Weissy

So as I said I landed the 19 inch snow tires from my dealer. I have never driven a car with snow tires before. What are there limits? Can I push the car hard on dry cold pavement with them? Can I drive this care safely in a inch of snow now? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

jessenyc

Get familiar in a snow covered EMPTY parking lot.

Generally more tread produces a smaller contact patch and more tire flex. Won’t be able to carry as much speed through dry corners.

ELUSIVE

What kind of snow tires are they?
In general snow tires will not perform on the high level that performance tires will as they are meant for getting traction in the snow. You will definitely feel a difference immediately. I wouldn't push them too hard until you are comfortable with the new limits of your car.

Once you drive them in snow though you will love them.

Weissy

When you say feel a difference immediately..... Do you mean in a good way or in a bad way? I was just getting used to my summer tires in the cold weather hope I didn't throw away 1800 bucks on rubber and balancing to give up performance now.

ELUSIVE

When I say that you'll feel a difference immediately, i mean you'll see a decrease in performance. As jessenyc said, snow tires offer a smaller contact patch and therefore you will see variances in acceleration, braking, and handling. I have always found snow tires (now, I've never had a 19" snowtire before...but several 16" & 17") to also have a weaker sidewall which could cause your car to feel like it's got a bit more body roll.
The purpose of snow tires is to get traction in the snow and not for high performance. They do make some good high performance snow tires which i'm assuming that you got...but they will never be as good as a high performance summer only tire. They price will be justified for them the first time you drive it in a good snowstorm though.

Moogle

Weissy, winter is almost over!

a meteorologist friend of mine siad we likely we won't get any more 'real' snow this season, mabye some sprinkles , but nothing that will stick.!

JS

Sounds great to me, hope its true.

alin2

Weissy:

There is no doubt that the performance characteristics of your new 19" winters (Conti Wintercontact 810?) will not have nearly the grip of summer high performance tires in a +40 F degree environment. They will definitely feel a bit more "nervous" with high speed turns, sweepers, and sustained high speeds. OTOH, they will provide IMMENSELY more grip than your summer high performance "Y" rated tires in a sub 40 F degree environment...allowing the 997 to be driven at all. Plus, if you get any snow that sticks, you're gonna have a BLAST tooling around in your new snowshoes with a relative degree of confidence...rather than plowing into the nearest ditch with your "ice skate" summer tires at 5 mph.

rss997

My friend told me we are all thru with the snow too!!!!!!!!!!

alin2

Ha Ha...as I go out to start my snowblower...(grumble, grumble)...

ELUSIVE

I have a feeling that here in Colorado we are no where near the end of snow.
last year it snowed in May. DOH!

Weissy

I don't really drive this car in the snow anyway. If I can now then great but still wont take it to work in the snow just because I have snow tires on it. I got these only because I need to drive this car 35 miles a day to and from work in sub 40 temps. We haven't seen 40 here in weeks and even though we may touch 40 from time to time now and then for the next few weeks at noon, it isn't 40 or above at 5:30 pm or 6 am when I drive the car. That was my main reason for buying them.

caf

Ditto alin2.

I think it's more proper to call these "winter tires" than snow tires. They're really about more than just fluffy precipitation. They're compounded for cooler temperatures where high performance summer tires can get rock hard with very slippery characteristics. This also makes the winter tires far better on ice.

I still remember tales in the pre-PSM/traction control era where drivers would hit the throttle on the first cold morning of the season when going around a corner. Despite the fact it was the same thing they had done every day for the last six months, the outcome was different. Cold temps mean increased horsepower, and decreased traction. Had a friend run a 930 through a fence this way.