nsantolick

Okay. My car is back for a month now. Drove it 3 times...

For months, I planned on getting snow tires the moment it was back, but ended up making a deal to trade/buy a Bitter SC that the mechanic owned on the day that I did finally get my car back. Because of that deal, I figured I'd skip the snows for this year and just drive the Bitter for a few months.

We had a deal - a deal that HE offered. We shook on it, and he told me how with him, the handshake seals the deal. Predictably, he was sick the next week when we were supposed to do the deal. The following week, we had crazy weather, and he put it off yet again. Ultimately, the third week he said he changed his mind because "he didn't realized how expensive a top would be for the Maserati Biturbo Spyder" that I was trading towards the Bitter SC...

He now wants to consider a trade that would include a '63 Alfa Romeo I've been sitting on for 20 years. I thought it through, and "remembered" why I wanted the Porsche in the first place; to have a good, complete car for daily use and not worry about my other cars, largely PITA machines...



Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo - I decided to more or less forget about any other deals, and just get the best snow tires I can find and start using the 928 daily... Pulling out of a deal is a crappy thing to do. It's like my car was STILL in the shop, as I haven't been able to use it much at all with the delayed snow tire thingie...


Of course, after a ton of searching, I can't find a set of studable snow tires for my club sports which the car came with. The tire store also can't find a set for the dish alloys that my car probably originally came with.

The best advice from the tire shop is to get the 16" x 7" non-stagerred rims which were available on the 84-86 cars and run an awesome set of studded Nokia's.

Will these rims fit on a stock S4? Mine's an 1989... Does anyone have any for sale??? Frankly, I don't even know what they look like.

Is anyone aware of decent studded snow tires available in 255-40/17 AND 225-45/17???

I don't know if I should simplify my life and just napalm my car, or buy a few more of them instead. I REALLY love 928's, but have been through so much nonsense that I'm ready to just enter mine into a demolition derby and replace it with a big old diesel H1 Hummer to abuse instead...











Nick - 1989 928S4 Automatic

FBIII

I have a set of 16 x 8 et 63 BBS three piece wheels with gold centers that would work if you don't like the manhole cover 16 x 7 inch wheels.

hacker-pschorr

Get a set of phone dials - should be quite a few snow tires in that size.

928 Is My Favorite Time of Day

Hi,

I also have an '89 S4 Auto. They don't come with Club Sport wheels. They were only available with the CS and early GT's. If your car is stock, you have staggered 16" x 7" fronts and 16" x 8" rear Dish wheels. No reason why you couldn't run the 16" X 7" non staggered or staggered Dish wheels with 16" snow tires. However you need to find them for an '86.5 or later to clear the larger S4 brakes. If you must put it through the winter abuse, just don't go too fast! And I don't think studded snow tires are a good idea, either. If putting on 16'" wheels are your plan, why are you asking about 17" snow tires? A better choice would be to use the wheels you currently have on the car and put on some high performance All Season tires and don't drive it in deep snow. For most spirited high speed (within reason) driving, you could keep the All Season tires on year round. That is unless you're planning on breaking the old 928 Land Speed record?

I've followed all your posts and don't understand why you are mad at your car? What does having a deal go bad on the Bitter SC have to do with what you went through getting your S4 back on the road? Not buying the other car will probably be a blessing in disguise. Better to concentrate on one car at a time. I'd pick the 928 over most higher end 80's era cars any day. At least parts are readily available.

But seriously, do you really want to drive your S4 through all the cold, snow, salt, potholes and slush of winter anyway? I, personally don't think they are a great choice as Winter DD. My 3 928's are either in garages or covered up waiting for the spring thaw. If you have a regular daily driver, drive that this winter and "park the Shark". Besides, it's only a month to month and a half before winter is over, at least down here in Philadelphia. Not so long to wait and you can use that time to do some more upgrades and maintenance on your car, so you don't have to wrench on it so much 'come this Spring. Just my suggestion to you. Take it for what it's worth.

Regards,

Joe

'89 S4 Auto Silver
'84 S Auto Ruby Red
'83 S Auto Ruby Red

928worldwide

Joe,
I think the disk wheels fit regardless of year. I don't recall a difference between any of them, 85 - 86.5, but didn't look too hard

nsantolick

My car came with the 17" wheels. I'm fine putting snows on them and perhaps even getting 18" ones, with Pirelli P-Zero's in the Spring. I'm also fine with buying a set of 16" ones, for winter use. Whatever is quicker would win, the way I look at it.

I know it's just another month or two until I'd be putting the summer tires back on, but I have a "mental thing" going since I've already waited so dam long for my car to be "on the road..." For all I know, if I had M+S tires on it today, I'd only use the car a few times before Spring. Since it's a keeper, I just don't care... I intend to have snow tires next year anyway...

The owners manual actually specifies studded tires for snow use. 20 years have passed, but the best advice I got from my tire place is that ultimately, studded tires are still superior, particulary on ice...

I'm willing to buy a set of 16" rims, like what the car came with, but the tire place insists that they can't find snow tires in that size either. (staggered)

I'm not angry at the car. I love the car. I've allowed it though to cause a whole lot of stress because of my mistakes. I originally wanted to do the work myself, and fell prey to the idea of, lol, a $700 bill for the labor and the promise of having the car done in a week. It took nearly 6 months to get it back from the shops...

