winter tires - nokias on quattro

[t.p.gladczenko@geologi.uio.no]

Hi there,

Since there was so much discussion about winter tires, and
especially Nokia Hakkapelitas (sp?) 1, thought I would share
a weekends experience with them. Finally it snowed here,
so I could test them ;-)

The tires are truly great on snow, especially the unplowed type, 
big difference from my unstudded Yokohamas from last winter. Breaking
on snow was good. On ice however, it was really good, my comparison 
being a precursor to Hakkas 10 I had a few years back. 

Handling was great, very predictable loss of lateral traction. Great
fun doing power slides. This was on snow. Did not get much of a chance
to check this out on ice.

Followed a Volvo 850 up a winding mountain road. He was on studded 
tires too (Continental-Viking- I checked on the parking lot afterwards) 
and just barely made it up. Serious problems on each hairpin. 
Quattro made a huge differnce obviously, but I was still surprised
at his problems.

The Hakkas are very noisy on asphalt. Have to really crank up the
stereo to hear surpress tire noise. It is not only the studs but also 
the tread pattern which causes this. Worst around 40 mph in fact (city traffic).

I got my tires in dimmension 185/65 14. They do feel a bit narrow,
but the dealer could not find any other dimmension which would fit.
And on snow it probably is only an advantage. 

Keep driving

tadeusz


1987 80q 1.8
1982 80 (RIP)