this time of year are winter tyres better than semi slicks

General General Lotus Talk
1

Pre-parenthood i was doing about 30 trackdays a year and 4 sets of tyres would last me 16-20 of those days, now it seems free time is rare and 1 set of tyres lasts me more than a year so i have 4 sets gathering dust that i don’t want to waste.

I normally keep my ZZRs in the house over winter because I heard you can ruin the semi slick compound with continued cold air temps. I do the same with R1Rs since I heard they’re the same compound as 888s and just a different tread pattern. Where i get this random info or whether i make it up i do not know lol.

lastly, i randomly have a set of nokian full winter tyres as at some point in the past logic failed me and i thought they’d be handy should i need to drive a 300 horse RWD beast on the 2 days a year it snows.

So my questions:

  1. is it worth keeping the semi slicks warm in the house?
  2. the nokians, being full winters, are essentially useless to me, i could sell them for a few hundred or leave them on the car over winter, presumably the grip they give in normal cold-but-dry conditions is comparable to cold semi slicks and since they’re made of a soft compound the wear rate will be very high. so do i sell them and put some proper all weather tyres on or are they fine for the odd winter blat?
2

The compounds used in winter tyres are different from summer ones, so they still work in lower temperatures even without snow.

The tread patterns are designed to work on snow, using fine cuts (sipes) to maintain grip.

As such they have better capabilities overall, whether snowy or just very cold.

3
  1. Ideally, yes but realise that other things may be more of a priority.
  2. As above, more grip when its cold, great in the wet, beyond belief if you do ever drive it when it’s snowy.

And congratulations on the new addition

4

I’m getting bored of being a rolling chicane in the wet on zzr, tempted to stash set of Avon wets at BaT on a spare set of rims I’ve got.

5

Ps yea yea I’m a rolling chicane in the dry too before some smartass pipes up

6

As JDS said, proper winter tyres are amazing in snow…so go buy an old shed that the Nokians will fit on, wait for snow this winter and play!!!

7

Just modulate yer right foot …
it’ll soon be spring m8!

8

I have Nokians for the Q3 for the winter months, brilliant tyres, you are only really stopped by other peoples inability to drive or buy decent tyres for the snow

9

On our European tour this year we were discussing where to go next year, and Norway cropped up (again).
Aside from the high costs involved in Norway, and the huge distances, and the inability to have any alcohol in your body from the night before, it would seem logical if we did go, to have winter tyres.
Given that we had to turn back from Jaufenpass in the Alps in September, has anyone made proper use of winter tyres on their Exige

10

Nokians are great. I had them on another car. The other thing is, they work great and are recommended when temperature is below 40F (about 10C). Above that, not recommended and not good. They do work OK in the wet, but I prefer Michelin Super Sports for the wet.