glutton

I just purcahsed 2 pirelli winter carving tyres (i did not stud them but they come with pre-posistioned stud locations) for my daily driver, an 86 volvo 240dl. Now these tyres are just amazing and ill give some details and a short compairson below:

the tyres provide excellent semi dry grip and hydroplain resistance.
the tyres are excellent in snow up to 4cm (which is all we have at the moment)
Ice isnt a problem and their speed rated to 190kph.... which is faster than my volvo can drive - and probably faster than what you'd want to go on a snowey road anyways though the forests.

so here is my little test... for any of you guys that know the abbotsford bc area I was driving up sumas mountain towards the lookout point past those gates on the gravel about 5km up the mountain.

i just got the tyres and broke them in a lil on the ashphalt and tried to get some heat into them so they wernt totally cold comming onto the snow. I have all season michilin harmonies on the front of this car with about 4.5mm of tread left on them.
the hills comming up the mountain ranged from 10 degrees to 45 degrees with an average of 4cm of snow and not once did the car feel like it was going to give out and lose traction going around 30kph. normally i try to keep my speed pretty high up but i figured since ive never driven this particualr road in the snow i should take it easy. As I'm going up the mountain theres a few large trucks comming down ... probably ford f350s or something, im not a truck guy but these were huge trucks and the wheels could drive over the hood of my car almost.... there was also a nissan x-terra in the ditch on the side and the towtruck couldnt get up the hill towards it.

id say the test is compairable to driving up hemlock valley ski resort's gravel road right after a snowstorm..... and before the gravel road started and i was driving on snow+asphalt the tyres preformed even better.

the tyres were about $130 to mount, balance and install and came with a tread depth of 10mm..... i was driving them pretty hard for about 85km this afternoon (including the test) and used up around 0.5mm of tread. So the tyres like to eat themselves up quickly and I wouldnt recomment purchasing them and leaving them on the whole winter season - go buy another set of wheels and change the tyres when your all seasons cant handle the amount of snow on the ground..... thats what im doing.

compaired to the michilin x-ice, piolet alpin 2 (driven with on a bmw 540i), and bridgestone blizzak w50 I would recommend the pirellis which offer superior performance. yes the tyre wear is fast, and no there isnt any special rebate offer so the tyres are somewhat pricey compaired to the alternatives (atleast in my area, they were $30 more than the michilin x-ice and blizzak) but id rather go though tyres than going off the road and into the ditch.

recommendation ---> buy the pirelli winter carving and mount them on a 2nd set of wheels so you can use them when theres acutally snow on the ground.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....Winter+Carving
there is a link to tire rack's page on the tyre.

happy safe winter driving everyone!

glutton

I just realized i probably should have made this in the wheels/tyres/suspension/brakes forum but we've got snow here so it works i think.

TalkSick

also very nice, not to thread jack, are KOYO GO2's. had em put on my FC last winter, and i never even noticed if the roads were icy, incredible control on snow and ice.. not bad in the rain, and comparable to a cheap all season on dry roads. Right in and around the same price range as the pirellis but i didnt notice much wear after a full year winter and summer on them (and i was less then polite to them in the summer), so if ur looking for something near as good as the pirellis with a lil more durability check out KOYOs

84stock

iTrader: (5)

I had yoko's on my old SE and they were great. I run Blizzak Revo's on my saturn and they are very good. Not as aggressive as the other blizzaks, but I leave them on year round so they are perfect for me.

ourxseven

iTrader: (1)

goodyear nordic ice 14" work great on the protege here in winnipeg. right from 0 degrees to minus 40.

great stopping distance on fresh and packed snow, and ice , and good traction in the deep stuff . Really holds the car true crossing through those thick ridges between lanes and runs smooth on clear pavement without much noise . pretty low profile too. definately recommend them.

rx7racerca

iTrader: (1)

Kumho Izenis KW-19's are an extremely popular tire here for winter autocrossing (we do it on the unpaved parking lot at Race City, which usually is a mix of frozen dirt, gravel, ice, and snow). I have no idea how they might hold up compared to the Pirelli's, since the Tirerack doesn't seem to carry any of the Kumho winters. I have a set of the KW-19s on the wife's Saturn, and they work very well, and seem like an excellent value for the money - probably about the least-expensive winter tire you can get with silica compound tread. They are directional, but not speed rated for anything above 170kph (not an issue for me, but might be for someone). They're a pretty soft compound, so they do wear fairly fast, as a lot of winters do, but for a winter tire they do have decent grip on dry pavement.

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

i just ordered a set of Toyo Observe Garit KX's for my parent's Subaru. they are H-rated and have crushed walnut shells in the compound, haha. hopefully they are good, price seems decent.
i'll be taking that car for a little test drive once they are put on...pretend i am Petter Solberg.