Its winter!!!
 

a couple of inches of snow just dumped on my zipcode. As a result of this i came to the realization that my all season tires that suck in the rain are absolutely useless in snow.

-What is the absolute best snow/rain/winter tire available for my 15" wheels?
-Are studded tires worth a damn?
-Would it help to try to find something more narrow than 195?
-Is it possible to find some bad ass winter rally tires?

I want my summer tires and better weather back.

I wish it snowed here. But then id drive my Audi, cause the tires on the miata suck.

Haha I live in the Bay area and we had an inch of snow at 2 days ago it was crazy.

we have a ton of snow up in maine........5 inches so far,

and tomorrow i think im going to move the miata from the barn, 500 yards to the garage, its going to be alot of fun i can see it now!
JP

I put the top up today driving to work today so I could turn the AC on b/c I was sweating. It has cooled to a frigid 73 degrees now that it's after 1am, brrr. :D

70 degrees here. I had to wear a ski jacket to keep from getting hypothermia.

jealous of you southerners. screw you for rubbing it in though, i hate the cold.

Trade places? I like cold.

ugh. i absolutely, positively, f#%king hate snow and it just dumped all over us in VA. i have some family in Huston. maybe i should move there.

no snow tire advice?

winter seized up my driver side power lock module. lol.

vancouver, bc,canada

Lol, I got all you guys beat. It was almost 85 degrees today and will be around 84 tomorrow.

This is a subjective opinion, from a user in Chicago. Take what you will.

I had a new set of Blizzak WS60s last year. They were fantastic in the snow, and sucked on the pavement due to squirm and tire wear. By April, the tread was down a whole lot, and barely gripped in the snow anymore.

This year, as of 1 week ago I put on new Michelin Xi2s. There is little squirm, and the grip in snow is comparable, if not more fantastic than the WS60s. I cannot comment on how they will wear. I expect 2 seasons from the reviews I've read. What is nice is that the Xi2 are good in dry and snow, where in Chicago there is a ton of snow on the ground for 2 days, then the roads are dry for 2 weeks. repeat. The only better tire out there I've heard is the Nokian Hakkepeliitta R, but they are more expensive.



*Oh, and by fantastic, I mean you will be passing every single car on the road with confidence in a storm. Don't bother with studded - save the roads and my tax dollars.

shitty georgia weather FTL!

it was cold an hour ago and now its raining like hell and feels like a mid spring night! :(

^

lol vancouver rains all the time.

we ocationally get snow. more often then not its just slush!

Georgia is just wierd. It hit 36* here in valdosta last night, but today I could walk around in shorts with no jacket because it was warm outside? WTF

F you all in the warm weather! I hate the snow (except snowboarding). I hate my parents for moving to CT from So Cal when I was 14.

i wish i knew how to snowboard!

so many downfalls to the south! :(

I finally get to be the guy that says Haha its 70 degrees here today! Suck it!

With that said, a few years back I had an 03 Cavalier, which is a shitty car, and I put some Firestone Winterforce tires on it. Completely different car with them, huge improvement, they are avalible at tirerack. Link to the tirerack page. That was a Western NY winter, I drove the car through 7 or 8 inchs of snow on the roads. I found it hysterical to be passing 4x4 trucks and SUV douches in a Crapolier.

I just spent 3 hours shoveling because the fucking plow guy never showed!! :vash:

My gf's Mazda 6 has garbage low profile tires on it. I had to push her out of the driveway to get her going. I think I'll drop her off at work tomorrow and take her car to get 4 snow tires for an early Christmas present. I don't want to see her crack up this car because we neglected to take care of this before the snow came.

Anyone have any coupons for snow tires?!? :)

I got the Hankook Winter I*pike tires last time tire rack had a $100 off/set sale.

that shit makes the civic like some sort of GOD CAR in the snow.

they handle like soft goo when there's no snow, but so what.

Sam,
Are you going to VD State University?

For the record 78* and sunny as I drive through Clearwater Beach taking the long way to St. Pete Beach from Oldsmar. Looks like the pale Eurotourists and Canadians are starting to arrive...

