Rory

If you can find a snow tire that has soft rubber without tall tread blocks and lots of sipes it might be something to consider. My experience is that they go hand in hand. I've driven Blizzaks in Ottawa when it's cold (-10C to -20C) but dry, and they suck, and part of this is caused by the fact the rubber is so extremely soft. This extreme softness is counterproductive in anything other than ice/snow. On the other hand, the (performance) all-season tires I've driven in cold/dry conditions performed well.

Rory

John

when one drives during the months of extreme cold temps, ice and snow are very likely, so driving on summer tires like the Pole Positions would be pretty dangerous and therefore, the analysis as to how well summer compounds hold up in dry, but extremely cold weather is pointless.

That being said, I certainly agree that it's possible that summer compound tires may not perform as well in cold but dry conditions.

So I think driving on snows (or all seasons) during the cold months would be the safest bet. I think there are very few people who would like to change from winter to summer tires multiple times during the cold months.

jason@s4.org (NS4)

"I think there are very few people who would like to change from winter to summer tires multiple times during the cold months"

Ahh.... I must be crazy. But then I'm probably putting a lift into my garage too; combined with the air gun to take wheels off (sorry, don't recommend using it to put them on...) changing isn't a big deal.

In anycase, I figure I'll run the AVS Sports in Seattle and if I wake up and find snow, I'll put the Blizzak LM-22's on, and if I plan on going into the snow on a given day (or next day) I'll put the LM-22's on, but as soon as I'm back, it will be back to something a little more fun to drive on (Blizzaks are normally great for daily use in Seattle, and we almost never actually get snow - ok, that is the perspective of someone that has wintered in MA a few years)

Actually as this weekend showed, we can change about 10 sets of tires pretty quickly around here (just about all the S4's and A6's preparing for SIR around my place changed wheels back to stock or some such thing to put any bad wear on tires we didn't really care about, even if it did sacrifice some amount of performance for the day.

...Jason

John

I think I came across your photos a while back. Where did you get that lift?

I have a multicar, double length garage that might be able to fit one of those things. Right now I use a floorjack and I actually use it often in the summer to change from track tires to street tires. But once I get the winter wheels on, I don't bother changing back and forth.

I'd rather just drive my Jeep if I knew snow was coming, rather than doing a winter tire changeover.

jason@s4.org (NS4)

I used to do the drive a Jeep thing, but got tired of driving a lame, boring car when I needed to take people w/ me, or when the weather was bad. The S4 was the perfect combination of functionality & fun.

We'll see how much I really change back and forth on the tires, but my intent is to not run the snow tires very much... just when I need them.

...Jason