Re: 97 A4Q- 2nd impressions: 1000 miles

[Fringe Ryder <Fringe@ai.net>]

Yes, I've driven the Blizzaks in the snow and on ice.  

Handling in snow: Much better than with the stock all-season tires.  Car
goes and stops as expected, straight line, the whole bit.  I take it a bit
easy because -I'm- not used to the snow, and obviously you can't corner at
dry speeds, but handling is completely uneventful.

Ice: similar to snow, slippage point is lower when cornering, etc., but it
is lightyears ahead of the all-seasons.  There's no uncertainty.

Dry: Stop and go is normal, but the car feels very soft when cornering.  I
don't drive very aggressively around corners.  It has held when I have, but
it feels even more disconnected than it started out (with the body roll and
the neutral steering.)

The Blizzaks are very quiet tires too.  After the snows in Seattle (and I
live near the top of Cougar Mountain, so it's a lot worse with lots of snow
and ice when it happens), I want that extra insurance for the winter.  It
makes a huge difference over the stock tires.

I haven't decided if I'll put the Goodyears back on in the spring or get
some real rubber.  Those tires have about 1200 miles on them (the car is
less than 2 months old).  I guess it depends on how I feel, what I can do
with only slightly-used tires, and how much real rubber costs.

Regards
        Fringe
        '97 A4Q

At 11:38 AM 30-11-96 -0500, tlazay@ultranet.com wrote:
>
>>>5) Highway driving is great. Some owners have complained about the lack of
>>>on-center feel. I disagree. I find that it tracks perfectly straight and is
>>>easy to keep between the lines at 90+ mph. Ideally, I would like to see less
>>>body roll in the turns though. 
>
>>Yeah, the ride is a smidgen squishy.  And then I made it worse by adding
>>Blizzaks.  I know there's a road down there somewhere, but it's hard to
>>prove when cornering right now. <g>
>
>I'm very interested in your experience with the Blizzaks. Have you used them
>in snow? Could you describe the handling of your A4Q in snow, rain, and dry
>pavement vs. All Season stock tires. In the Spring will you put on all
>seasons or did you buy a performance tire? An NTW salesman recommended the
>Dunlop Sport M2 for the quattro. He said that it has good snow traction but
>excellent dry performance (which is necessary for Boston since there is snow
>on the ground less than 1/2 the time during the winter).
>
>Like I mentioned before, I wasn't impressed with the braking ability of my
>A4Q in the snow with the stock Eagle RSA's.
>
>-Tom 
>'97 A4Q
>
>
>