Gareth wrote:TripleS wrote:unless somebody comes alomg and tells us that a good set of winter tyres will give us a sporting chance
See Porker's posting immediately before your own
TripleS wrote:do they really do much better on the hard, polished wet ice?
TripleS wrote:what sort of winter tyres are you using, and how did you arrive at your choice?
Gareth wrote:TripleS wrote:do they really do much better on the hard, polished wet ice?
Tirerack have some interesting practical tests that demonstrate advantages of winter tyres in various conditions. The link goes to some comparative tests on an ice-rink, and there is a video that's worth watching as well.
I've saw other videos on that site that amply demonstrate the advantage to fitting winter tyres to all four wheels, so that's what I did.TripleS wrote:what sort of winter tyres are you using, and how did you arrive at your choice?
Vredestein Snowtrac 3 - I chose this particular tyre after reading that Vredestein are consistently marked near the top in German winter tyre testing, and perhaps rather fortuitously as I have since read that British winters are more akin to mid-European winters typically being wetter than Scandinavian winters, (and consequently requiring different tyre characteristics).
I picked the narrowest tyre / smallest wheel combination recommended by the manufacturer, ordered steel wheels in that size then picked the higher speed rating tyre, so I have H-rated winter tyres instead of the standard V-rated summer tyres on a car that anyway can't go faster than 129 mph. Incidently the wheel / tyre choice resulted in less unsprung weight!
TripleS wrote:At the moment I'm not convinced that my pattern of car usage merits the use of winter tyres, but if I do anything it will be primarily in the interests of better traction for the front wheels for getting up gradients, so I'll probably leave the rear ones alone. I'm not too concerned if this produces a bit more tendency to oversteer.
waremark wrote:TripleS wrote:At the moment I'm not convinced that my pattern of car usage merits the use of winter tyres, but if I do anything it will be primarily in the interests of better traction for the front wheels for getting up gradients, so I'll probably leave the rear ones alone. I'm not too concerned if this produces a bit more tendency to oversteer.
I'd love you to try, and report back. You might be amazed by quite how unstable the car becomes with a lot more grip at the front than at the back. On the Volvo courses, they put winter tyres on the front and summer tyres on the back of a couple of cars. They were called (technical term) the 'wibbly wobbly cars' and on the ice they would go very sideways at ludicrously low speeds. Great fun and good steering practice, but not ideal for the road. On the other hand, using chains on a front wheel drive car, it would be normal to put the chains only on the front: so obviously if you go slow enough in relation to the available grip you can keep safe.
TripleS wrote:if I do anything at all it will be fronts only, at least intiially, and I'll see how I feel about the result, before deciding what else to do. Apparently it is not universally accepted that it needs to be winter tyres all round: according to what I've read there are still conflicting views on this.
Porker wrote:I have a new-found and very marked respect for the abilities of dedicated winter tyres.
TripleS wrote:if I do anything at all it will be fronts only, at least intiially, and I'll see how I feel about the result
Gareth wrote:TripleS wrote:if I do anything at all it will be fronts only, at least intiially, and I'll see how I feel about the result
Here is a tyre test video that demonstrates the potential dangers with this approach. This is number 2 in a series of 4 videos, and it is worth watching the others as well.
TripleS wrote: I think there is much more danger there, because they are not even thinking about this subject and they are unaware of the extent to which they are being disadvantaged.
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