vjd3

Not to beat a frozen horse, but as a longtime Florida resident I have very little experience here.

If you're living in an area that gets some snowfall every winter, but really has its act together when it comes to plowing the roads and if there was a blizzard you wouldn't HAVE to drive, is it overkill to put snows on a C4?

I would say at least 90 percent of the driving I do in the winter is on dry pavement. How will the car do on regular tires in slippery conditions? Is the high-performance low-profile tire (P-Zero) a complete nightmare on a C4?

My only reference point is driving a BMW Z3 through a Kansas winter, and getting it out in the snow a few times where the biggest issue seemed to be ground clearance, not traction.

I'm sure the majority of cars on the road in Boston do not switch to snow tires every winter, and they seem to get around okay on their "all-season" tires.

What's complicating this for me is I want to drive the car down to Florida over Christmas, and I don't want to do it on a set of Blizzaks, but I don't have spare rims either.

Any experiences?

Vic
95 C4

TrackJunke

An all season tire will do, but do not try to go in the snow with high performance summer tires. You will get NO snow traction and it could be quite dangerous.

Mr Michael B

Vic,

I thought you had a spare set of "cup" wheels?

Did you sell those THAT fast?

I have a spare cup set, I think I will be selling soon.

Fred R. C4S

Let's see:

1. The car has very little ground clearance. Probably not enough to clear even small windrows of snow our ice blocking you entry to drives, etc.

2. You have very wide rubber = low ground pressure, inability to dig down thru the snow to reach the "hard pack".

3. The rubber used in high performance (summer)tires provides very little grip at freezing tempertures in rain, snow or ice.

4. "Bubba" and his 12 year old, rusted out 4x4 pickup, jacked up to monster truck heights, can't slow down when the roads get slippery because he has "4 wheel drive". Laws of physics are apparently revoked for vehicles of this type.

I could go on, but if you MUST drive in cold slippery conditions, get yourself the correct rubber. You would run a track event on snow tires and you shouldn't run on snow with high performance summer tires. It's even more dangerous than the former.

Have you considered a winter "beater" to protect you P car from the ravages of salt and the lunatic driving that goes on as the temperatures fall?

Fred R. - Central Illinois

stinky

Do not over estimate New England weather. I drove an MR2 for years through all seasons on the same set of tires. I never had a problem getting stuck or issues with low ground clearance.

With this background, I intend on driving my newly purchased C4 through this winter. Even on the worst roads in this state, snow plows keep the amount of snowfall to under a couple of inches at most.

Or course you don't want to be driving in the middle of the storm of the century. I also reserve the right to change this opinion come springtime.

Get all season tires and drive your C4.

993RS

Don't know about the States, but if you are in an accident in snow and have summer tires, the insurance company will not pay.

Ray Calvo

Since my Audi A4 Quattro gets 4 dedicated snows for driving in Pittsburgh, I'd say DEFINITELY get 4 snows if you have a good chance of getting snow/ice. The 1/2 times you might need them you'll be glad they're on the car.

Better yet - get an Audi or Subaru-ru-ru AWD for winter and leave the Porsche in the nice warm garage.

Mike Lincoln

I think you definitely benefit from snow tires. Considering only the driven wheels: 4wd increases the contact patch of driven wheels by x2 (helps acceleration) and the contact patch of braking wheels not at all. So driving extra wheels, aside from effects on interaction between directional stability and thrust, doesn't help too much. What helps more is to have increased static and dynamic coefficients of friction due to different rubber inside the bounds of the contact patches.

Mike

Greg Fishman

What Mike said!

Another way of looking at it is the cost of the tires is probably less than your insurance deductible and the increase in premiums if you have an accident.

GreggT

Everyone pretty well covered it here but I'll just pile-on a bit.
Z rated rubber at 25 degrees is much like a billiard ball on a counter top......now add a little moisture, and things really get fun

Anyway.....all-wheel Pcars are great fun in the winter....but 2/3s of their control is in the rubber & fitments.....stay a narrow as you can (use spacers if you like)....choose from M2s,Blizzaks,210WinterSports, etc.....all good performance winter tires....have fun....GreggT