Winter Wheels in NE

[riguy]

I know we have a tire/wheel forum but I'm asking this here because I want to direct towards fellow New Englanders.

What are you all doing for a winter wheel setup? My 1 will be arriving during the winter so I'll need to switch to a winter setup ASAP. My thoughts are to buy a set of Dunlop SP's and bring them to the dealer prior to delivery so they can mount on stock 18ers. In the spring I will buy another set of rims (would love the 261M) or pull the winters off the 18's and put the stock RFT back on. Does anyone have any experience with running snows on 18" wheels? (225/40/18 all around). For those of your running something else...can you explain why you made the decision you did? I'm really at kind of a loss as to which direction I want to go in. :iono:

[Bdh821]

i have a winter beater... solved that problem

[xantdieselx]

Right now, I'm going to park the 1 when it snows. Fwiw, I had to go to the store last week with a little over an inch of snow on the ground (have the stock summer only Bridgestones) and the car was absolutely fine in the snow. I wouldn't recc driving with summer tires in the snow, I'm just saying that I was very surprised at how well the car handled it. Ok with that said, I'll try to answer your question.

Before the 1, I had an 05 G35 coupe w/ factory 19" wheels. In the winter I would switch to 18" OZ wheels w/ Dunlop SP's. Once I got moving the Dunlop's definitely did their job. I noticed them most during braking and handling. There were however, times that I would get stuck in light, wet packed snow. I would turn stability control off and have to rock it back and forth and that usually worked.

The drawbacks are, even though they are a "performance" snow tire, they are like marshmallows on dry surfaces. Once you install them you will be counting down the days until you can put your summers back on, believe me. After the experience with the G35 my feeling is I'd rather buy a beater or call someone for a ride than compromise the overall dynamics of a performance vehicle.

-Ant

[morgie2]

I have the Sport Edition A7 wheels with non-Runflat 205 50 17 Toyo winters. I bought them from DirectTire in Peabody and they ran me about $1700 installed with tire pressure sensors etc.

[bman6074]

Here is my setup http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20222

[Rachel]

I have Nokian hakkapaliitas on the stock 18" rims, Works perfectly

[Maine1]

Like Morgie2, I also went with 17" A7's and 205 Michelin XI2s. I was looking to optimize snow/ice traction at the cost of some high speed performance. So far I have been very happy with the way they are working. Since they are not run-flat the ride is much smoother which helps immensely when dealing with roughed up winter roads.
I like your idea of using the OEM 18's for winter and getting some new wheels for the summer. I second the 261M's.

[riguy]

Thanks, everyone, for the responses. Definetly leaning towards putting snows on the 264's. Here's a pic of a silver 135 with the 261M that I found on this board. Car looks great IMHO.