Re: snow shoes in august (early winter planning)

I'm hunting around for a set of winter wheels for my 03 boxster. The tire rack site had some attractive wheel + tire packages, but unfortunately it comes up as unavailable for my car. They do offer tires (Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II, 205/55R16 front, 225/50/R16 rear). Anyone have experience with those tires? More to the point though, I didn't know that 16 inch wheels actually fit this car. Would it work to just buy any old set of wheels? I would have thought so, but that seems at odds with the site not offering a tire+wheel package deal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2012 11:01AM by Steve (Berlin & LA). (view changes)

16" wheels are the preferred size if they fit your car. That boils down to 986 non-S (without the big red brakes).

I had older pirellis - winter 210s. They were good+ snow tires, and excellent dry performance for a snow tire.

The down side was the older nylon construction took a set in the cold and vibrated like crazy until they warmed up. In cold enough weather that was "never". They are snow tires after all.

My fave was the Dunlop M3, but they don't exist in 225/50-16 any longer.

I bought take-off porsche wheels.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

What do you mean by take-off porsche wheels? Is that a brand, or do you mean imitation?

I too bought a set of take-offs. Buyer of car wants upgraded wheels as part of the deal, dealer takes-off the stock wheels and tires already balanced etc and replaces them. Dealer then sells the wheels but because they were on the car and are take-offs, the price is quite reasonable. I bought a perfect set of 17s with PS2s from a mainline Philly dealer for a pittance compared to the cost of the wheels...and the tires that I drive for the next 5 years were free.

By extension, lots of people have factory wheels around they replaced with bigger or different styled wheels and those are your target. Sometimes they have good tires, sometimes not and beware of old snow tires. But it beats the price of new wheels. And beware of bent wheels, can happen. Put on a balancer, a good tire man can hold a stick next to the spinning wheel and tell in 5 seconds if the wheel is bent by looking to see that the stick is a constant distance from the rim..

I didn't know what that phrase meant at all. Makes sense now. I'm a couple hours from the nearest dealer, so I guess I won't have a chance at something like that. Do you know if more or less any 16" wheel would fit? Sorry if it's a dumb question. I've never changed wheels.

Just watched the ads. Since that was many generations of apps ago, I doubt where I found them advertised would be relevant. Probably craigslist or eBay but could have been one of the forums. I bought in the spring when demand for stock spare wheels is the lowest. But then I sold my originals in the spring too.

aka used factory wheels. Quality. Reasonable.

Your car can take 16s

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

This coming winter I will try to buy the Michelin Alpins.... I think overall, Michelin have the best tires. I had Dunlop's and they were great but didn't last too long. I had Blizzaks that were fantastic in the snow and rain but awful mushy performance in the dry... they rolled over and made noise in hard turns... they could be fun in that you can throttle steer at a near stop ... worse thing about them is they lasted and lasted and lasted.

The Pirellis were so awful, I almost got stuck in my near flat driveway last winter ..... and we only had a dusting. They are noisy and hard riding. I hated them so much, I just ran them this summer until I burned them up.

I mean, you say they were "great" ( a strange work for "hated") but wore out soon - duh - they are winter tires. Mine, btw, are on their 7th season on my Audi S6 including many, many runs to Vermont. 5th season on the 986, but i use them very few miles each winter - maybe 100-1500 - and no deep snow. But its a simple fact - snow tires are SOFT.

D3 are - after typing most - my overall fave. They have excellent steering response and feel for snow tires. They do well in the snow. Not Hakkapallitas but i'm not in Minnesota and i don't need to get to the fire on the lake. I had the Pilot Alpin PA2s too, on an older Audi S4. They were very soft - nto great int he snow, no steering response, just soft. I would not buy them again - but understand the reason - no handling, no bite in deep snow. Ok on ice. Lots of ice in NJ. Great roundness, good QC, but not very impressive tires.

I cannot imagine what you didn't like about the Dunlops. You are familiar with winter tires, right? From your complaints i'm thinking "no" - since those are pretty much the characteristics of a winter tire. When you can minimize wear and maximize the compromised handling, you claim victory.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2012 09:37PM by grant. (view changes)

I loved my Dunlops in that they were good in the snow, dry and wet but they wore quickly, when compared to the Pirellis and Blizzaks.

The Pirellis were awful tires in that they didn't do what they are supposed to do... provide grip in the snow so I just hated them for that reason alone. They were also noisy and harsh riding. As they wore, they were not even that good in the dry as I could throttle steer them way too easily.

The Bridgestone Blizzaks were fantastic in the snow and rain but not at all a performance tire in that they were mushy and would roll over in hard turns. Despite being a "soft" snow tire, they lasted and lasted... amazing actually. I was given them for free by a guy who said I may get one more winter out of them.... I got five !!!! so I really don't know how many seasons were on them. Roughly, I put my snows on at Thanksgiving, and pull them around March 15.

The car is a 2000 S, my only driver, and in 12 years, I put on 195,000 miles on the car.

now, i liked the old pirellis, but that was 15 years ago.

That said i was using a pair until a few years ago. Not bad at all, really.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

.. this.

very few adds:

1. bridgestones actually wear even faster since the last 60% of the tread is not winter compound. WTF?
2. my dunlops wear ok ........ for a snow tire

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Are these for use in CA? I can see the need in Berlin but if the temp. does not go below 40 degrees F where you are, you may be able to use the summer tires year round. If you want to buy a set of used Porsche wheels mounted with Dunlap winter tires I have a set I'm selling ($500). The only problem is I'm on the east coast and the shipping costs could be too high.
Where I live, we see used Porsche wheels with winter tires for sale often on Craigslist. Good luck. Tom

Just get a pair of used stock 17" wheels and mount winter tires on them. Throw them on in winter months, and then keep a set of summer rims/tires for the warmer months... This way, you won't have to keep going to a local tire store to mount/dismount your tires on the same set of wheels each season change.

My stock 17"s on Hankook IceBears I got from Discount Tire...


And my summer 18"s on Sumitomo HRTZs...

Who makes them? They really look great.

Thanks! They are 3-piece wheels made by SSR, and have gun metal colored centers with a polished lip. The model is called SSR GT-3, and they were made for Porsche specific applications, so no spacers needed. I then got the OEM Porsche centercaps painted to match the wheel centers by Eric at Bumperplugs.

My user name is deceptive -- I'm nolonger in Berlin or LA, but in Iowa. I'm told temperatures get below 40F here Sounds like we should talk offline. I'll send you a message.

edit -- I just updated my username in the control center -> profile. Didn't realize it was so easy to do! Steve (Berlin & LA) is now Steve (Iowa)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2012 10:53AM by Steve (Iowa). (view changes)