ice and snow, acceleration on ice and snow, abs braking on wet tarmac and when the tyre loses grip on a mixture of snow with water (don

That's very interesting, Christian, thank you.

But I'm more interested in the performance in general winter conditions (so cold, wet, mild degree of snow or freezing rain) instead of Scandinavia-style layers of snow and ice - with the changing climate we don't have much of that anymore in Holland these days...

ahh yes, thats why they include wet tarmac braking, acceleration, side traction etc... still the winning tyres were among the best in all the tests, giving a good indication of a good tyre in every condition. Here in Bergen, the weather is like in holland lots and lots and some more freezing rain, then comes snow, then comes snow mixed with water, then some more snow etc, etc, therefore a good winter tyre here in bergen is a tyre that is good on wet tarmac, as well as good on snow (be it 1 cm or 30 cm of snow) as well as on ice (for those freezing mornings where the dew has become a thin film of ice on the road)....

A good winter tyre is never perfect. A winter tyre consist of 3 things, snow performance, ice performance and wet tarmac performance. These three things are 100% in total. The perfect winter tyre has 33% in each category. This is of course very hard to acomplish. That is why you have to look at what your needs are and judge which tyre will be best for you. For example the studdless Nokian WR. Perfect tyre on wet tarmac not so good on ice and snow. Michelin X-Ice, very good on snow and ice, not so good on wet tarmac. The balance is very hard to obtain. The winning tyres are the ones that have the best balance. Thats why you have to look at your needs and the test results and then determine what is the best tyre for you...

The Conti was on my list already, but why weren't Pirelli or Vredestein included?

BTW, you didn't post them but I'd be interested in the acceleration and cornering results too...

Christian, many thanks for posting all that information.

alrighty then, i will put up the full test tonight. The tyres were chosen by the companies that paid the test.

test results up here http://www.briskoda.net/forums/t16630-winter-tyres-test-results-winter-2004.html

Thanks, Christian!

I love my new TOYO PROXES T1-S which are 225 x 45 x 17 (same rolling radius as original 205 x 50 x 17's). The tread is very good in the wet and sticks in the dry like **** to a blanket. They look luverly too. Am I sad?!

Christian, many thanks for posting all that information.

Agreed