When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
If you enjoy breaking loose at low speeds, you needn't look any further than running summer tires in the winter The track, though, is where you can have that same fun at much high speeds. Nothing like a little oversteer pulling a 1+g turn at 100mph to get the heart pumping. You can't do that on snow tires.
I second all those who recommended getting summer tires for the summer. These cars are EXTREMELY dependent on tires to get the expected performance out of them- you paid a lot of money to drive a Porsche, why handicap it with crappy-for-the-season tires? No reason to artificially limit your car's performance. Run your winter tires this winter, and then get Damon to hook you up an extra set of wheels with some BFG Rivals for this summer- you won't regret it! (I'm super happy with the O.Z. Alleggerita wheels in my avatar pic, btw, if you're looking for suggestions.)
Thing is that after a season the winter tires are crap for winter. They turn into an all season. I have no problem driving them all the way to the belts in the summer when I know I need a fresh set for the upcoming winter.
I have 3 sets of wheels and 3 different compounds. The r-compounds are for the track where the if I ran a high perf summer tire they chuck apart after half an hour. The worn winters will allow you to abuse the crap out of them and they teach you the car control and have a much better slip angle then does the r-compounds. I use the summer winters to save the r-compounds and the winter tires that are still up to winter season from use so as to not wear any of them out prematurely doing something they are not optimally designed to do.
Anyone looking to get a last bit of fun out of an old set of tires should be looking no further than your local drift club. It's one thing to be within a hair's width of spinning at highway speeds on a track. It's quite another to be going 75mph and then intentionally putting your car sideways and holding a top-gear style drift; that sort of car control is a lot harder than it looks and really does need to be practiced. Gives you a ton of confidence, though, if you can learn to do it well. Go in with the right attitude, and you'll have a lot of fun; they don't often get Porsches signing up. I have no desire to show drift and don't particularly care for the social scene drifters are known for, but ended up signing up for an open track day with a local drift club last year and had a blast. Do be prepared to shred your tires extremely quickly, though. There's a reason some of these kids show up with a tire mounter and a pickup truck full of used tires.
I don't see what is wrong with all seasons for the summer (i.e. "Putting crap tires on a high performance car". I'm not saying they are good for winter but that they are good insurance policies for various weather and road surface conditions. If someone is taking full advantage of "summer tires" than you must be driving like a maniac on the street - otherwise please elaborate what is better (turn in? road feed back?). My experience with MY winters was they had plenty of grip in the summer and especially rain over the summer tires I had. I also would like to point out the longer wear life of all weather tires - at least my Conti Extreme Contact DWS - over summer high performance tires. Finally, if the grip is so much lower for winters and all seasons in the summer - there are lots of recent articles (related to the BRZ/gt86/Miata) commenting that less grip is more fun - but again there is plenty of grip for safe speedy driving.
I'd be eager to try a set of summers that were recommended earlier here that are claimed to work better in damp/rain conditions than my conti's. Where I live summer can mean 50-65 degrees with damp coming off the tree's in the twisties.
If someone is taking full advantage of "summer tires" than you must be driving like a maniac on the street -
Pretty much this
I don't normally exceed 6/10 during normal driving, and try not to ever exceed 8/10th on public streets, even when driving "spirited"- it's just too risky and the consequences too severe; I reserve 10/10 for autocross and the track. Still, 6/10 and 8/10 of fantastic street tires is WAY faster than 6/10 or 8/10 of crappy tires. Of course, what I consider a nice safe conservative "6/10" is beyond the performance range of most cars/SUVs on crappy tires, and what most people consider driving like a maniac...
If you only have a little tire left, and are going to have to replace those winter tires next time, why not just burn them up. They'll be noisier and not what you're really looking for, but if they are N designated Scorpion Ice & Snows you can still have some fun.
Too many posts to read, but Ill just add one experience I had regarding wear...
I live in Toronto Canada, and go down to Hatteras in North Carolina on windsurf trips once in awhile.
I made two trips one year in the Fall, and then the Spring. It was already winter tire weather in Canada for both, so I decided to leave them on for the trip, since my summers had low profile tires and I wanted to do everything I could to avoid a flat or wheel damage.
The drive is about 13 hours each way (so 13 hours x 4 = about 50 hours of driving on the highway). After leaving Canada and going South, the weather gets warmer, and warmer. On one of the trips back, we stopped and I could smell rubber strongly from the rear tires.
The tires were new at the start of that year. Well, two return trips, loaded with gear, and the rear winter tires were done. The warm weather killed them, along with a heavy load.
So, if you choose to use winters in the summer, you might not be able to use them again, as soon as the weather gets cold. They don't last long at all when it gets hot.
Sorry to wake up this thread.. but this is relevant to me (or so I think).
Last fall I switched to winter tires on my 05 C2 and I'm thankful I did that (considering the abnormal amounts of snow Seattle received this winter).
I bought a set of barely used Nokian Hakkappeliitta R2 with 18" wheels and they served the purpose well - car is a DD.
But this week has been quite warm => 25C during the day (abnormal? maybe the past snow exaggerates the perception).
It has also been quite windy here in the PNW (10-15mph winds)
I usually take a stretch of the highway here at 60-65mph (rough concrete, with tram-rails left by trucks over the years that don't fit the width of a 997).
During the last couple of days I felt quite a few instances of crosswinds that literally pushed me to the next lane!
I thought it was the wind and was determined to get a front splitter. But other cars didn't seem to be struggling at all.
There was a little Fiat 500 behind me that didn't seem to even budge from its track.
And today it happened again, with warm temperature and cross winds, at 65mph and I slowed down to 50mph and it still felt like the front was floating.
The whole episode scared the hell out of me - felt like someone else was turning the wheel from right under my nose.
My wife took our little Ford Focus out on the same highway around the same time and she didn't feel a thing.
That got me thinking on the recent changes in the car => front brakes + rotors, brake fluid flush, transmission fluid flush, new fake fuchs in 18" but nothing to the suspension.
Amidst all this, I was completely oblivious to the fact that I drove winter (snow??) tires during an almost-summer day.
Do you folks concur that this is what should happen with winter tires in summer?
I was just waiting for a sure signal of Spring to switch the tire/wheels and looks like I have that now.. sigh..
It’s a good question and the short answer is that you should not use winter tires during warm summer temps. The rubber will get too soft. The opposite happens to summer tires in cold conditions; they get too hard and in either case your traction is limited.
Here's my experience. I have put 7000kms on my Sottos on my road trip from Toronto to California. I had to run winters or i would not have made it down.
I have been very impresses with these "winters". I thought i would have had to replace them here but still a good amount of tread and i am going to expect them to get me back to Toronto in April (maybe another 5000kms). They do not perform as well as summers down here obviously but they are not bad at all and i have had them on some fairly challenging terrain - not pushing too hard of course but they have performed admirably. The weather has not really been hot down here this winter (50-70's) so maybe thats a factor but would not hesitate to use them again next year if i make the same trip
02-18-2013, 01:39 AM
The track, though, is where you can have that same fun at much high speeds. Nothing like a little oversteer pulling a 1+g turn at 100mph to get the heart pumping. You can't do that on snow tires.