The Bitter's relation to the 928 is just that it caused me to delay putting snow tires on it, thinking instead I'd have the Bitter (in a day or two...) He offered a trade the day I finally picked up my car. The deal was still "good" for a few weeks, and now, finding that it's off, I just regret putting off the snows in the first place.

As far as winter use goes, I honestly don't drive much at all. I live where I work. (self-employed manufacturing/online stuff) I mostly drive to Philadelphia, for fun, randomly, and go out to bars and such, but generally ones that are about 35 miles away from me.

I just wanted the freedom of being ready to handle bad weather as well as possible, as my plans are quite sporadic in general. I take spontaneous trips, last second, and just don't want to get stuck somewhere if bad weather happens or have to cancel plans for fear of snow.

Worse still, I don't want to risk an accident. The first ride in the car, December 30th, nearly ended in disaster. I was only going 10MPH, but I slid completely through a major intersection when I tried to brake for a red light. The summer tires on the car are ridiculous. The slightest bit of snow-dust, and all control is lost...

As for the "abuse" part of winter driving, I just look at it differently than some I suppose... My last three cars were new. When I think about depreciation costs, it's hard for me to care about what value is lost if my car is driven occasionally on salted roads.

I'd rinse the car off promptly if it encountered that sort of stuff. Anyway, with it's aluminum, plastic and rust proofing, I just don't see it getting rusty all that fast. The way I look at it, it's almost insignificant when I think of how much money was lost with 2 new Mustang SVT Cobras and a new PT Cruiser over the last decade or so. Although each was only used for 5 years, more or less, the depreciation cost between the three exceeded $55,000.00, not even considering the insurance costs and interest on loans... The way I see it, the 928 is a bargain, even if it's value goes down. It's still cheaper than the PT Cruiser, and far more fun... : )

The idea with getting a nice 928, with my current lifestyle, was to have a relatively safe and reliable car that genuinely interests me. I like my other cars, but I can't look at them as snow-worthy. A 3500+ pound 928, with it's perfect balance and ABS seemed ideal for me, and I intended to use it year round.

I've had 2 new Mustang Cobra's now. With them, I just ran P-Zero's in the summer and studded snows in the winter. It worked out well... I thought I'd do the same with this car... Mustangs aren't really known for their snow abilities, of course, but I never had a problem.

There is an element of irony with the Bitter. As rare as it is, a Bitter SC, a Bentley Eight & a Porsche 928 happened to be the cars I mostly considered buying last year, when I had the idea of getting a daily driver. I went for the 928, of course, but to end up being exposed to a trade for a Bitter, meanwhile getting rid of two cars that I've lost interest in seemed almost "supernatural" in it's unfolding.

I doubt I'm interested, but it happens that the mechanic HAS a Bentley Eight, and I threw out a possible trade for that. Anyway, what are the odds? There were only 461 Bitters ever made, and well under 2000 Bentley Eights. To end up at a mechanic that has both, seemingly available seemed really, really cool...

Since I like the 928 so much, the cars I've considered trading for the Bitter/Bentley aren't worth the space problems they are causing. A deal that got me out of several of my old ones, for one "better" one really sounded nice, especially with the failing economy.

I love cars in general. I played the "new car game" for a decade plus and wanted one of those three cars, done, ready to go, and quite drivable. I'm still glad I picked the 928. I look at it as a keeper, and want to be able to drive it without worrying year round...

Anyway, more to come. With any luck, I'll have some capable winter tires installed soon, and will be able to take the 928 out whenever I want... : )













Nick - 1989 928S4 Automatic

Jim bailey - 928 International

Look at your current tires they are probably M and S rated already ....all 7 x 16 S wheels are the same size all fit when fitting winter wheels Porsche used 7x16 wheels on all 4 corners even on the S-4. They were special cast wheels with painted finish but the best cheapest set of wheels would be some ugly early S wheels....

dprantl

If you want your 928 to drive well in the snow, I suggest you get a set of four 16x7 flat dish wheels (very cheap, sometimes free even). Then mount a set of 205/55-16 Nokia's on them. The narrower the snow tire, the better. This size also fits well on 7" wheels and is very close to 25" total diameter.

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

SharkSkin

Nick, ask anyone who has tried to change their rear shocks - salted roads or not - what they think of the "rustproofing".

BTW, if you can find a snow tire for the 16" front rim, the same tire will probably stretch to fit the rear rim. What size did they say was available?

V8 Man

Hi guys

Here in Norway we are used to put real winter tires on our cars not that M+S B$, and the rule of thumb is that you go for one size smaller in width than your summer tires. That way you get more lbs pr.sqr.inch. and the tires get more planted on the ground.

I recently drove a Boxster with 255/40*18 tires in the rear on a couple of inches snow and they performed poorly. The rear tires was too wide, and floated ontop of the snow making the tail slide from side to side.

I just bought Michelin`s X-ICE Xi2 studless tires for my Audi A6 and they are excellent ! Studless tires have much more consistent qualitys their whole lifespan then studded ones. I would go for these in size 225/55R16 all around for your shark Buy any 16x7-8 wheel with bolt pattern 5-130 and ET around 55, or a 928 16" rim and your done.