Re: Snow tire recommendations

[Kjell Arild Sandvik <sandvik@nwo.dec.com>]

Allan Tygert wrote:
>I'm curious if anyone can reccomend a good, affordable snow tire for my '86
>5kcstq.  By affordable, I mean somewhere in the $50 to $60 range.  Tire Rack
>has some Dunlops for $51 each.  Any experience with Dunlop snows and/or the
>Tire Rack?  I have come to the conclusion that these S&M (they're real
>torture to drive on) tires are one step below useless in the Northeast.
>Also, any suggestions for a cheap source of steel wheels for these snows
>($55 from the Tire Rack is the best I've found thus far) would be helpful.
>Any and all help on this matter is greatly appreciated.

I have a set of 205/55x16 Dunlop SP Winter Sport M2 on my car. Got them less 
than a month ago, being the first set of winter tires I have without spikes. 
(Yes, I change twice a year.) Also my first winter with a Quattro. 
I've had both FWD and RWD cars the last 12 winters (that should be about 60-70 
months of snow/ice driving with spiked tires), but nothing comes close to this! 

Up to this weekend there has been little snow here, but lotsa ice. I have 
always believed that spikes is the only thing that work on ice. Dead wrong! The 
Dunlop/Quattro combination is unbelievable, I can accelerate real fast on shiny 
ice! The only problem is that I won't always notice that the road is covered 
with ice, before it's time to stop. Anyway, The Dunlop/ABS combination stops 
easier on ice than my wife's VW Golf without ABS, but with spiked tires.    

Now, it has been snowing for a couple of days, and I am still all smiles! Drove 
250 miles in both wet and dry snow last Sunday. The highway traffic went along 
in about 40 mph, while I was doing 65-75, switching lanes and crossing the snow 
barriers between them. No problems whatsoever, not even close :-)

I'm inexperienced with both Quattro and winter tires without spikes, so this 
might not be a surprise for you. But I am truly impressed, and have no problem 
recommending the Dunlops. Not because they are better than others (which I 
don't know anything about), but because I know they work. 

BTW, my tires are marked M+S. What does this mean, and what's wrong with it? 
And of course, I don't have a clue about the US price or about Tire Rack. (But 
I do buy my ties at Tie Rack, and they're good ;-))    
   
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| Kjell Arild Sandvik      Digital Equipment Corporation, Norway  |
| Bamsemums MC #002     http://www.powertech.no/~morteas/bmc.htm  |
| DoD #4344                                                       |
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