Picking up my Spyder today, I live in NY and its very cold already. I was thinking about getting all season tires so I can use the car over the winter.
Not in the snow but when the roads are clear, dry and cold.
I don't want to buy the car and immediately have it sit in my garage for 4 months.
Anyone else using all seasons and what tire would you recommend?

 

I did Snow Tires (Michelin Pilot Alpins) last year on my Cayman GTS 4.0, and I didn't love them. Under heavy acceleration there was a LOT of Tire Squirm, due to the softer tire compound and the tread pattern. It was pretty unsettling in that regard for my spirited country road drives. Also, they didn't look great. They took away from the aggressive look of the car, in my opinion.

I have a GT4 now and this year after doing some research decided to go for All Seasons for the colder temps for the Winter, and as you say not driving in any snow. After reading reviews and comparisions, I selected the Continental Ultra High Performance ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus Tires.

I like them a lot so far, but I have only had them on a few weeks. No weird Tire Squirm issues, even under full throttle all out launches. Great traction and feel in the cold temps. They look good, not "out of place" like the Snows did on the Cayman last year. Very reasonably priced, as well!





(Please forgive the trashed rotors in the first pic, 16 track days and 39 sessions in the first 30 days of ownership of the GT4. They are warped and need to be replaced over the winter. Will do some aftermarket ones, haven't decided which ones yet.)

I will use the Stock Wheels for the off-season with these All Season Tires, and in the Track Season will use my 19" HRE Wheels with Track-Oriented Tires on them. These tires are the standard stock sizes, 245 on the front and 295 on the rear.

 

I also went with the Alpin's, but I have the PA4s. They are much less trusting in the snow and wet stuff compared to my Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2s. They do have some smaller sizes that would probably do much better than the Michelin's. I think the only saving grace of the Michelin is that they are somewhat performance oriented, but after experiencing the same think that Pete described above, I wouldn't get them again. I also previously had Ice Blizzak's on my A4 daily, and the Nokians are a significant improvement over that as well. I do think you might give up just a bit of noise and comfort in regular cold weather with the Nokians over the Alpins, but it wasn't very much to me, and I'd happily have something that handles the snow and slush better than the Michelin's do. I would recommend going with a smaller footprint over the stock tires and a taller sidewall. Maybe a 225/255 or 265? Just remember that the smaller tires help it go through the snow for better traction vs over it. If you're going to be driving it often in cold weather, and repeatedly for a long time, I'd spend the money and get some dedicated snow/winter tires over the All Season, it will easily pay for itself in a much greater ability to turn and stop (which you need to avoid the idiots out there in the winter time).

 

I just yesterday had the Spyder shod with Michelin Alpin PA4's.. I wanted to be able to enjoy the car in the winter months when the sun is out and the road not cover in snow.

So far so good, they give the car a really gnarly agressive look IMO, but I haven't really tested them on open roads at decent speeds yet. I'll report back later.

Excited about driving all year now!

JP

P.s. Congrats on your Spyder!

 

I just had Michelin Pilot Sport AS4's mounted last week on my BGTS. I went with the Spyder sizes of 295/30-20 and 245/35-20 and they look very good on the stock wheels. But I will say they don't feel as "crisp" as the Pirelli summers but needed them for cold weather driving.

 

I had my BGTS out this morning around Boston with PS4s.

Temperature in the car read 37 when I started it so not quite below freezing but I was very impressed by how good the tires felt.

I think they’d be more than sufficient for cold weather, dry, winter cruising.

 

Probably just storing my Boxster 25 Years soon but agree that the PS4S have been surprisingly good during our recent cold days in the Boston area.

 

The "summer" PS4S? If so, you may want to read the temperature acclimation warnings from Michelin regarding exposure to sub 40F. I had my Pilot Sport sidewall fail in freezing temps. Luckily the car was parked.

 

I just had Porsche take off my Cup2s and put on Pilot Sport AS4s. So far I like them well enough. They feel a touch more “squishy” with enthusiastic driving but grip and steering feedback is good as is braking. They are a relatively light weight tire which I like. I think I might prefer the AS4s to the Bridgestone All season’s I had on my previous Spyder.

Imo, you’ll notice a difference between max summer tires vs all seasons the harder you push the car but for enthusiastic street driving the recent crop of All Seasons tires from top manufacturers like Michelin and Bridgestone. should be fine.

 

Just reviewed the temperature warnings on the Michelin website a few days ago, and the crux of the warning was more related to if the tires sit below 20 degrees then they need to warm up to 40 degrees naturally over a few days, but there does not seem to be an issue with driving under 40 degrees yet over freezing.

 

I live on the West Coast in Vancouver, Canada. Similar weather than our sister city Seattle. Can get below freezing and snowy in the winter and certainly wet and cold. I’m on my second season with Michelin Alpins and I like their performance a lot both from a grip in icy conditions and wet weather performance. My “summer” set are PS4’s. I would definitely recommend full winters like the Alpins over All season tires as All seasons loose performance when temps
drop below about 45 degrees (7 degrees Celcius).

 

Partially inspired by this thread, I went out for a 1:20 / 70 mile spirited country road drive today. 29 degrees, windy and intermittent flurries, not much sticking on the ground though. Some occasional wet spots here and there to watch out for.

Country road blasts with hard accelerations, high speeds and fairly aggressive turns. These UHP Continental All Seasons ROCK! Fantastic traction. No tire squirm whatsoever. Some spinning of the wheels at heavy throttle at high rpms, but that is to be expected, I have a full exhaust including Headers (haven't posted my review on that yet), which adds a LOT of HP and Torque that will light up the tires just before redline under very heavy throttle, which I would bet would spin any tires, based on my experience across my 3 718's with many different exhaust setups.

No way would I push the PS4S's this hard at 29 degrees, especially not with some wet roads here and there. Those are okay to about 35 IMO, and then they start to feel hard as rocks and lose grip, They are my favorite summer tires for the street I have ever owned, they were great on the Street my Cayman GTS 4.0 and Boxster 25, and pretty darn good on the track with the Boxster 25 as well (50 Track Sessions!). But in colder temps (sub 35 degrees as I said) they were not great, I had some scares with them on the Cayman that caused me to put the Snow Tires on that last year.

Anything in the UHP All Season Category would probably be fairly comparable. The Michelin PSAS's also gets a great review here:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...y.jsp?ttid=266

There was a reason I picked the Continentals over the PSAS's, I can't remember what it was.

With regards to the comment from the above Tire Rack review about the steering feeling artificial with the Continental relative to the others, I don't at all feel that, even relative to the Cup 2's - then again the GT4 has about the best steering on the planet to begin with IMO, and I have my car dialed in with the DSC/TSC 75% Track setup, which has 2.75 degrees of front camber and .7mm Toe Out, which makes for some incredibly precise steering. (I will go to the 100% settings in the Spring.)

The ride was a blast, I had my down jacket and a winter hat on, and had the windows down for about of 1/3 of the time, was putting them up when I got cold and down again when I was warmed up and was going to go for a short high acceleration blast to best hear the exhaust. I had some fun moments where there were pretty heavy snow flurries and the roads were still dry, blasting at speed with the windows down and the snow flying through the cabin. Great fun!

 

Be careful out there.

 

Yes!, glad you’re using it all year.

OP I have Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ tires which are technically snow rated but lean more towards a quality all-season. Same use as you, winter, little to no snow driving. They’re superb, and I’ve not felt any squirm in the tires at all.

 

Plan on doing same things. All seasons on stock wheels for cold weather on clear roads.