700 mile Nokian WR review
12-01-2002, 11:06 AM
#1
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700 mile Nokian WR review
As promised, here is a follow up on the WRs. We left Maryland Tuesday evening to head up to Connecticut, hoping to avoid the storm and ensuing traffic. It rained from Baltimore north and turned to snow right around Newark (about 0100). From Newark north it was a mixture of sleet and snow turning to all snow just outside of NYC. The Hutch and Merritt Parkways had about 1-2" of accumulated snow on them and local roads were worse.
The tires performed admirably. They were initially a little louder than the stock Pirellis especially over grooved or rough pavement. I am either getting used to them or they are getting a little quieter over time though. They have a great amount of grip on both dry and wet pavement, and the sidewalls are fairly stiff (V rated in allroad sizes) so turn in is better than the Pirellis. They give a somewhat firmer ride than the Pirellis, but I had also just done the 402 mod, and that probably was a bigger factor. Wet and dry braking is excellent. On the mixture of standing water and slush we did hydroplane once, but I was doing 70 trying to get around a semi. In the snow, they gave great grip in both accelleration and cornering with ESP on and off. Braking was good, with ABS activation at moderate pedal pressure. They are not quite as good a snow tire as the Hakapelitta series, but are way better than any other all season tire I have tried. For someone who does trips into the snow belt, but does not live there, this tire is an excellent choice for year round use.
Obligatory snow pictures:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/275/img_1209.jpg">
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/275/img_1210.jpg">
Close up of the tread pattern. The siping appears to only go halfway through the tread block, so I would expect snow perfomance to degrade considerably as they wear.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/275/img_1214.jpg">
The tires performed admirably. They were initially a little louder than the stock Pirellis especially over grooved or rough pavement. I am either getting used to them or they are getting a little quieter over time though. They have a great amount of grip on both dry and wet pavement, and the sidewalls are fairly stiff (V rated in allroad sizes) so turn in is better than the Pirellis. They give a somewhat firmer ride than the Pirellis, but I had also just done the 402 mod, and that probably was a bigger factor. Wet and dry braking is excellent. On the mixture of standing water and slush we did hydroplane once, but I was doing 70 trying to get around a semi. In the snow, they gave great grip in both accelleration and cornering with ESP on and off. Braking was good, with ABS activation at moderate pedal pressure. They are not quite as good a snow tire as the Hakapelitta series, but are way better than any other all season tire I have tried. For someone who does trips into the snow belt, but does not live there, this tire is an excellent choice for year round use.
Obligatory snow pictures:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/275/img_1209.jpg">
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/275/img_1210.jpg">
Close up of the tread pattern. The siping appears to only go halfway through the tread block, so I would expect snow perfomance to degrade considerably as they wear.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/275/img_1214.jpg">
12-01-2002, 11:43 AM
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I been waitting for snow to come in the southern part of Westchester...
I got Nokian WR for my sister Acura, can't wait to test out, I also got myself a snow tire, it's Goodyear Eagle ulta grip GW2 which not too many people have or know about it and I can't wait for snow to come for the test.
12-01-2002, 12:05 PM
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The Goodyear is a new tire...
I had the original Goodyear GWs on my old A4. They were an adequate snow tire, balanced more toward cleared roads than deep snow. Let us know how the GW2s perform.
12-01-2002, 01:27 PM
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well..
did a short write up. I will post back here again once the tire hit snow, but so far I like it<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/wheel/msgs/55971.phtml">https://forums.audiworld.com/wheel/msgs/55971.phtml</a</li></ul>
