Snow Tyres on a Porsche
12-15-2003, 07:56 PM
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So any of Nokian, Hakka, Blizzak or Dunlop winter sports are going to see me through winter. Armed with this information I'm going to hit the 'tire' shops on Thursday and see what it's going to cost, remembering the car only cost $2000 CD it seems mad to throw another $1000 at it on wheels and tires for a bit of snow, I have a few spare sets of Cookie cutters at home so may freight them over with the V8 (seeems I'm allowed to drive it for a year over here without any checks). Just one other thing (be easy, I'm new to snow, in the UK we only get warm snow) is it acceptable to only get them on the rear as I'm more worried about not getting up the drive than anything else, I'm guessing most will say fronts as well or there will be little/no braking, I guess I have already answered my own question but I thought I'd check, I also noticed Costco do tyres but have no idea what brands so is it even worth checking?, or are they a sure bet to be ex-vietmanese condom rubbers cunningly disguised as tires with markingd like hang-kon road commanders (don't laugh, I had a set on my gsxr1100 and they were poo!). Sorry about all the questions but other than playing in the carpark at Mt. st.louis today I have only had about 3 days driving experience on the white stuff, as thats about as much snow we have has in the UK for the past 15 years.
12-15-2003, 09:43 PM
#17
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I have Dunlop (I think) Graspix. It took me to work and I was getting evil glares from all of the SUV's and other cars stranded on an icy section of road as I just drove by them like I was on dry pavement. Then, when I got to work, and the parking lot was empty, I thought, "Hmmm...lets do some donuts!" well, long story short, I couldn't. tires would grip SO well, that I could at most get the car halfway around. it was crazy.
12-17-2003, 11:43 AM
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You MUST have good braking tires on the front for ice. It's optional to have good snow-throwing tires on the rear so you don't get stuck.
One point to remember - Hakka Q's are super for straight traction, i.e. braking, but they are not nearly as effective for side-to-side traction. Particularly in the rear, this is important for our cars - no point putting on some power if your rear just goes sideways instead of forward! Several local people have Hakka 2's and consider them crippled without studs.
The best tires I ever had for winter were Michelin XAS (haven't been made for decades now). They had deep water gutters on the inside that threw snow most effectively, and a flexible wiper edge on the outside that grabbed everything in sight as soon as you started moving sideways. To keep going on ice, it felt unsettling to have to twitch the wheel first to one side then the other to keep that wiper edge engaged, but it worked. Not to mention that the center was so hard that they lasted 100,000 miles!
Forget how much you paid for the car. How much do you enjoy it?!
One point to remember - Hakka Q's are super for straight traction, i.e. braking, but they are not nearly as effective for side-to-side traction. Particularly in the rear, this is important for our cars - no point putting on some power if your rear just goes sideways instead of forward! Several local people have Hakka 2's and consider them crippled without studs.
The best tires I ever had for winter were Michelin XAS (haven't been made for decades now). They had deep water gutters on the inside that threw snow most effectively, and a flexible wiper edge on the outside that grabbed everything in sight as soon as you started moving sideways. To keep going on ice, it felt unsettling to have to twitch the wheel first to one side then the other to keep that wiper edge engaged, but it worked. Not to mention that the center was so hard that they lasted 100,000 miles!
Forget how much you paid for the car. How much do you enjoy it?!
12-17-2003, 07:55 PM
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I'll add another money comment - you got a steal if you got a drivable Porsche for $2000 in Toronto. I don't know of a single person here in Ottawa who paid less than 4x that, and most of us ended up at over $10,000 by the time the car was running nicely.
$1000 isn't too much to pay to double the time you can enjoy a $10,000 car!
$1000 isn't too much to pay to double the time you can enjoy a $10,000 car!
