brad@tirerack.com

It's not too soon to be thinking about snaow tires. Now is the perfect time to buy. Early Oct. is when our inventory is the best it will be all year.

Please give me a call if I can help!

Dennis C

The change over is complete. The Blizzaks are on the C4S, the PS2s are on the rack. The WeatherTech mats are in place and the ice scraper is in the back seat.

I drove 6,349 miles on the PS2s since last April. They still look very good, front and rear. I should make it through one more summer on them. The Blizzaks, on the other hand, are looking a little thin. I may replace them this year. They still have decent tread after three seasons of use, but the "Blizzak magic" seems to wear off after a few seasons.

I'm doing the Cayenne tomorrow.

jordanturbo

Put my Dunlop Winter Sport 3D's on last night, they are by far my fav performance winter tires

Dennis C

What others have you tried? Any experience with the Porsche-approved Pirellis?

jordanturbo

I have run pretty well every winter tire that has come on the market between all my vehicles. Specifically on my Porsche I have run the Bridgestone Blizzak LM60, Michelin Pilot Alpine (cant remember if it was the PA2 or PA3), Pirelli Winter sottozero and winter sport. I like to try out 2 sets of winters a year on each of my vehicles so I can keep up with the newest products and give real life experience to my customers. This year I ordered another set of wintersport 3d's for my stock turbo wheels in 285/35r18 that give almost a perfect outside diameter when stretched over the wider rim according to my alignment rack when I did the roll out, though a 285 in the rear is not ideal haha, a little too wide, but I love them.

I am usually a pretty big bridgestone fan, I have run the WS60 and WS70 on my G37 and loved them. For the climate I live in they provided the best ice traction in severe cold temperatures etc. Tried the bridgestone LM 60 found that snow traction was good, ice was mediocre at best cold temps were nothing to write home about, and for a performance winter it felt very sloppy in dry conditions.

I tried the Michelin Pilot Alpine and did not expect any decent results. I have had the original x-ices, the xi2, and am giving the xi3 a shot this year on my g37. I have thought they all sucked. Michelin is not made for my climate they get hard before we get really cold here, the sidewalls are mush, wear like crap, snow is mediocre. the only time I found the michelins decent were in light snow and on ice when temperatures were above -15deg celcius. The Pilot Alpine was basically the same experience in a performance winter line the only difference was that there were fewer good tires competing against it like in the passenger car lines. I am biased against Michelin in general though. Except for the Pilot Super Sport I think you can find better tires, at more affordable prices.

Pirelli's are absolute junk imo. they are a winter tire, not an ice tire, their ice traction sucks it is a snow tire, and even sucks at that, the only think I liked is it stayed fairly firm in the corners in dry conditions, otherwise I would never use them.

With the Dunlop I found their ice traction to be superior to the Michelin and the and pirelli's, and about the same if not a little better than the bridgestones. dry performance and handling were not quite as good as the pirelli, but better than the bridgestone and michelin. I also found that the snow traction was pretty close to bridgestone as well.

Basically the reason I would run the 3D on my porsche is for the following reasons:

1) it is the most affordable out of the 4 major brands (I dont pay either way for tires so not really a issue)

2) They are not always the best in any certain area, but they are the best all around tire in every category while compremising very little as far as a performance tire is concerned

3) My Climate is very cold and dry, not much snow ever, sometimes ice is a bit of an issue, but the big one is it getting down close to -40deg where most tire, even winters will get hard

4) I can use them on my factory turbo wheels on my 4s so I don't have that gay sunken battle ship wheel fitment in winter

Dennis C

Thanks for the reviews. I'm not sure what to get next. I live in the mountains in Colorado. In a typical winter, I could see anything from ice to packed snow to deep snow. I could see -30F up to 65F. Most often, I'm on dry roads with temps in the mid-20s. I do drop down to the recommended 10x18 rear wheel, and I don't like the sunken-in look either. I've considered spacers in the rear.

I've used Michelin Latitude Alpin (PA3 I think) on the Cayenne, and they do a nice job on that vehicle. They ride very nicely on dry pavement. I've also used Hankook Winter I-Pike tires on our Audi Allroad. They were fantastic on snow and ice, but less than desirable on dry pavement. My C4S is currently wearing Blizzak LM-25s. They perform reasonably well in snow and ice, but they're a bit "squishy" on pavement. I'd like something that maintains the sporty character of the car on cold, dry pavement but doesn't give up too much in snow and ice. It sounds like the Dunlops might be worth trying...

Dennis C

According to Porsche's website, the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D is a Porsche-approved tire, even though it's not N-spec. That's good to know.

jordanturbo

I have used my winters in colorado twice. I used to take 4 weeks from the last half of january to the first half of feb and drive down for a Ski trip. I would split my time pretty evenly between my friends cabin at Winter Park, to ski there or Steam Boat, or a condo we would rent in Breck to go there, Copper, and Vail.

I always found that my 3D's were more than adequette there, but I dont have any other winters to compare them to for your conditions. One thing I found for that time I spent down there is that Colorado was very efficient at clearing snow so my biggest concerns was ice more than anything.

I won't say this is the best tire for you driving style or climate, but I wont say that they aren't worth giving a shot.

Dennis C

We take the Cayenne when we ski (for a variety of reasons), and it does very well with the Michelins. I took it out last year several times when we had storms with more than 40-inches of snow, and it did well. The C4S is my daily driver. My office is only about 3 miles from my home, and I drive down to the airport on a regular basis. My biggest concern is ice and packed snow. If it's deep, the C4S stays in the garage. Based on your recommendation and the fact that Porsche has approved the Dunlops, I think I'll give them a try. I suspect they will perform better than the Blizzaks on cold, dry pavement.

roadsession

I think the Dunlop 3D is the best overall winter tire - doesn't suffer from the "blizzak effect" where it turns to an all season tire after a couple of seasons.

However Damon from Tire Rack is pushing the blizzaks hard, claiming that for my AWD 18" setup the only tires that work are the 225/40/18 and 275/35/18 setup with the Blizzaks, whereas Porsche recommended setup is 225/40/18 and 265/35/18 for both RWD and AWD setup (and they only recommend 2 tires in that setup - Dunlop 3D and Pirelli Wintersport).

I get that Damon and TR have to make a living and they're good sponsors of the board, but would prefer more objective (and correct) answers...

Dennis C

The easiest way to go is to buy one of the Porsche-approved brands and sizes. There may be better things out there and there may not, but at least you'll know that the tires and sizes you bought have been tested and approved for your vehicle. This takes a little bit of the subjectivity out of it.

jordanturbo

I will admit I do push Goodyear, Dunlop, Kelly pretty hard because I am an authorized dealer for them which means I make more money selling them versus other brands like Bridgstone, Michelin, Cooper etc. But I honestly believe that Dunlop winter tires made in Japan are almost as good as bridgestones, and better than michelins, for a way better price. I push those products hard because I think they are honestly a pretty good product.

roadsession

can i buy a set of dunlop 3d or 4d from you?

jordanturbo

Probably not unless you are in Canada and feel like driving to my shop as I am a brick and mortar shop and dont do shipping.

jordanturbo

So had our first snowfall here, it was melting pretty quick, but there was enough slush to make the drive to the shop interesting on my Dunlop Sport Maxx GT's so I put on my old Winter Sport 3D's while I wait for my new ones being shipped in.