utkinpol

I have a set of almost new PA2 tires for sale if anybody wants them.
I recommend you 18" rims for winter tires - you do want 18" as they got more sidewalls and most important issue with winter driving is to keep your rims safe when you hit potholes. with 19" rims any big enough hole will bend your rims as you have very little sidewall, with 18" you have more protection.

look on tirerack for cheapest good set of rims in 18" 8" wide front, 10" wide rear, snow tires should not be wide, 235/265 set is exactly what works best.

if you really do not want to use dedicated set you can put conti DWS on your 19" rims but be careful not to hit anything. especially in Manhattan.

utkinpol

do NOT do it. most of those rims are cheap chinese cast wheels and they can literally fall apart from a severe hit.
get OZ allegeritas or any cheaper rims from list below. winter rims are for beating, not for good looks.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/resul...&filterNew=All

Jay H

Wheel Enhancement has Italian made rims for Porsche that are a few bucks less and are probably much higher in quality than the unproven / unknown Chinese brand rims bouncing around the Internet. Search for the "Sport Edition" brand of rims from The Tire Rack and form an opinion on those rims based on past posts before pulling the trigger.

I just paid $350 per rim for brand new Carrera III 18" rims from a reputable vendor. They purchased a whole slew of these rims from Porsche recently.

utkinpol

second that, they have good reputation, just check with them so you get OEM-like stuff, not an imitation.

Darkalley36

1st, i had a set of Chinese knock-offs on my M3 for winter tires and they were 83% made from butter. On top of that the wheel guy almost could not balance them. Never again!!!!

What do you guys think of the Victor wheels?? I have done some searching and i see no complaints.

http://www.victorequipmentwheels.com/

brad@tirerack.com

If you live where there is snow of any kind, ice of any kind, or if the temperatures get below 45 - then you need snow tires. The temperature and ice get people without them before the snow does.

Please give me a call, I'd be happy to help.

alexb76

+1.

Note OEM Carrera 3 wheels are made by BBS. Cant go wrong. There are a few sets of those on eBay. Negotiate those down to a good price, get the rennlisters PA2 tires and you're done!

FI Flyer

For the moment, ignore the question of whether you need winter tires. (You do.) And focus on potholes.

You need 18" tires. When you are on a New York area highway in dense traffic, there is nowhere to go when you finally see the pothole, you are going to hit it. Hard.

I got my winter tires (Michelin Pilot Alpins) from Damon at TireRack. The wheels look fine and I have had no problems with them. Amazingly, I get better mileage on them than on my regular 19" PS2s. Go figure. And they go through snow and don't slip on turns. (Of course, I try to watch out for icy patches.)

So put me down as suggesting 18" wheels and winter tires.

997_rich

+1 on 18" wheels for any season in NYC. 19" is a recipe for bent rims even in summer. You quite often hear people from outside the nyc area talk about how 19"s are fine but I don't think they have a sense of how ****ty the roads really are around here. Every time I leave town I'm astounded by how nice the roads are elsewhere- it's exhilarating and it's tough to keep the speed down.

Is anyone doing real miles on winter tires? I do about 500 highway miles every week for business even in winter. Last winter I was taking a rental if it was snowy. Do the Alpins or the Sottozeros hold up over 500 miles a week for 2 months?

thanks

Jay H

My previous daily driver (2008 Boxster) was used in winter and I ran Continental winter tires. I put 10,000+ miles on those tires and wore down about 3/32nds on the rears and 1/32nd on the front. They do hold up if you drive within reason.

997_rich

NO! I refuse to drive within reason. It's 100 mph cloverleafs or nothing.

Just kidding. Did you do any extended higher speed driving or just around town? -Thanks

Jay H

I never exceeded the speed limit. Ever. Not once your Honor.

But, if I did exceed the speed limit on a longer run, I would have found that the Continental winter tires were very capable tires at speed and for long distance driving. Very comfortable, quiet and did well at the posted limit+.

Sure, the winter tires didn't have the ultimate grip that the summer tires did, but I sure liked the ride quality and the cold pavement grip. I highly recommend winter tires even if you don't get much snow.

alexb76

Yup!

I actually put them on around November and don't take off till March. Most of that time it doesn't snow and I just drive it around town in rain, cold weather. They work FANTASTIC for what kind of weather. The ride is more compliant, their wet traction is fantastic and they actually STICK BETTER than PS2 when it's cold, total win-win until it gets warm.

This way I also extend the life of my PS2s, as I don't drive em around for 4-5mos/year.

997_rich

perfect. I'm sold.

SARGEPUG

If you only plan a trip or two upstate, then why spring for so much $? Simply pick a couple fair weather weekends to travel!