Rear wheel drive and snow

[BTB 500]

It is not black and white.

Absolutely, which is why vague and unsubstantiated claims like

"winter tyres give much more grip below 7C"
"winter tyres perform better in the wet than summer tyres"

etc.

are so misleading.

You might rubbish the What Car? report but it's a straight fact that a cheapo summer tyre (Nankang) conclusively out-braked the premium brand winter tyres (Continental, Michelin, Goodyear) at 5.5C. Which for most people is probably worth knowing.

 

[BTB 500]

It depends how wet. Which tyre would aquaplane sooner do you think?

The aquaplaning test from What Car? at 11C wasn't very conclusive in terms of summer tyre vs winter tyre:

 

[nick mercedes]

I don't understand why RWD cars are (perceived?) worse in snow.

Last year I came off the M1 at J13, various BMWs and Mercedes were all over the place, hoplelessly failing to get up the moderate incline, I drove straight past them all - through fresh snow - in a FWD (loaded) van.

It's clear that powerful RWD cars and even the least amount of snow are not a good mix.

 

[bobbersmill]

Youve got to get this into perspective. Its a fact Snow tyres are better in Snow than summer or all season tyres. the tests all show variations to their useage but in essence a snow tyre does exactly what it says on the tin. The people who dont use them will justify their decision with use of the above write ups and people like me who use them to offer more protection to my familly will base their decision on the facts of useage.
My previous car on summer 20" tyres was useless, they were run flat bridgestones I think. I put Vredestein wintrac extremes on and the car was brilliant, it was more comfortable, aqua planned less in the wet weather and enabled me and my wife to get anywhere we chose during winter. I bought the rims off of ebay for 600 sold the summer tyres on them for 238 through ebay and purchased new winters for 500 through Camskill. Last month I sold the wheels for 1300, making 438 which contributed to the 720 I paid for the winter Dunlops for our E class.
Evo has a test on their website and its worth a look at their comments.

 

[gIzzE]

I think this verdict from Evo is pretty good, this is a performance car tyre review, where ultimate tyre feel is paramount, they will be looking for which tyres make your car feel the most dynamic, unlike a lot of people on here that go for comfort and quiet.

The Results

Winter tyres excel in the snow and fill the top positions in the cold wet tests too, yet in the dry they’re not far behind the all-season tyres. It’s a winter tyre that gets closest in feel to the summer tyre, too. Objectively, the winter Continental is the best overall with a solid set of results. The Michelin is a close second and has the best ‘on-road’ feel of any winter tyre, while the third-placed Pirelli was best in the wet and the fourth-placed Goodyear was best in the snow.

Best of the all-season tyres, the Vredestein, comes in fifth. It’s not far behind the winter tyres in snow and wet tests and is, objectively, best in the dry after the summer tyre but in feel it’s not as good as the Michelin. The advantages of the winter and all-season tyres in wintry conditions are enormous, and they are OK in the dry, too. But If you want your car to perform at its best throughout the year you’ll be changing its tyres in late Autumn and spring because only a summer tyre delivers the feel and precision a driver’s car deserves.

Overall Top Five:

1. Continental ContiWinterContact TS 830 P (90.5%)
2. Michelin Alpin A4 (90.4%)
3. Pirelli Sottozero W240 Serie 2 (90.1%)
4. Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 2 (89.5%)
5. Vredestein Quatrac 3 (all-season) (89.0%)

Link to the results...

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/274177/evo_2011_winter_tyre_test_the_scores.html

 

[Charles Morgan]

The Conti winter tyres are also very comfortable - a perfect combination with the w124 and just marginally more noisy than the premium contacts. On the day of the London blizzard the number of Rwd cars out of control was frightening, I kept moving no problem.