vindaloo

Thanks to Subarussian, I have four 16" MY00 wheels which I plan to run December to March, thus saving my 18" P1WRCs from grief.

Hopefully, running a higher sidewall and more appropriate tyes will mean I have fewer little incidents in the cold , wet and possibly snow this year.

Thing is, what tyres to get? I want tyres that perform well in the wet but also at low temperatures, typical of a journey to work on a cold January morning in Bucks/Berks. OK, so it's not going to be 10% below zero... I'll still be colder than ideal for my current F1 GSD3s though.

So, what do I go for out of the following in 205/55x16s....
Uniroyal Rainsport 1 (classed as a summer tyre)
Goodyear Eagle Ultragrip GW3 (winter tyre)
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA2 (winter tyre)
...or something else entirely.

I've been advised that winter tyres might last (only) 5K miles. That's not really a problem as with my current annual mileage in the Impreza, that'd be 3-5 years, based on use only in December through March 31st each year.


Cheers,

J.

richiewong

This is what I use, Toyo Snowprox 205/45/17.
Obviously a very poor performance tyre but in the snow I've never felt so confident and motor on by stranded cars

They're directional and the tread in the pic runs right to left, that one is my NSF wheel

http://www.toyo.co.uk/index.php?fuseaction=car.s950

vindaloo

Cheers Ritchie, another one to add to the list.

Anyone use www.tyretest.com?

J.

AJbaseBloke

Dunno if you get them in the UK yet but the Michelin X-ice is supposed to be very good indeed. Not gonna be a hi-perf tyre on tarmac, but better than many it is said, and great on ice and snow.

I find my Pirelli Ice Sports to be pretty good for town and snow (on my second set now - got about 10k miles out of the first set). The casing is relatively stiff and they are not as squishy as many other tyres. Makes for slightly less perf on snow/ice, but the scoob AWD (and your skills ) will get you through everything safely that'll stop cars on summer tyres. Helps that they are pretty reasonably priced in Japan, too (hope they are cheap in the UK too). That's on my lardy Leggy too, so a Rex whould be quite happy on them.

HTH - Cheers

Subarussian

Enjoy the wheels. Good luck with the tyre choice.

Cheers,

A

vindaloo

Hello again,

The wheels brushed up cleaner with a little "Wonder Wheels".

Yeah, tyres could be ... interesting... The Rainsports may edge it due to be less crap in snow than F1s or Contis or Bridgestones etc. Compared to the Eagle Ultragrips or Michelin Alpins though, they're crap too!

Main problem I have is 3-4 months of low temp. motoring without much ice/snow to deal with (I hope).



J.