from 3si.org
And now to what the tires were really meant for. The fun stuff, snow and ice.
I did a lot of searching to decide what snow/winter tires to get and based my decisions on several things, 2 of which were the October '05 Swedish aftonbladet winter tires tests and '05 winter tire testing by a Norwegian auto magazine:
http://www.motor.no/pdf/044-50_Mo08_LR1.pdf
Both reviews ranked the top 3 winter tires as these, with scores of
8.3 Continental Viking Winter Contact 3 (not available in N. America),
8.2 Gislaved SoftFrost 2, and
8.1 Nokian Hakkapeliitta Rsi. Reviewing the actual test data, it appears that the
Nokian excels in acceleration while the other 2 are slightly better in braking, but the Conti's aren't available in the US and the Gislaveds don't come in 18" sizes, so the Nokian's were an easy choice. 4th place was the Michelin X-Ice with a score of
7.8. Blizzak WS-50's only scored
6.3 and were considered 'unsafe' on wet/dry asphalt.
True to the testing, these tires accelerate like a bat out of hell with the AWD. It's almost like the snow/ice isn't there. Yes, I can break the tires loose
but the amount of grip is just incredible. Likewise, braking grip is incredibly good. So much so that on snow/ice, I'm now only concerned with the ability of anyone behind me stopping in time. Much better turn in as well. And pushing the car on the snow late at night with no one else around revealed that the tires give incredible control when drifting.
The Nokians are popular with the skiing community in Vermont and Colorado and also very popular in street tire class snow rallying. In snow and ice racing, drivers have commented on the fact that these tires recover quickly from skidding/drifting (some tires don't want to stop sliding once they start). The tire tread was supposedly designed to actually regain grip very quickly after sliding/drifting while retaining good grip and directional control while drifting. If you'ld like to try being Tommi Makinen, these tires might be a good start. Braking drift, lift-throttle oversteer, power oversteer and the Scandinavian flick were all a joy with these tires (but you'll have to push a little harder to upset the grip of course).
Another selling point for me is the fact that these tires have been found to wear much better than the Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50's. The WS-50 uses Bridgestone's soft Multicell compound to provide its snow/ice grip, but the compound is only half the tread depth, and wears quickly. User reviews have stated that once the Blizzak's multicell compound has worn away, the tire is no better than any cheap all-season, and when at full tread depth, block squirm leads to an unstable feeling on bare asphalt.
The
Nokian tires have its special rubber compound for the full tread depth and uses innovative tread design to allow the tread block to remain stable on bare asphalt at full depth, and to retain effective sipes for snow/ice grip even when worn down to near legal limits (2/32nds). Users have found that they could get more than double to triple the mileage of the Blizzaks while still retaining the snow/ice performance with the Nokians. At roughly the same price for the same sizes, it's a no-brainer with more than double the longevity and better performance.
I absolutely recommend these tires for anyone looking for winter performance. I've already begun recommending them to friends looking for snow tires. They aren't the cheapest available snow tires around, but when I decided to go with snows in winter and summer tires for the summer I figured I might as well look for the best in both. Aside from the price, (about $100 more per set of 4 than the Blizzaks or Michelin's X-Ice) the one downside is availability. I've heard that these are easy to find in Vermont and Colorado(?) but elsewhere, they're not easily available. The best price I could find was on ebay by userID fastlanetires. Great prices and excellent to deal with. This guy lists the Nokians more or less every other week, but you can email him and ask if you need them in a hurry.
For anyone looking for performance winter tires that can actually be used for all seasons and for more bare asphalt driving, try checking out the
Nokian WR series. As far as I know,
Nokian WR's are the only all-season tires currently rated for severe winter service (with the mountain and snowflake emblem). The M/S M+S rating has NO requirements that need to be met. Any tire manufacturer can designate any tire in their lineup with a certain minimum void percentage as an M+S without having to meet any winter condition performance requirements. The severe winter service rating actually has winter performance requirements that must be met to earn the rating.
Max
***edited to add*** More news on the Gislaved SoftFrost 2 in N. America. They're not available in the US this year, read the post lower down for more info.
Linear Mode
