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Re: Snows for 45-Series radials

> From: Kim Watters Halapin <[email protected]>
> Date: Tue, 3 Sep 96 15:19:12 EDT
> Subject: Snows for 45-Series radials
...
> 
> I believe the whole idea behind a snow tire is that narrower is better, besides a
> really good snow tire, not all season, on _ALL_ 4, not just the rears! I ran 4
> Gislavid Frosts on my Firebird (195/70R-14) and I NEVER got stuck anywhere,
> including snow over a foot! Firebirds are notorisouly terrible in the snow because
> the rear end is so light. There is no substitute for a good pure snow tire IMHO.

I agree, all seasion tires are not good as snow tires. People in 
Scandinavia don't consider all season tires as an option for snow 
tires. They are just too slippery for cars. Some heavier vehicles, 
like trucks, use them.

> Check with the TireRack and see what they list as a fitment for the car.
> 
> Or even better, get a beater car for the winter.
> 
> I wonder what people in Europe or Canada do for wheels/tires on cars for the winter?
> Anybody out there have any ideas?

Well, in Scandinavia almost all of them have two sets of tires, 
'summer' tires and snow tires. Most of they use steel wheels. They 
put in the snow tires when it starts getting cold and they know that 
any day soon might bring snow or otherwise slippery conditions. Real 
snow tires are studded, all 4 of them. Always use equal tires on 
front and rear. The hot choises for snow tires last winter were 
(according to some Scandinavian car magazine's common test): 
Beginning from the best, Gislaved Nord Frost II, Continental Viking 
Stop 4000, Michelin XM+S 260 and Nokia Hakkapeliitta 10. The best non 
studded tire, or friction tire as we call them, came after Nokia. It 
was the Bridgestone Blizzak. The Blizzak was rated better than 
Bridgestones studded tire. The main weakness of non studded tires 
compared to studdes tires was performance on ice. The Blizzak was 
very good on snow, even beating most of the studded tires. The 
studded tires had one weakness which was noise. The Blizzak wears 
faster than than the other tires. New tires are always better than 
worn tires. Any car with good snow tires will run circles around 
SUV's with all season tires. Accelerating on snow/ice is fun with 
4-wheel drive but try braking! And of course, driver skills do 
matter, ice racing is good practice!

The problem is that most of the studded tires don't have sizes to fit 
an E36 M3. According to the Tire Rack some 16' wheels will fit an M3 
which helps a little bit. I will probably go for the 16' Blizzaks. It 
will be nice to see how they perform. During the last years I have 
been using Nokia 10 on my previous cars.

Jari