patience

When I first got the new tires, I hated them cause my car's great handling vanished. It wanted to squirm around. Feedback from Tirerack and others was "Perhaps they need to break in?"

Now, with 3K miles on tires, including the great New Year snow storm at Mammoth, I am buying the break in thought.

Drove the same mountain routes that I hated them on when new. Now am satisfied with the predictability of handling. Snow traction is the best I have experienced on tires this wide. Dry road ultimate traction is fantastic. Transient response is OK, but could be better.

Details: 225/45-17 with lowered Koni coilovers on 2001 Audi A4 sport quattro. 4 wheel aligned & corner balanced. Dry road and rain handling sweet with old tires that still had some life in them (not quite to wear bands) fpr anything except snow.

Discussed this with some spacecraft control system guru friends at work... They thought the natural frequency of the tires before break in happend to fall at a critcal point of the suspension's magnifing a small instabiliity. Breakin changed a key factor a little bit and produced a much more stable result.

Seems to align with experience.

allroad'Ed now

Friend with 3-series BMW had same experience. 1500 miles later he now loves them.