snow tires, yet again... but so soon?

[Andrée-Anne Bourgeois]

-----Message d'origine-----
De la part de Rocky Mullin

	how do y'all feel about the pirelli winter 210 and 240 tires?
they also have the pirelli winter carving and the blizzak.  how do they
stack up?  especially when compared to nokians.  the hakka q is still
barely available, though i am looking at the RSI as my choice for medium
winter rubber shoes.


Rocky,

I have both tires for my urQ: 
Winter 210 in 195/65R15 and studded Carving in 185/65R15.

The 210 are nice all around winter tires : good grip on tarmac, long life,
not too noisy, and on a Quattro, nice traction in snow.

The Carving are the complete opposite (but do consider the narrower tread
and the fact that they are studded) : noisy, skittish, slippery on tarmac
but VERY good in snow and just awesome on ice. No visible wear yet, maybe
explaining the less than stellar dry tarmac handling...

So if I was you, I would pass on the un-studded Carving and go for the W210.
Hey, the W210 were nice enough to let me have big fun when ice racing when
they were new. 

BTW, do you what does this number (winter 190 or 210 or 240) means?

It is the speed rating in km/h:
190 km/h = 120 mph = S rated
210 km/h = 130 mph = H rated
240 km/h = 150 mph = V rated

But since usually there is no speed rating on winter tires... maybe this is
just a marketing trick? 

Louis-Alain in Montreal
1983 Quattro