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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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The big question IMO is, who here has snow chains? They're legal and I see them for sale every year, yet I've never seen a single person use them. Why not?

Because it's not the kit that is the problem, it's the fact that no-one can f**king drive. I've had no problem getting about in a RWD 280bhp V8 with £80 tyres on the back, yet been constantly passing people who've chucked their cars into hedges. The simple fact is that snow isn't hard to drive on, it's just that the world is full of f**king idiots.

As I write that I remember the pic Paul has just stuck up... I'm assuming your story is more in depth than running out of talent at a tiny speed, in which case it's not aimed at you!

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Chains are (I imagine) a hassle to get on and are great for the 100 feet needed to get off your drive, after which chances are you're going to be on a gritted black top road which will kill chains (or socks). I'd say they're only good if you live in the highlands or somewhere like Sweden.

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I agree that it's true, there are a lot of bad drivers out there, but again why don't they use chains then? They aid traction so can't be bad? Most other countries seem to use them but over here we grit the roads at great expense and damage to the environment.

In Germany it's a legal requirement to have winter tyres and carry chains during certain months of the year.

I've ridden (and won) motorbike trials competitions in snow in the past, still wouldn't ride a road bike in it though. :P



Chains are (I imagine) a hassle to get on and are great for the 100 feet needed to get off your drive, after which chances are you're going to be on a gritted black top road which will kill chains (or socks). I'd say they're only good if you live in the highlands or somewhere like Sweden.

Why do we grit then? Seems crazy to me when I think about it for the reasons I said above, imagine how many tonnes of salt we use during winter!

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Meh, I probably wouldn't bother with winter tyres either if we had 10 days of snow each year. Summer tyres are adequate in the winter, if you're a calm driver you're not going to have any problems unless there's an emergency on the road. Summer tyres in the snow are useless though, the car gets bogged down in places you'd never think would be a problem. I couldn't even drive out of my garage on summer tyres when some snow fell and it's worth mentioning that my garage is on the top of a steep-ish hill.

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I think the whole winter wheel idea is a cracker. I only took my fancy wheels off to save them from road salts and such but when I thought of the benefits of having a second set of wheels with winter tyres made loads of sence to me. I haven't been stuck once yet, and only locked up once which I don't see how it could've been avoided. For the £200 it cost me,I know I'm sorted for a good few winters yet.

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Don't winter tires wear massively fast on dry roads though?

I think it's more temperature related. If you use them on hot roads in the summer then yes but if it's on cold winter roads no. Together with chunkier tread they're just a different compound which doesn't need any temperature to operate.

Snow tyres should be narrower with deep blocky tread, winter tyres are in between in the blockiness front but designed more to run on cold tarmac rather than snow (I think).

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If I remember correctly, winter tyres are designed to work best under 5degrees or something like that.

Weird fact - since fitting winter tyres to mine (same profile and size etc) the car is comfier over bumps (guess its softer compound or something), and somehow it now doesn't scrape when I go over certain speed bumps where it did before every time. I literally can't figure this out.

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It depends how the tyre is measured. If the carcass is the same but you've now got an extra 5mm of tread depth then that might be enough to make a difference.

When my folks put winter tyres on their Nissan Juke it caused the ABS to play silly buggers because the wheel circumference was different enough to screw up the wheel speed sensors.

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I've seen chains in use. It was a workhorse with no plates and hardly a panel that was straight, so purely an of road tool.

Anyway, if I could justify cost and storage of a spare set of wheels with winter tyres I would, as has been mentioned its not just snow/ice they work better on. They clear water better and provide more grip on cold tarmac, I've driven a car fitted with the and was extremely impressed. But I'm yet to get stuck on my tyres in mid-wearlife, mainly because I think about journeys to avoid troublespots or drive in a manner which befits the situation. I also have a modicum of common sense which people seem to leave at home and think either 2mph or 90mph are safe speeds on the A roads.

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guess i can join in thsi debate :)

I have spent the past 2months driving a transit 9 seater LWB and a merc LWB both fitted with 'winter' tyres.

we have driven from the UK to sweden via france belgium germany denmark norway. the snowand ice we encountered was enough to put any UK conditons to shame for the past 10 years.

the winter tyres seemed to have no dificulty with cornering and speed wether on ice or freshly covered snow roads, plus they were fine on the clear roads in the UK.

BUT if you give them a quick clutch kick with traction control turned off you can hold and control a perfect drift.

TL:DR winter tyres are good in winter.

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Winter tyres generally work at 7c and below. They do wear quick(ish) in normal conditions, but it's because of the design of them. The tread moves around a lot more and makes it feel as though the car is wobbling down the road!

In other news, I put my standard wheels back on, and haven't gotten stuck yet! Normal crappy budget tyres on them too!

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The Scirocco's been fine on the 205/45R16's, Pretty sure they're summer tyres on there but they might be all season. To be honest I think all season tyres are fine for 99% of UK residents all year around, I've never really had any issues with the snow we get when running summer tyres in fairly wide sizes (for the cars weight), it's just people in this country can't drive for shit. All the driving test involves is mirror checks and round abouts, nothing about car control at all. Most of the dangerous driving I've seen so far in the snow has consisted of 4x4's being driven much too fast because the owners think they're invincible. Plenty of 2wd stuff getting stuck at the slightest hint of snow, but on the whole it's just people making a big deal of nothing much.

Edited by RobinJI
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Continental recommend that if you can't afford two sets of tyres, then you can use their 'winter' tyres all year round if you like. My girlfriend has winter tyres on her Golf - has had for 3 years and 20 000 miles (in UK, in average conditions all year round) - still plenty of treat left so they don't wear that quickly!

It's quite impressive how much traction they get on snowy / icy roads compared to the normal road tyres on my car. In the dry, my Civic has far better traction, but in the snow hers wins easily. Even if it's really slippery, they tend to slide predictably rather than just give out, which is nice (and safe, obviously). I don't really know how they perform in summer if you're pressing on, but in terms of wear rate they're not an issue at all. She says she'd just buy winter tyres all the time from now on.

TL:DR winter tyres are good in winter.

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Just came across this recording I made last year and got a bit nostalgic. One of my goals for 2013 is to drive that road in the S2000. It's on the way to an annual biking holiday so I'll have to post the bike to the hotel before setting off but I don't care. This road is the highlight of my year and has been since I discovered it a few years ago.

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