ryoung

Well, I've got 6-7 months to sort this out.

The OE 245/45-18 Dunlop SP8000's on my S8 obviously aren't suited for winter driving, even with AWD (and I'm not that impressed with the performance of SP8000's in the dry).

A suitable winter tire for the 18x8 wheel could be a 225/50-18; it has the same diameter as the 245/45-18, but no one makes a tire in this size. Assuming that Bridgestone, Pirelli, and Michelin don't try to take advantage of a hole (albeit small) in the tire market ...

For winter use, has anyone tried manually siping an otherwise max or high performance tire? The 245 is a bit wider than I'd like for snow, but siping all the blocks on my SP8000's should at least give the tire more bite on hard pack, and it'll give me something constructive to do with these tires when I replace them next month with a set of Bridgestone S-03's. I definitely do not want to get an all-season tire for a new set of 17" wheels.

Eddie@TireRack: Your thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

Clues

Dunlop makes their WinterSport M2 in 245/45-18. That would be your best option if you want to retain your stock wheels.

Alternatively, pick up a 2nd set of wheels in 17" and go with a taller sidewall.

Chris

Clues

btw - 225/55-17 would be the 17" size

DMoore

Siping might help, but I doubt it would make much difference. Tread design, void ratio, and rubber compound are all very significant factors in snow tire design. An SP8000 with siped tread will still have a low void tread pattern with a warm temperature rubber compound. I don't see how that will be much of an improvement.

DMoore
'01 S4

ryoung

Thanks for pointing this out. The M2 shown on Dunlop's web site looks good, though they say that the 245/45-18 uses the M3 tread pattern (and they don't show a photo).

Have you used the M2/M3? If so, how much is dry weather performance compromised?

Clues

First, the Winter Sport M2s are widely recognized as one of the best performance winter tires available. They are reputed to be the best dry handling winter tire that has very good handling characteristics in the nasty stuff. They were apparently the only Porsche recommended winter tire (search the archives - it's there somewhere). In short, they are a tire of choice unless you live in a serious snow belt and want to go with one of the 'ice-compound' tires.

Now the good news, according to the European Dunlop site, the M3s were introduced last year to replace the M2s which were released in 1993. So it looks like you may have the advantage of newer technology which can't be bad! I've attached the link to the German site. If you don't speak German (I don't), run the url through the translator at Altavista.com.

Chris<ul><li><a href="http://www.dunlop.de/de/data/productnews/index_fr.html">http://www.dunlop.de/de/data/productnews/index_fr.html</a</li></ul>

ryoung

Problem solved, NM

Clues

Yup - should be perfect for New Mexico.

Clues

;-) obviously busting on you since 'nt 'is auto-generated