race911

To consolidate the various winter driving/roof rack/snow tire pressure, I thought I'd bring this new thread up with a single purpose--actually how good is a 993 AWD in snow, with proper tires.

So overnight what we expected came. Snow level pretty high at about 4K+ ft., so there was only about 25 miles of chain control on I-80 + 4 miles of old Hwy 40 to get to Sugar Bowl. All plowed.

No problems at all with the newly mounted Michelin X-Ice 205/50 on 8" front, 235/45 on 9" rear (with ~1" of spacing). Went with the factory pressure of 36F/44R.

I-80 was a breeze. Inside the chain control the speed limit is 30MPH. Non-chained up traffic was running the typical 45-50MPH.

Got a bit interesting getting off the freeway. A Subaru was in front of me, and as he approached the stop sign it was all ABS taking over for the final 10MPH. I was trailing pretty far behind, braked normally, and didn't get into the ABS at all.

Probably had to track 4-6" of fresh powder on that final 4 miles. All was well at about 30-35MPH. I buzzed it a couple of times in second gear, and the front bit pulling the rear which did break traction a bit. But nothing to even worry about countersteering over.

So now I get to the fresh powder, had to be over 6" deep. Came to a stop and basically nailed it. Broke traction in 1st, but not too much. Hooked up without any detectable wheelspin in 2nd. Backed off at about 45MPH. Did a few low speed turns, and where the car just flat out terminally understeered a few weeks ago up there with the summer rated Hankooks, today the car hooked up and pretty much said back to me "uh, that's all you've got?"

Photo from when I parked it about 9:30AM. On return about 3PM, there was over 6" of snow piled on. I THINK the only real problem I had in backing up was that the car was slightly stuck from the day's snowfall, I fully engaged the clutch, and the engine spun up when I applied throttle. Oops. Smelled a little clutch. I then rocked the car 1st to reverse, and got out.

Final observation was that these tires seem to be really good in rain, too. Some pretty massive runoff once I got below the snow level, and the car tracked through just fine at 75-80MPH in the rain.

Anyway, there's the Wall Of Words. Love to hear from others who have used these in the snow. I really thought the viscous coupling AWD would have been deficient to what I remember in the 964 C4.

Makmov

I already have snows on mine; but it just wont snow here. Everywhere around us has gotten hammered and us, zip, nada, blank, nothing.

Slow Guy

Good review Ken. I bet you got more than a few stares/comments with your car.

race911

Thanks. I think everyone here knows I am a big advocate of USING the cars.

Funniest thing that's happened in the last couple of days? One of my racing acquaintances was offered a one owner, really nice (according to him), 138K '91 C4 that's recently had a lot of misc. work done.........for ~$10K. He's likely going to pass, and if he does it's all mine to pursue.

J.A.W.S.

strange wheel/tire size combination. 17"....?

but love 993s in the snow.

race911

Strange how? I'd run 16's if there was brake caliper clearance. No way, no how is an 18" an "upgrade" for snow tires. Manufacturers make them (and larger) purely because of consumer demand.

Ultimately, it's because I have about 4 extra sets of 17" wheels from the old RSA's race days.

deleonl1

Let's see more snow pics! The Cup 1s look great!!!

J.A.W.S.

had oem 17" cup 1s on my 993 when i bought the car. also winter tires...
the original dimensions are 205/50 on 7x17ET55 and 255/40 on 9x17ET55.
just wondering...


3year old pic:

Mark in Baltimore

Wow, as low as your car is, I'm surprised that it made it through 6" of snow. You take more risks than I do, at least as far as potentially getting stuck goes.

Ed Burdell

That's an awesome story, Ken. I too am an advocate of using these cars.

race911

Just have the Blackberry as a camera with me now. And the battery died by the time I got back to the car this afternoon. Was going to have my wife bring up a real camera, but she's a fair weather skier and decided to stay home. May or may not head back up tomorrow as it's been raining nonstop in Sacramento; will have to see what road conditions are in the AM.

Might have opted for wider or 18" if this was a set of tires that would be installed when the weather turned for the season, and stayed on for the duration. Granted things have greatly changed over the years, but the owner's manual calls for 205/225. I can deal with this extreme of a setup as these will come off Sunday for the week of running around town, and back on Thursday for next weekend. We get rid of this rain and it may be 60+F middle of next week.

I've got a tow strap! Figured worst case I could get one of the maintenance trucks to pull me out of any predicament and closer to the occupied part of the parking lot.

mooty

u da man, ken!!!
hpe to see u at the new yr drive.

C2Cab95

Agreed... though I have a C2 Cab, if it were a C4 Coupe, then I would most likely drive it in any weather condition.

From what I've read in the past about the 964 system was that it was overly complicated and favored the front wheels much more than the 993's simpler viscous coupling.

993s playing in snow is definitely a fun thing to see!

Cactus

Nice!

ploglet

I drove mine through the Colorado winters and up to ski as often as I could. The car would drive perfectly fine as long as you didn't try and over do it. The only problems I had when using the car in the winter was:
1. When the truck in front of you would drive over the top of the ice chunk and you of course wont make it over that chunk
2. With a lot of snow and super cold weather, you might get a lot of snow pack in the wheels and have odd issues with a frozen rotor. I had this last comment when we had some -10 and below weather. Had to take the wheel off and 'unfreeze' it.