snow tire comparo

[Dan Simoes <dans@ans.net>]

Forwarded from a friend on the BMW auto list.
I know the Nord Frost II is sold here in the US
(TBS in Elmsford carries them, 914-592-3750) but
not sure about the others.

| Dan |
--
>I personally would NEVER run an unstudded ice/snow tire unless I 
>lived in some stupid
>authoritarian police state that placed the wear factor of
>its pavement over the safety of its winter-driving citizens, and as I
>have stated before, the Norway guys find the Gislaved Nordfrost IIs 
>to be the Hot Set-up for studded tires, followed by the Hakka 10s and 
>a Michelin they don't sell in this country due to the aformentioned 
>Anti Stud League.
     
Every year the Scandinavian car magazines test snow tires. These are 
the results of this year's test as they were published in Finnish 
'Tekniikan Maailma' magazine. These tests were done in cooperation 
with Finnish 'Tekniikan Maailma', Swedish 'Auto Motor Und Sport' and 
Norwegian 'Motor'. The tires in the test were:

Studded tires:
Dunlop SP Arctic M3
Gislaved Nord Frost II
Goodyear Ultra Grip 400
Michelin XM+S 260
Nokian Hakkapeliitta 1

Unstudded tires:
Bridgestone Blizzak MZ-01
Goodyear Ultra Grip 5
Michelin XM+S100 Maxi-Glace 2
Nokian Hakkapeliitta NRW T

As you can see Hakkapeliitta 10 was not there any more. No. 1 is a 
whole new tire which will replace the 10. Briggestone Blizzak was also 
improved for this year.
     
The ranking was the following:
     
On ice (braking, accelerating, circle track speed, time on handling 
course):
     
Gislaved           36 points of max. 40
Nokian 1           36
Goodyear 400       32
Dunlop             30
Blizzak            30
Michelin 260       27
Michelin 100       27
Nokian NRW         27
Goodyear 5         20
     
On snow (braking, accelerating, time on handling course):

Gislaved           38 points of max. 40
Goodyear 400       35
Blizzak            35
Michelin 100       35
Nokian 1           31
Dunlop             30
Michelin 260       29
Nokian NRW         29
Goodyear 5         24

Drivability (handling on snow and ice, directional stability, noise):

Nokian NRW         26   points of max. 30
Nokian 1           24.5
Goodyear 400       23.5
Blizzak            23.5
Gislaved           21.5
Dunlop             21.5
Michelin 100       20
Goodyear 5         19
Michelin 260       18.5
     
Total (scale 4 - 10):

Gislaved           9.0
Nokian 1           8.5
Goodyear 400       8.1
Blizzak            7.7
Dunlop             7.4
Nokian NRW         7.4
Michelin 100       7.2
Michelin 260       6.8
Goodyear 5         5.9
     
The final results were weighed as following: on ice 40 %, on snow 20 
%, drivability 30 %. The remaining 10 % was for 'slush-planing' speed 
which I didn't mention here because there were no really big 
differences there. As you can see no dry road properties were tested 
except stability and noise. I wouldn't even want to start guessing how 
the studded tires would do without studs. I agree with Satch 
completely on the stud thing (and everything else he has written about 
driving on snow). There was a lot of discussion against studs in 
Finland and they even made research on road wear etc. The result was 
that we can keep the studs with the help of new lighter ones.
     
I bought the Gislaved's a couple of weeks ago. They have size 
205/55/16 which is perfect for E36 M3 if you can find wheels that fit. 
Nokian 1 is not available in that size.
--
Dan Simoes			          dans@ans.net
ANS 				http://coimbra.ans.net/dans.html
100 Clearbrook Road  			(914) 789-5378 (voice)
Elmsford, NY 10523			(914) 789-5310 (fax)