Subject: Re: high performance street tires?

[Taka Mizutani]

The need for real snow tires in real snow is definitely there. I've driven
cars with good and bad snow tires, all wheel drive,
rear drive, front drive and the biggest factor in being able to stop and
turn is your tires. AWD won't do you any good if
the tires have no traction.

We had a freak blizzard a few weeks ago where we got a good 5-6" of sleet
and ice- with crappy Hankook snows, some
weight in the trunk and some care, I was able to get home in the Miata
(although it got dicey near the end- had the back
end out a good bit).

I've driven in fresh snow on too-wide snows and not been able to stop or
turn- that's scary.

That's also where the stability of 50/50 quattro really works well. Not the
crappy Haldex system, not the fancy DCCD system
in the STi, but plain quattro I/II/IV with the nominal 50/50 torque split
F/R. IME, the most predictable and stable system, even
though it still needs good snow tires to work properly.

BTW, speaking of deals on used tires- you better be careful with buying used
snows- the compound in today's snow tires
simply does not last much beyond 3 or 4 seasons- I noticed a significant
drop-off in performance on the Dunlop M2 as well
as Nokian NRW after year 2 or 3. My NRWs are now basically useless (compound
has changed due to time and exposure)-
even though I have plenty of tread, they don't work nearly as well as they
did. My old Firestone Winterfire did not exhibit this
type of drop off even after 3 seasons- old fashioned tire compound (not
nearly as good when new but more consistent over time).

I would not buy used snows except in a pinch for these reasons.