This 100%. The 305's are stretched to begin with on my 11.5" rear wheels. This is the way to go for handling but I would not go narrower.

 

All I can say is that the 295s I had mounted looked fine and not stretched a ton as I expected them to be.

Some 295s are wider than other 295s.

 

Great. Same rationale as me. I'm happy to hear you like them! Hope to have mine mounted next week. Not thrilled about the $50 per wheel my dealer charges though...

 

ha that sounds like a good idea!

 

In cold weather without snow, All Seasons should have better grip than winter tires. Winter tires sacrifice wet and dry traction to get better bite in the snow, with bigger tread cleats, but less rubber surface area contacting the road. So All Seasons should have better grip on wet and cold dry pavement.

 

Interesting. I didn't know that. I figured the rubber compound in the winters could be able to grip pavement better. Anyhow I've ordered a set for my GT3 but unfortunately tire rack doesn't have the rears (305/30R20) in stock. I'm praying they come in soon...

 

I don't believe this is accurate for high performance winter tires.

 

All tires have a recommended rim range per the manufacturer. 30 and 35 series in particular are low profile, stiff tires that do not have much room to squeeze or stretch beyond static. Have you ever tried to pull the two beads apart on an unmounted T rated 70 series passenger car tire? Easy. Now, try and do that on a 35 series, W or Y and (probably) extra load rated performance tire. No bueno. Trying to pull the beads out further than the manufacturer makes or tests the tires to results in unintended strain on the interior construction of the tire. The result could be failure of the tire. A 295 may look "OK" on a 12" wheel, but I have also witnessed first hand how tires are made and tested. I'm certainly not in a position to out-guess tire engineers.

 

@Damon - so I was just told by tire rack you are not getting any 20" 305's in for Michelin Alpin PA4 or Pirelli Sottozero serie II this year (only 295's)- which means any of us with a 20" 11.5+ rear wheel need to get new 11" rear wheels (well and matching smaller fronts) or try and source the 305 rear elsewhere, correct?
or drop a size to 19's - which still means new wheels.
I was going to use my stock Porsche 20's for Winter and get new wheels and tires next summer. But now I need to rethink my approach.

 

Welcome to the club. There are no 305/30R20 winter tires available for our 12 inch wheels other than the sottozero 3. The problem with the Sottozero 3 is that they don't make a matching tire in 245/35R20 to fit our front wheels (or at least I can't seem to find it anywhere). Tire rack does have the Sottozero 2 in 245/35R20, but I was told that you shouldn't mix the two tires. That does make sense to me but I'm not sure what could happen if you did.

You either have to get new winter wheels or go with an all season tire like the bridgestone 980AS. Unfortunately no one has them in stock in the 305/30R20 size!

 

I was told the same thing about mixing tires. There is an OLD article on their website about mixing Series II, but nothing across Series. See here https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/colin...g-winter-tires

@damon@tirerack.com , what do you think? Could we mix up the Sottozero 3 on the rear and 2 on the front and be better than running all seasons?

 

Forget snow and ice and the fact that cold temps kill summer performance tires how cold a temp can one drive summer tires without driving hard or aggressively as the car was designed for. I read about the summer tires "cracking" and of being damaged, but not max low temp.

 

...see post #5

 

Looks like I do have a few coming in the second week of November that are unaccounted for at this time. Please call me or use my link to order. Thanks.