Winter!? Where?
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I buy the cheap Firestone Winterforce snow tires. I had them on my WRX and now my wife's Protege. She is getting a new set this year. The last ones made it two or three seasons, but probably 40K miles. I bought them the firsttime from tire rack on cheap steelies. They will sell a set mounted and balanced for around $320 with wheels. You might want to find a set of daisies for cheap so you can just leave them on the wheel, plus then the salt won't hurt your good wheels.

She runs a 185/65/14 which is pretty close to the 195/45/15's that she normally runs. They are kind of an oddball size so they are $56.

If you go to a 175/70/14 they are only $47 each. Run these on $100 daisies and you have the whole setup for around $300. Narrower is generally better on snow tires.

We got around a foot of snow last night, 15 degrees with -5 wind chill and dropping. All UW campuses are closed today. I have Pirelli Winter Carving tires on the Miata and Dunlop Winter Sport 3D on the GTI, both are great on snow and ice as well as sporty enough to not squirm around on dry pavement.

Yeah, we had a foot yesterday, plus then 40 mph winds just to add to the drifting fun. Just got back from lunch. We have hit our high temp for the day already. 6*.

lmao, it's 81 fucking degrees warmer here.
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:cry:

Careful with that vented hood.
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I know dude, I was keeping my fingers crossed as I brushed off the snow.

At least this hood doesn't allow the snow to melt right onto the spark plug valley. :vash:

Continental ExtremeWinterContact

anyone try these?
middle of the road pricing
quote $312.86 to my door

Conti's make good winter tires. I have Semperits (made by Conti) and they work great.

Semperit Tires -Speed-Grip - The sporty tire

Really any of the major brands winter tires are soo much better than "all" seasons or 3 seasons as we call them up here on the snow and ice.

The question is dry road handling and wear vs. price. I haven't followed the market enough to know which one has the ultimate grip advantage and which ones wear the best.

If you get lots of snow and not much bare roads then walmart house brand winters with studs put in are great. Studs make it that much better. If you have them on wheels then I suppose you could swap as you saw fit to preserve the winters.

I'm NA still and I can drift at will - how do you guys run 200+ whp and drive in snow/ice - it must be wild!!

I took the boat out on the lake a rode around awhile today with a couple of friends and had a few Kirkland Pale Ales. I thought of this thread because I actually have snow tires on my boat trailer! Somebody that gave up and came down to Florida permanently brought them down without thinking that they would never need them. He and asked if I could use tires that size for anything and lo and behold they would fit the boat trailer. Sorry I can't actually recommend them. For the record it was an above average 84*F this afternoon, and I never did cut the grass...

Us New Yorkers have everyone beat.. 3ft of lake effect snow 2 days ago... the day my stupid flight was. Thought for sure I was going to die.

Sorry no advice on tires. Get a truck :p

I rock the blizzak WS60's. I love them to tell you the truth. I love putting trucks to shame in the snow. I am using the stock 14"s with them. Right now they are in their second season right now. My wear really hasn't been that bad with, but i only drove ~5K miles on them.

And this is why i bought a beater subaru. We got 4 inches last week in CT. my car Looked about the same as vash's before I brushed it off. It is still completely plowed in. I dont plan on driving it till feb or march :(

I'm about to say F this and move to Texas or Fl. And I live in Va. I don't know how you guys north of me do it. I really want my spirited driving back- NOW!:crx:

That's not right. I drove in -38celcius weather Saturday night on the way home. -38!!!

Location? Put it in your details under your name.

done

About studs, pretty useless and noisy if you mostly drive urban, but the only thing that works on ice.

(location sweden)

I take full advantage of anything I get... so yeah...
Attachment 201852

In for pics of snowdrifting Miatas tearing up parking lots. Let me live my life through yours.

Haven't filmed any myself.


Slow speed drifting on left and right turns at stop lights in 1st and 2nd is about it - i'm still naturally aspirated though

I have a pretty pussy video, since the cops were out ALL FRIGGIN NIGHT busting fellow people having fun in parking lots... so my wife and I did it in the private driveway.
YouTube - Snow Miata.wmv

I'll have a couple at some point :)

Right now I have no idea how I'm going to get out of the driveway in the morning. Its a small hill that shoots into the road and right now its just about a sheet of ice. Made it up somehow tonight, but the morning should be fun.

