Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Wheels & Tires Winter tire recommendations, please?

Originally posted by APT CSVT:

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I run Blizzak WS-50 on a second set of wheels. This will be the 4th winter on the tires. They are excellent in snow, but squirmy on dry pavement and wet pavement.

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I run these too, they are unreal in bad weather.

KMS

Originally posted by Dustyn:

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Get the blizzack Lm-22. They are good handling and also hook like a mother in the snow. Nice soft rubber to hook in the ice supposidly. I am on my second winter with them.

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I run the LM-22's as well on the Stock E1 wheels. They are H-rated and perform pretty well on dry pavement. They work great on snow packed and fresh snow roads as well as ice. They give up a little heavy snow traction to get the H rating, but IMHO, the compomise is worth it.

BF Goodrich Winter Slalom.

"S" speed rating - 112 MPH.

Cheaper than the WS-50, similar tread pattern, higher speed rating.

Great in snow, kinda fun squealin' them in the corners on dry pavement.

Overall, a good tire at a good price.

Bridgestone WT-05 205/45-16 Second winter coming up on stock rims. Great snow performance and better than most snow tires for dry performance too

Mark

I'm with flyer - Pilot Alpins on 15" RS6's.

Great in snow and wet, not too squishy in the dry, and H-rated for those clear winter days.

Originally posted by A2Steve:

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I'm with flyer - Pilot Alpins on 15" RS6's.

Great in snow and wet, not too squishy in the dry, and H-rated for those clear winter days.

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Me too. 15x6.5 rims look OK on the SVT. I think the H-rated Pilot Alpins would compare favourably to any mid range all-season performance tire in the dry, they're that good.

Kerry

These are a couple pics of my snow tires, Michelin Artic Alpin Pilots, P205/60/15's. There monted on 15" steel rims and I'm running 99 Contour hubcaps for that "special touch" LOL! Anyways these tires handle great and ride just as well. It also doesn't hurt that they're speed rated at 130 mph and can handle a good turn, to a point that is, remember they are snow tires, but sometimes you forget because of the ride, handling and noise, which is at a minimum The Yokahama Guardex 600's are also good because I had those on my stock CSVT rims back when I went into my 1st winter. Those tires had great grip but wanted to "float" a bit at higher highway speeds. Don't let that keep you from thinking about them though because I had the Yokes in P225/50/16 size, so maybe that had something to do with it. My vote is for the the Michelins

I have a couple of choices, Nokian NRWs, I have these on my moms 99SE and we both love them. Their H-rated and she runs them year round. 205/60r15. ~$100 per tire. BTW, this is the same parent company as Nokia phones. They also make a pure winter tire, the hakkapalita, which is supposedly amazing.

My second choice is a tire I know nothing about, the Kumho Ecsta R700. It is a compition rally tire, that people run at rally races, plus its cheap $88 on tirerack.com. Do however watch out, these are big grip, big knob tires, sure to throw some stones on the paint.(all winter tires will pick up more stones, but these will pick up bigger stones) Again 205/60r15.

my $.02

Let me add my vote for the Nokian's. I have a set of Hakka 1's - an amazing tire. They are a winter tire (rather than a snow tire) and you can run them hard on cold pavement with confidence. They are well worth the money since they wear very well. For more info on the Nokians, check their website www.nokiantires.com