Winter driving - Page 2 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

A recent Porsche video promotes winter tyres and wheels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmBfiQItgc Anyone here tried this service? I never have, but this year I'm swapping from a manual Carrera 4 to a PDK Cayman GTS. More power than the 996, rear wheel drive and no clutch to ease the power to the wheels. Not sure how well I'll be able to control the Cayman in slippery conditions Porsche say they will store your wheels until needed - don't know how much they charge for that though A set of wheels and tyres are about £1800, but should be reusable for several years

A: winter tyres are worth their weight in gold. B: winter tyres are a scam and not required in the UK Your choice fella! ps if I was spending £1800 on wheels and tyres and an opc was doing the swapping over, I'd be pretty annoyed if they charged storage. Thrash out a deal. btw, the answer is A.

Storage is free, as is smashing your alloy to f k - all four of them.

SkinnyP said: Storage is free, as is smashing your alloy to f k - all four of them. Sounds like you're speaking from experience - what happened? Did the damaged wheel get replaced?

Not sure about getting them for a Porky but I got my BMW winter set from Germany via eBay - store them in the garden shed and the local tyre shop swaps them over when it gets cold enough. Last winter was not really cold enough to justify them but the year before they more than paid for themselves.

One thing I don't like about this service (at least in the case of one OPC) is that they store the tyres /wheels directly on top of each other and they don't bother to rotate them. Cue tyre sidewalls imprinting on each other. I have the pirelli winters and they are only rated to 149, not sure about the Michelin. Edited by SkinnyP on Saturday 11th October 21:46

I went down this route aboute 4 years ago. I purchased a s/h set of wheels from http://9apart.co.uk/ and a new set of tyres from one of the online tyre houses. I also store them myself so can look after them properly.

So when do you swap to the winter set? I have purchased a set from a OPC, they are sat there waiting for me book the car in for the swap... is mid-October too soon to do it?

The general advice is when temps start to drop below 7 degrees C. I find this is usually around November where I am.

Excellent, the Pistonheads winter tyres panto season is upon us, once again. Oh yes they do, oh no they don't....repeat ad naseum.

nsm3 said: Excellent, the Pistonheads winter tyres panto season is upon us, once again. Oh yes they do, oh no they don't....repeat ad naseum. LOL. I've decided to find out for myself if they're useful or not... we'll see.

Besides the 2 usual groups (1=I've used them, they're great, 2=I'm ok with my normal tyres, they're not needed) someone once pointed out on one of these argument threads that there's a distinct lack of anyone who's actually owned/used a set of winters and then said "nah, not worth it" - which is conclusive enough really.

thegoose said: Besides the 2 usual groups (1=I've used them, they're great, 2=I'm ok with my normal tyres, they're not needed) someone once pointed out on one of these argument threads that there's a distinct lack of anyone who's actually owned/used a set of winters and then said "nah, not worth it" - which is conclusive enough really. That's me. I did contribute to the winter tyres thread when my expensive winter tyres failed to get me out of village but I am apparently in a minority. Still think they're 'good', just not the go anywhere, through anything solution people seem to make out. On balance, for the UK i dont think I'd bother again unless i did many more miles and hence exposed myself to the dangers of poor conditions more.

Here's my feedback: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

FarQue said: A: winter tyres are worth their weight in gold. B: winter tyres are a scam and not required in the UK Your choice fella! ps if I was spending £1800 on wheels and tyres and an opc was doing the swapping over, I'd be pretty annoyed if they charged storage. Thrash out a deal. btw, the answer is A. can never tell In the midlands last winter we did not have 1 frost and we had no bad weather or any snow what so ever, temps were also very high, nothing a PSS could not handle with ease. I agree if you use a N spec older design tyre like the PS2 then you may want winters lol But in the UK this year if it was the same as last year. no need. so Last year in the Midlands B is the Answer. The ave high temp in the whole year did not drop below 7oC even in Jan, Feb which is the day time temp. I guess if you drive at the middle of the night winters might help but still not one day below freezing last winter in Leicestershire !!! ANd don't say "they are better in the rain even if it's not too cold" FEB was the lowest month for rain lol April,May, Sept the highest months for rain fall where people have summers on. You could say last winter it was prob safer to have PSS on than winters as they would out perform more of the time than winters !!!! And yes I did have winters the year before that, I was so lazy I ran them all year round on the mini :-) act made the ride better on the mini ;-) Edited by mrdemon on Monday 13th October 14:11

Aside from tyres has anyone got a good recomendation for a winter car cover (Cayman GTS)??? - likely that I will moth ball the car during the weeks on my drive when not in use (as I don't have a garage).

better to keep it out in the open imo

Thanks for the replies one and all General feeling seems to be winter tyres are a worthwhile option, but shop around for a decent deal I thought £1800 for 4 x 18" alloys and tyres seems reasonable, especially if that includes fitting and storage of the other wheels

The winter of 2012 / 13 demonstrated the benefits of winter tyres to me, I would have been stuck at home for days on end without them. I recently bought some used Cayman S 18" wheels with good condition N rated tyres Michelin Alpin on them for just over £1100. I plan to keep them in the garage until the weather turns then put them on our Cayman. I think £1800 for a new set of wheels and tyres is a good deal, you can always sell them second hand one day and get £1100 back

I you need to keep an 'inactive' steel braked car/Porsche outside for any extended period, keep an eye on the appearance of the brake discs... Heavy rain fall will inevitably lead to splashes of water landing on the discs which will promptly turn bright orange. No big deal as a quick drive will clean them up but you wouldn't really want to leave your car for weeks/months in such conditions as the corrosion will only build up and it'll be that bit harder and, potentially, ultimately impossible to clean up the discs simply by driving and they may need replacing or a skim job.

I have some 19" wheels and winter tyres if anyone is interested. They have only done 300 miles and are as good as new ....

anonymous said: [redacted] Of course if their personal experience, having spent money on winter tyres, was that they were excellent and worth every penny they'd say exactly the same thing. SS7