12-17-2003, 10:09 PM
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It's funny that everyone goes on about it, it was in autotrader.ca for 4 weeks before I rang the guy, I thought I'd just have a quick look expecting it to be trashed, the only real problems were the electric sunroof has a striped gear somewhere so it won't go full up (not exactly using that at the moment
) the fuse for the clock/lighter and interior light kept blowing (nothing a quick rewire and faulty cigarette lighter casing didn't cure, and now the funny fuel economy gauge works, well I say it works, it lives in the left as you have to pedal it around) and it has the usual seat tear, it's got all the history inc. the belts and pumps done 18 months ago (3000km) He never got a single other call on the car?????? in fact he let me have it considerably cheaper, the car runs great and after new load of fuel, set of leads and some new stereo components it's tip top. Gets me to Moonstone and back without any problems (even in the snow) I actually had a look at the tyres, there less than 1000km old and there continental all seasons. Thats probably why I have less problems than I thought I should be getting. It's not much slower than the V8 but the torque is more than a little noticable, it breaks loose when pushed hard but not like my V8, it is also noticably heavier despite the power steering. The brakes are OK, no real difference from my servoless system so not overimpressed. The condition is superb so again no real difference, I'm hopefully going to bring the V8 auto over next year so it will be good to have them side by side to decide what to do with them. I'm thinking it's nice to have a standard car without worrying about the cost of replacement as I have most parts at home sitting in a garage, this is the first time I have had one with a compleate engine in it so I may keep it that way unless it goes bang and then I'm swapping the V8 stuff straight in as it's the cheapest solution. I'll look to getting a 911 in the near future, just to have owned one and you can get them dirt cheap if you look hard enough. I have also got a set of cookie cutters for $200 CAN, that will be more than adequate as there better than mine, I'll sort out tyres if I think I'll need them, or just do one at a time and spread the cost a little, if I get away with the tires on the car I will have them ready for next year
, The roads seem a more limiting factor here, anything over 180km/h and your jumping all over the road, that and the Gardner Expressway has bends that come up fast at that speed. Anyhow, thanks all for the information, hopefully I won't need to do anything for this year, if I do then I'm armed with all the info I think I need to make an informed choice, if not I have a year to find a cheap deal.
I could never spend $10000 on a car, not that I wouldn't want to, I just don't have it, unless they start paying nurses double I don't think I ever will.
) the fuse for the clock/lighter and interior light kept blowing (nothing a quick rewire and faulty cigarette lighter casing didn't cure, and now the funny fuel economy gauge works, well I say it works, it lives in the left as you have to pedal it around) and it has the usual seat tear, it's got all the history inc. the belts and pumps done 18 months ago (3000km) He never got a single other call on the car?????? in fact he let me have it considerably cheaper, the car runs great and after new load of fuel, set of leads and some new stereo components it's tip top. Gets me to Moonstone and back without any problems (even in the snow) I actually had a look at the tyres, there less than 1000km old and there continental all seasons. Thats probably why I have less problems than I thought I should be getting. It's not much slower than the V8 but the torque is more than a little noticable, it breaks loose when pushed hard but not like my V8, it is also noticably heavier despite the power steering. The brakes are OK, no real difference from my servoless system so not overimpressed. The condition is superb so again no real difference, I'm hopefully going to bring the V8 auto over next year so it will be good to have them side by side to decide what to do with them. I'm thinking it's nice to have a standard car without worrying about the cost of replacement as I have most parts at home sitting in a garage, this is the first time I have had one with a compleate engine in it so I may keep it that way unless it goes bang and then I'm swapping the V8 stuff straight in as it's the cheapest solution. I'll look to getting a 911 in the near future, just to have owned one and you can get them dirt cheap if you look hard enough. I have also got a set of cookie cutters for $200 CAN, that will be more than adequate as there better than mine, I'll sort out tyres if I think I'll need them, or just do one at a time and spread the cost a little, if I get away with the tires on the car I will have them ready for next year , The roads seem a more limiting factor here, anything over 180km/h and your jumping all over the road, that and the Gardner Expressway has bends that come up fast at that speed. Anyhow, thanks all for the information, hopefully I won't need to do anything for this year, if I do then I'm armed with all the info I think I need to make an informed choice, if not I have a year to find a cheap deal. I could never spend $10000 on a car, not that I wouldn't want to, I just don't have it, unless they start paying nurses double I don't think I ever will.