[s-cars] RE: What I did over Christmas

[Kirby Smith]

And as Greg probably knows, given his email address, the Nokian Hakka...
Q's have 2200 deep sipes per tire, IIRC.  They are great in slush and
loose snow on my S6.  Reports from last year's  Steamboat Springs races
indicated that they seemed to be the best for those conditions, whatever
they were.  So far this year, soft or slush has been the condition of NH
snows.

In recent previous years, the predominate conditions have been hard pack
and ice.  My 90Q has been shod with Guardex 600s in the winter.  These
are microcellular foam with nylon strand reinforcement.  They are great
for ice conditions.  The nylon acts as microstuds, it is claimed; in any
case wear is modest.  The tread pattern is somewhat less open than the
Hakka Q's, so they don't do as well when the snow is deep.

Neither is going to make one forget his Bridgestone SO-2s or RE-71s or
whatever summer tire, as both snow tires are kind of "squishy" in feel
on dry pavement, even at 36 psi.  But I'm willing to endure less than
stellar cornering on winter dry days (if any) in order to embarrass SUVs
in the snow, and I don't even have to exceed the speed limit to do so.

:-)

kirby


Greg Galinsky wrote:
>
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> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> The falloff in function in snow and poor conditions is a result of wearing
> thru a lot of the sipes on the tread. A lot of tires have sipes that a more
> for appearance than anything else. On some Blizzak models; 42% of the sipes
> were only 1 mm deep.  Some others tires like the Dunlop D60A2 or 65 were
> very similar to that. On those Dunlops at about 12 to 15k the good function
> that you had would disappear.  A lot of tires are marketed on looks and not
> function. More of the Scandinavian tire companies use molds where all the
> sipes go full depth down to 2/32".  Tires there are sold more on function
> and word of mouth than the marketing machines that say North America has.
> Here if we see enough ads for a product; sooner or later a lot of people
> will buy it.
>
> When you examine the reults of tire tests and then were to see how that same
> #1 rated tire did at say half tread depth a lot of people would be surprised
>   My rule of thumb when I tell customers to replace snow tires is at 5 or
> 6/32" tread depth if you want optimal function and you feel like your life
> depends on the tires.
>
> Greg Galinsky
> G & G Service
>
> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: Fred Munro
> Date: Saturday, January 04, 2003 11:16:29 AM
> To: TM; 'Robert Myers'; s-car-list at audifans.com; 'Quattro list'
> Subject: RE: [s-cars] RE: What I did over Christmas
>
> Hi Taka;
>
> As a rule of thumb, I always replace my snow tires when they get down to 50%
> remaining tread depth. I find the high speed traction and stability in slush
> and snow falls off considerably at this point and they act more like
> all-season tires than snow tires. If you spend most of your time toodling
> around town it probably doesn't matter as much, but 90% of my driving is
> highway.
>
> Fred Munro
> '94 S4
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com
> [mailto:s-car-list-admin at audifans.com]On Behalf Of TM
> Sent: January 3, 2003 10:38 PM
> To: 'Robert Myers'; s-car-list at audifans.com; 'Quattro list'
> Subject: [s-cars] RE: What I did over Christmas
>
> Bob-
> That sounded pretty much like my Christmas, although it was driving in
> heavy rain in the morning and snow at night.
>
> Is it just me or do Dunlop Wintersport M2s drop off dramatically in
> terms of traction and directional stability once you use up 1/3 to
> 1/2 of the original tread?
>
> Taka
>
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