tooloud10

Ah, I just realized that I got my winter tires from Discount Tire Direct. They have the Hankook W300 Icebears for about $770 shipped (after messing with a $50 rebate) and the wheels at wheelsandcaps.com are $569 for a total of about $1340 + mounting/balancing ($80 around here)...a little more than I thought, but about the cheapest you'll find for a brand new 18" winter tire/wheel package for a Porsche.

I struggled with the same thing last winter and finally found something that works great. There's no reason you have to go with a narrower wheel/tire than stock, and if you have any fitment questions, post them here and I'll try to help you. Careful with the Boxster wheels--many (all?) of them have a different offset and there's a good chance they won't fit your 996.

Can anyone confirm that the 996 Targa is a narrowbody car? I don't want to lead Larry down the wrong path...

racer

996 Targa is narrow body

I imagine you could get away with 17" wheels/tires for winter. Yes, Boxster wheels (7x17 and 8.5x17) would fit (996 base wheels were 7 and 9x17 )

I always grin when I see other porsches out in "bad" weather.. rain, snow etc.. because they are being used and enjoyed!

AndyK

I bought used replica 17" twist rims with Pirelli winter tires, for $800 or so when I first bought my car in '07. I've installed them every winter, and drove the car between storms. There are some winters where it doesn't snow until December or January. Most of the time, when it does snow, I keep the car in the garage until the roads are clear.

Our cars will not disintegrate from salt. Wash the cars on 40 degree sunny winter days, and enjoy until you have to put the summer wheels back on on April!

tooloud10

Thanks...that's what I thought.

But what about the offset? I recall looking for Boxster wheels to use for the winter on my 996 C4 and finding that the diameters and widths were fine but the offsets were completely wrong.

15psi

I have some 17" Boxster S (twists) rims I use in winter. No snow tires. With LSD & traction control the car is great in snow.

The nice thing about 17" tires are they are really cheap compared to 18/19".

fbgh2o

I am also running Boxter Twists for my winter tires - the offsets are fine. Bought used for $900 for everything (and the tires will have 2 or 3 years of life in them). I do have a small spacers in front, but I do not think it makes any difference (they are for my summer wheels, but I leave them on due to the longer bolts they require)

larry47us

The problem I'm facing is that I have called Tire Rack and talked to them about tires for the 17" wheels. They said that they only have one tire, made by Pirelli. And that tire is a winter performance tire, not a snow/ice tire. That is the only tire in an "appropriate" size for Porsches for a 17" wheel.

What I don't understand is that the wheels are, let's say, 17' in diameter. But some of them are 7" across, and some are 8.5" and some are more. How do I make sure that i don't get too wide a wheel, and then how do I know what tires will fit a wheel of X width? Certainly I can't expect that a tire that will fit a 7" wide wheel will also comfortably fit an 8.5" wide wheel, or a 10" wide wheel.

I would rather get 17" more standard wheels to save money. The winter tires and wheels I bought for my Lexus (which were 16") were less than $900. It seems to me that I'm just not finding the right source of information to get what I need in the cheapest solution.

I don't need Z rated winter tires!!! Any standard sedan tire (like a T rated tire) would work fine for me for the winter months.

larry

AndyK

The Pirelli Wintersport tires are N rated, meaning you can drive the car the way it was designed to drive on those dry sunny winter days. You wouldn't like doing anything but going straight using sedan T rated tires!

Barn996

I bought my Blizzaks in 17" sizes so I could use my stock wheels, I imagine they are still available from Tirerack, and they are dedicated snows.

15psi

Go to tirerack.com and punch in Porsche, 2001, BoxsterS (17")
29 tire combinations came up. Including Pirelli snows for $674/set, or even Hankooks Hi Perf $392/set.

I run summer tires in winter, and have driven the car in 3-4" of snow. Any more and clearance will probably become a problem. Maybe best to work from home til they clean the streets.

For me ice is a bigger concern.

larry47us

I did as you suggested. Unfortunately, of the 29 sets of tires shown, there is only one that is winter, and the Pirelli's are labeled as winter tires, not snow tires. I am really looking for snow tires for the winter. I don't have LSD or Traction Control. I think that with these wide tires, I am going to need all the help I can get - getting actual SNOW TIRES.

If I go up to 18" wheels, there are three different labels of tires. If I try to get them on 17" wheels, there are NO SNOWS listed. I called and talked to someone at Tire Rack. He confirmed the issue. Porsche uses a very wide tire in the rear, and it is only Pirelli that makes a winter tire for the Porsche. Looks like I may have to do 18" wheels anyway. If no mfgr makes the tires, there is really no way I can buy them.

larry

redridge

+1.... ultimate CAI!

racer

When I went to tirerack for 17's I found this: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....a&autoModClar=

When I read the description of the tire, it says for use in Snow, rain, and Ice..

You might also review your owners manual as Porsche has, for many years, listed recommended winter/snow tires for its models.

When I searched for 18's I got: http://www.tirerack.com/snow/WinterT...&performance=W
leaving 4 different tires..

larry47us

Racer:

I came up with the same choices, I think, when I surfed their site. But when I called Tire Rack, he told me that the Pirelli was a plowed street winter tire, whereas the Blizzak was an all winter heavy snow tire. Certainly a $1350 tire package is better than a $1700 package. It looks like a viable option. Thanks for bringing it back to my attention.

larry

racer

Also consider the limited ground clearance on the 996. you won't have too much luck in more than 6" of fresh snow no matter what tire you have since it will build up under the car. Having at least a "winter biased" tire will make travel in a small accumulation suprise easier and also easier on sloppy, wet, icy roads as well.