First time poster to this forum. After a lifetime in awe of the 911 and months of hard shopping, I finally found and purchased a new-to-me 2012.5 C2S cab last week. It's black with red leather interior, pdk, s/chrono, keyless e/d, light design, pdls and a host of other cool options. It's like new with 9k miles and is a work of engineering art. The only shame is that winter is coming soon to New England where I live. I have the option to purchase a set of mounted winter tires from the previous owner of this car (brand new, barely used) for ~ $2500. Seems like something of a no brainer, even though I will not drive this car in poor weather. Just being able to drive the car confidently in dry but cold weather, without the annoying wheel skip in low speed turns seems worth it. The only nagging question is the nuisance factor of putting them on and off each year. Do most owners of C2's in cold weather regions own winter tires, even if they are not dd's and will never see a snowflake? Is there any magic to tire change on this car or is it as simple as every other car on which I have changed a tire? Do most guys just do the swap themselves?


Thanks for input,
Tim

 

Hi Tim - I'm from Canada, and here in the province of Quebec, the government has mandated that all cars must have winter tires during the months of December - March. I've always driven my P-cars all year around, and have always had a dedicated set of mounted winter tires. For me, the seasonal switch has always been easy since my local Porsche dealer offers wheel/tire storage service for each season - so when it's time to change, it's completely painless. Since you're in the snow belt, I would suggest you check with your dealer to see if they offer that service - just makes life easier.

 

Midwest here. Got a set of OEM 19's with the Pirelli winter tires. Dealer stores them for free and it's $49 twice a year for the swap out. It could be a little more for just the tires, as a pre mounted wheel set is easier.

Drove it through flurries for a couple hours today and she loved it. Thick, cold air; you can really tell the difference. Roads were clean, dry and unsalted, but it was cold. Probably wouldn't have taken it out today if it had summer tires on.

Unless you're going to put it into cryogenic storage I recommend it, even if it's not going to be a true winter DD.

 

Live in NJ and I bought a set of winter wheels and tires (I also just got a CPO 991 C2S about a month ago). Temps have started to drop and the summer tires are very slick at cold temps.

 

Seems unanimous. Looks like I'll be picking up those ties this weekend.

Thanks for the input -

 

That's also a pretty damn good deal. Sun coast price is $4200. Tires alone are $1500 from tire rack. I would buy them out from under you but I'm on the west coast.

 

The annoying wheel skip in low speed turns is caused by a suspension setting called caster angle. At full lock the angle the wheel tracks relative to its axis of rotation causes the tire to skitter a bit. It does this all the time but becomes more noticeable under certain conditions like cold weather that makes the tires harder. When you hear a car sqealing around a parking garage going barely 3 mph more than likely its caster angle. With winter tires it will feel different. You might actually notice it more because there are so many more small tread blocks to squirm around compared to the summer tires. Winters won't skip like summers, but they sure will squirm around a lot.

 

I would gladly buy that set for 2500. Jump on it.

 

My winter tire storage solution. Stack 'em in the garage, put a tire cover over them to prevent the UV rays from dry rotting the tires, swap 'em out in the garage the night before the snow forecast. Takes 30 minutes on my wife's Audi SQ5. Not particularly hard to do. Those are 20"er's under the sleeve.



My Porsche doesn't play outside in the winter, I have a 4WD Tundra Pickup for that kind of travel.

 

I picked 'em up today. 24 degrees F. at my house tonite...I may swap them out in the morning.

TD

 

Sounds like you got a good deal there, but for your exact question, cold weather no snow, there really are no good reasons for changing tires at all. No, summer tires won't grip as well cold as hot. But they will vastly outperform winter tires on dry pavement no matter how cold it gets. In the wet too for the most part. Winter tires are for slush, snow and ice. Period. that's why drcollie has the right approach, store em until you really need em.

 

I read somewhere that porsche/perrelli do not recommed use of the tires for temps of 46 degrees and under. Is this because of the prospect/danger of precipitation? Or, are the summer tires dangerous at that temp and below because they get so hard?

I had summer tires during the winter on a BMW 550 (RWD) a few years back and they became like ski bottoms in the snow. Could not even get my car home several days because of a hill I had to negotiate.

 

You keep saying this but it contradicts what pretty much every article I have read. How certain are you? You are stating that summer tires in cold dry conditions outperform winter tires. That is a big statement that implies that colder temperature compounds are useless if there is no precipitation.

Would you tell your teenage son or wife to go drive the porsche in freezing dry temps on rock hard tires?

 

Well it's cold as f&@k this am north of dfw. Drove in to work after snow dusting last night and it was 20. Prob way below what Pirelli recommends - my drive was an hour (65 miles), no problems at all. For comparison, my former e92 m3 would be squirrelly as all get out below 30. Maybe there's something to that rear engine being over the axle giving better traction in somewhat inclement weather.

Not that I would drive on summers if I lived in Canada. But for north Texas and our relative moderate winters yup

 

Agree. Winter tires are on all of my family vehicles when the temps drop. Having driven my C2S and current Turbo on Pirellis and winter rubber in 40 degree weather, no comparison. Winter rubber holds. The summer tires spin. My rear got loose on both cars just flooring it to get around other slow vehicles on Pirellis.