I spent 2 hours washing the car today. It'll look like shit again by noon tomorrow. :(

Houston? If so you may want to consider changing your plans: https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t41759/ :giggle:

I'm running stock size 185s for the NAs. I bought a set of Dunlop Graspics a few years ago and mounted them on the stock 7-spoke rims. About the first week of Dec - 2nd week of March, I'll run this set up. I bump up the tire pressure to 40psi so it doesn't feel too mushy.

It really helps with a Miata to have a good set of winter or all-season plus tires. You won't need studded (probably can't run studded in your neck of the woods), but some design with a lot of sipes is what you're looking for. From what I understand, the sipes trap snow/ice and acts like a bonding agent...much like when you pack a good snowball. The best grip for snow is snow.

In any event, winter tires won't make you Superman with ice. With snow, it gives you a good fighting chance and makes sliding a lot more controllable.

We had a couple of sets of WS-60s then a set of Graspics on a Protege 5 we had a few years back. The tires were more or less equivalent. You can't expect good handling on dry pavement, the wormy tread that makes them work on ice doesn't work well in the dry. We got great wear out of all of them. These new generation of winter tires work magically, even on sheer ice. The ice racers up here even have a Blizzak class, granted not as fast as Menards race studded, but light years better than a standard M&S tire. The little Protege could get bite even when the snow was above the chin/belly pan. If I didn't have the pickup, I wouldn't hesitate driving a Miata with a torsen and Blizzaks right on through winter.

the snow really bumfucked my plans on rebuilding my motor :ky::vash:

i fucking hate boston. i hate the salty ass slush thats eventually going to ruin my perfect north carolina chassis in a few years. i hate not having a garage to keep my baby in. ive been on a hate rampage ever since i saw fucking snow in my damn driveway.

my first choices on snow tires is bridgestone blizzacks or dunlop graspics.

rally tires here http://www.subesports.com/products/cat/Tires

btw, anyone in tampa? hows the weather there? im thinking of transferring to univ. of tampa so, just wondering wat its like at this time of year.

Its a little cool right now. And they are predicting a rainy front for Christmas. High 74* low of 57* today. But it got down to 37* two nights ago and only got to 52* for a high. I wore my long-johns.
See this:
7-Day Forecast for Latitude 27.96N and Longitude 82.48W (Elev. 23 ft)

Eenteresting!

So if I were to toss this set of Graspics at the end of the season....what should I get next year? We get maybe 1-3 snow dumpings a year (usually ~4-6 inches, sometimes a biggie). However, it's the black ice, refreezing, slush that I'm worried about.

How do the newer designs compare with warmer/drier winter days (like 50 degrees and dry)?

Aside, we didn't have the WS60, we had the previous generation WS.

Testing the Newest Crop of Studless Ice and Snow Winter Tires

Probably shouldn't post tirerack tests here now, but this is pertinent. What I would get in your situation would depend if you like to play to worse case scenario, or the mean scenario. IE, worst case, you get a ton of snow, need to get to work, and all you have is your Miata. If this is you, and/or you spend time worrying about such things, the WS or similar would be it. If you can get a ride to work with a buddy with a Subie, then a really good all season/M&S or something like the LM would do fine.

FWIW, even up here in upstate NY, I opted for the FWD Minivan over the AWD for the wife. And, I don't put snows on it. We aren't in the hills anymore, suburbia has better plowed roads. Also, I have the hell truck for the really bad days, she can commute with me if we get one of the 4X per year big storm, and she absolutely needs to get somewhere.

The WS Blizzaks will make you feel like a hero, and they absolutely do hold on to ice/black ice much better than all seasons. They will be ok for the dry ~50* days, just be sure to change them out when the threat of snow is over, usually ~May 1 up here.

^ Cool, thanks for the TR review. I'll probably get the WS60s based on that review. I've driven w/ Nokian WRs for about 18mos on my WRX wagon, and 3 winters w/ the Graspics on the Miata. They definitely help...but don't give me as much confidence as I remember. Maybe it's the 275 whp and extra tq, or just old age tires.