What is your ultimate winter car?

[ercchry]

Not all performance winters are built equally either... much prefer the LM-60 to the PAx (haven't actually looked at what model they are yet haha) the falken eurowinters were decent enough with only 300hp too... but yeah, fuck these alpins. Street parked yesterday and was damn close to being stuck there

[J-hop]

Originally posted by heavyD


On certain cars that require 19" wheels then you really don't have a lot of options for a low profile winter tire. I've used performance winter tires almost exclusively for years now and have never had a single issue. I feel if you are an above average driver that's all you need and maybe the exceptions are high HP RWD cars that require more traction at two wheels (I managed fine with a 400+ HP Mustang GT on performance winters). However there are few above average drivers in this city so you people that can only driver on studded or pure winter tires in Calgary need not be offended because you are the majority.

lol, yea I guess as I get older I'm no longer interested in "managing fine". Did that for half a dozen years with RWD and all seasons when I was young. Switching to good winters and pulling away in my winter shitbox from 400hp mustangs that can't get traction in the snow makes me smile. Kidding but yea, having to constantly fight to get out of my parking spot, pussy footing it around every damn corner, gently applying the throttle off the line etc isn't fun anymore. Also absolutely wouldn't cut it for going deep into kananskis after snow falls.

Good point about the larger wheel sizes, I never would have thought about the options being limited as you get up to higher diameters.

[03ozwhip]

my car comes with staggered 19s but I would never run 19s in winter. not that the 18s are that much different, but it is alot cheaper to run them instead.

man is it fun out there lol

[Neb]

A good practical car is something like a Buick Allure.

I used ice tires on my last car (a 1996 Regal). But so far on the Allure I've just been using all-seasons.

I've had no issues at all.

If I really wanted traction then I'd consider studded tires as others have mentioned. Doing fine as-is though, so no need for spikey tires yet.

- wide wheel base
- good weight distribution
- easy access to the traction control switch (can disable it in an instant)
- good heater core
- lots of air-flow options

The only negative I can think of is that cold air tends to crawl around the centre console and up around the inner edges of the seats. Likely a lack of insulation at that point (2006 Allure). I never had that issue in the Regal.

[eb0i]

I've only driven a handful of cars in my lifetime and my favorite by far for winter was my 09 STi. The AWD handled amazingly in any depth of snow and there was enough power to push through deeper snow. I had Toyo Garit KX's on them (went narrower at 225) and it made winter driving amazing. I changed to Michelin X-Ice and totally missed my Toyo's. When I lived downtown I loved ripping around corners during our dumps of snow.