Winter tyres, serious size question

PMKeates said:
The absence of a CS5 or better was not the crux of my point, just a side note that I still think is valid. Comparing the crème of winter tyres to anything but the crème of summer tyres is a little unfair but still useful information.

What the test shows is that snow performance aside, for 14.5% better wet braking performance in winter you must sacrifice 14.7% straight aquaplaning performance, 13.6% dry braking performance and 30.5% curved aquaplaning performance. It's not clear cut to say winter tyres make you "safest in worse conditions" as the summer tyres are evidently significantly better at resisting aquaplane in the pouring rain during periods of sub 7C temperatures. Again, aside from snow, that test demonstrates that winter tyres are a trade off of wet braking performance against aquaplaning and dry braking. Considering it is mostly dry in winter and the aquaplaning performance is much worse there's no obvious winner.
Click to expand...

Thats brilliant, thanks for the break down of the figures i'd have been at them for ages this afternoon otherwise!

For the marginal increase in wet braking distance but worse everywhere else i'd much rather stick with my lovely summer tyres thanks all the same mr marketing men.
 
PMKeates said:
The absence of a CS5 or better was not the crux of my point, just a side note that I still think is valid. Comparing the crème of winter tyres to anything but the crème of summer tyres is a little unfair but still useful information.

What the test shows is that snow performance aside, for 14.5% better wet braking performance in winter you must sacrifice 14.7% straight aquaplaning performance, 13.6% dry braking performance and 30.5% curved aquaplaning performance. It's not clear cut to say winter tyres make you "safest in worse conditions" as the summer tyres are evidently significantly better at resisting aquaplane in the pouring rain during periods of sub 7C temperatures. Again, aside from snow, that test demonstrates that winter tyres are a trade off of wet braking performance against aquaplaning and dry braking. Considering it is mostly dry in winter and the aquaplaning performance is much worse there's no obvious winner.
Click to expand...

To be fair the dry tests were carried out at between 4-6 degrees so not even cold enough to put the ice warning on a car.
 
Continental say that if you only run one set of tyres you should run winters all year, but then again their winter contacts cost more than their other tyres so they would ^^
 
Sigh.

Last year, in the snow, the Mondeo was largely fine. That was with Conti SportContact 3s. Now I have SportContact 5s up front, I'm interested to see how they fare, if we do get snow. I'm not going to get any 'winter' tyres because they're unnecessary. It's just a matter of adjusting your driving style, and avoiding steep hills :p

The MX5 was terrible in the snow. I took it out once, had no traction, and left it at home from then on. Lightweight + Eagle F1s with tread that fills up with snow.

However in the dry, it's brilliant. I can hoon around in <7C temps and enjoy plentiful grip as long as the tyres are warmed up a bit and the roads aren't icey. This is on a lightweight RWD car with a performance-oriented suspension setup and no driver aids.
Winter tyres my arse. Just drive according to the conditions.
 
Howard said:
Sigh.

Last year, in the snow, the Mondeo was largely fine. That was with Conti SportContact 3s. Now I have SportContact 5s up front, I'm interested to see how they fare, if we do get snow. I'm not going to get any 'winter' tyres because they're unnecessary. It's just a matter of adjusting your driving style, and avoiding steep hills :p

The MX5 was terrible in the snow. I took it out once, had no traction, and left it at home from then on. Lightweight + Eagle F1s with tread that fills up with snow.

However in the dry, it's brilliant. I can hoon around in <7C temps and enjoy plentiful grip as long as the tyres are warmed up a bit and the roads aren't icey. This is on a lightweight RWD car with a performance-oriented suspension setup and no driver aids.
Winter tyres my arse. Just drive according to the conditions.
Click to expand...

We all don't live in lovely flat ground
Where as last year my Goodyear Summer tyre could not grip going up hills but my budget winter tyres had no problems? So summer tyres my arse!:D
 
I would really like a set of alloys with snow/winter tyres fitted, just so that when it snows, I can go and be more silly than normal. But.. having a set of track wheels/tyres already, I think a 3rd set is overkill. :)
 
I find it really amusing, some company are constantly peddling propaganda about winter tyres on the local radio... hardly anyone in the UK had heard of winter tyres a few years ago, nevermind been convinced they needed them. Even more amusing is that non winter tyres now seem to be marketed as summer tyres!

Someone somewhere is bloody good at marketing!
 
The only people who dish winter tyres , yes WINTER not snow! are the people who have never used them! winter tyres are much better in cold icy or snow conditions .
Neigbour has a 4x4 , last year he was all over the road , and i was driving everywhere , why ? , because he had summer tyres , i had winters fitted.
 
mattyfez said:
I find it really amusing, some company are constantly peddling propaganda about winter tyres on the local radio... hardly anyone in the UK had heard of winter tyres a few years ago, nevermind been convinced they needed them. Even more amusing is that non winter tyres now seem to be marketed as summer tyres!

Someone somewhere is bloody good at marketing!
Click to expand...

Depends where you live , in south england , no dont bother , but scotland , yes we need them , the climate is changing people , its not just freak weather , winters over the last few years here have been severe , and to TW fox , it wasnt a breif snowfall we had , it lasted 3 months in scotland in places .
The only people who got anywhere had winter tyres fitted
 
rippling said:
The only people who dish winter tyres , yes WINTER not snow! are the people who have never used them! winter tyres are much better in cold icy or snow conditions .
Neigbour has a 4x4 , last year he was all over the road , and i was driving everywhere , why ? , because he had summer tyres , i had winters fitted.
Click to expand...

And yet you drive around in the summer in the rain with random ditchfinders on your CLK and your Dad has 'Nexen' tyres fitted to his 5 Series. Contradictory much?
 
Ricochet J said:
Last season when I lived in Suffolk it was impossible to get to work in the snow because of the roads (very rural roads and areas). In the mornings you'd drive over fresh snow which cars hadn't actually driven over previously! And due to the combination of twists, bends and inclines there were always at least 2 or 3 abandoned cars in ditches (obviously ran out of control, waiting to be salvaged). The ice that formed was bad too.

I get your point we don't live in Siberia, and winter tyres aren't mostly required. I hope you get my point that in some circumstances winter tyres are warranted in the UK.
Click to expand...

Where abouts did you Live in Suffolk? The Snow was quite bad but nothing the Passat couldn't handle..
 
rippling said:
The only people who dish winter tyres , yes WINTER not snow! are the people who have never used them! winter tyres are much better in cold icy or snow conditions .
Neigbour has a 4x4 , last year he was all over the road , and i was driving everywhere , why ? , because he had summer tyres , i had winters fitted.
Click to expand...

What's a summer tyre?
 
ajf said:
This may seem odd but:

Is a 235/45 r18 winter tyre, in this case a Michelin Alpin, BIGGER than

a 235/45 r18 Bridgestone RE050 summer tyre?

The obvious answer to me is NO!

However in my Astra handbook it says NOT to fit winter tyres of this size.
Having emailed Vauxhall, the only answer I got was 'because they are too big'!

Am I missing something?

Andrew
Click to expand...
do you really need winter tyres?
 
[TW]Fox;20699563 said:
And yet you drive around in the summer in the rain with random ditchfinders on your CLK and your Dad has 'Nexen' tyres fitted to his 5 Series. Contradictory much?
Click to expand...

WTF has my dads tyres got to do with this ,hes only just bought the bloddy car , and only drives about 3000k a year so he wont be out in snow etc , but yes fox feel free to drive around in summer tyres with your rear wheel drive car , and sorry yes michelin pilots are random ditch finders !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom