chris87944

Picked up an '07 987 Wednesday... it's an extremely fun car to drive,
and I'm very happy with my purchase. Anyway, it came with a set of brand new Continental ContiSportContact 3 summer tires. This car
is going to be a daily driver for me, and I get a bit of snow in my area in the
winters, so I either need to get a set of winter tires, or go for all season. I guess it would be a shame to get rid of (or sell cheap) these brand new tires and go all season, and I should just get a set of used rims and snow tires. However, changing out all four wheels twice a year is probably going to get annoying... maybe I need an impact wrench. If I go with winter
tires, I'd proably get Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie IIs.

What are others doing?

Thanks!


Chris

Frank 993 C4S

If you actually get snow, then don't compromise with all season tires. Your life is not worth compromising on braking ability on snow and ice. You don't need an impact wrench to change your wheels twice a year. Your car's tool kit should do. You will find that the most annoying issue is that you have to store a second set of wheels and find the space for it. A torque wrench could be a valuable addition to your tool kit.

This might help you decide to:

http://blog.tirerack.com/blog/make-d...ter-snow-tires

pdxjim

As Frank notes. you should go the snowflake route. Regarding the impact wrench, I have had one for years (love it!) and use it several times a year. I use ear plugs with it. Also concur with Frank on the torque wrench. Check the for sale ads here for tires and rims.

cds4402

If you decide to get rid of the continentals, I might be interested in purchasing them from you if they're for 18" wheels.

blue44

+1, there are almost always winter tire sets in the classifieds, often with wheels, big savings over retail...

Donn

chris87944

Thanks guys, looks like I'll go with winter tires then. How does one deal with the TPMS on the new wheels? Do I need to go to the dealer to have the sensors programmed? Am I going to have to do that every time I change the wheels for the season?

Thanks.


Chris

its about time...

make sure you get tpms sensors on your 2nd set of wheels. when you change them, you set your car's tpms to learn the new sensors. no visit to the dealer required. we get significant snow up here, so I got a set of alpine pa2's on their own wheels. while I don't take my rs60 out in fresh snow, the alpin's do a good job on packed snow and ice. I think it would be fine on fresh snow, just not the 7-10" kind

Marine Blue

Definitely use a torque wrench when switching out wheels. A few years ago I had swapped out a set of winter wheels for summer wheels on my DD and failed to torque the wheels properly. The failure was my fault for not maintaining my torque wrench calibration. The result was a loose wheel which caused some funky handling to say the least. Fortunately I caught it before the lugs got really loose but it definitely made me realize the importance of proper torque.

The other side of this is over torquing the lugs, this could cause a lug to shear or other damage so you definitely want to get this right.

brad@tirerack.com

Congrats on your purchase Chris! Please give me a call when you can, and we will get your tire needs sorted out. Thanks!

Euromagination

anything blizzak.. used to be lm-22, then lm-25, now it's lm-32. when i lived in ny and nj for about six years i ran these blizzaks every year from december-may on my evo viii, old 911, and my old is350. always gave me much better grip. never let me down. i remember passing stuck truck/suv's on several occasions when i had my evo viii with blizzaks on it. just can't get too grip-cocky even if you have winters on.

frank 993 (above) is right about all-seasons. they don't do anything well. mediocre all year and i never run them on anything but rental cars. summers all year now that i'm back home in socal full-time.

blizzak and you can't go wrong. finding used in classifieds is good but more difficult for staggered setup, but don't be discouraged.

Bullitt44

I DD drove my 13 Boxster last year through the winter and we had a good one. Used a 18inch wheel package with Blizzaks with no problems at all.
I traded the Boxster in for a Boxster S and will be doing the same thing this winter.

All season tires will not offer the winter rubber compound that stays pliable till around -20 degrees, this along with the siping allows for a chance at snow/ice traction.


Enjoy!