Any winter R drivers? - Page 1 - Boxster/Cayman - PistonHeads UK

with winter looming, I wondered if any others use their R throughout the year? I was intending too but also fearful of ruining it with the amount of salt our councils love to chuck about at the first hint of frost... Was wondering whether to get hold of a set of spare rims with winter tyres? Anyone else do that and what are the best options? Maybe a set of 18's off an older boxster/cayman? Don't want it to look cr*p though!

I am not lucky enough to have an R but I do drive my Cayman through the winter for fun drives around the Wolds. Like many drivers I have a second set of rims with winter tyres on, which I switch to around the same time as the clocks go back.

I ran mine last year and will be running it again this year. As winter wheels I run Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.3 with Pirelli Sottozero (sourced via Larkspeed). On the winters, the car is very capable in crappy conditions and I didn't encounter anything it couldn't deal with. The Sottozeros however were markedly worse in warmer temperatures than previous winter tyres I've run which is a bit of a nuisance when the good old weather can't make up its mind what season we're in. I haven't run into the issue yet, but I suspect ground clearance could easily result in the car 'beaching' on snow if you were caught in those type of conditions. Other than that the only thing I noticed was a proliferation of wee black spots (akin to tar spots) on the paintwork which I think they were related to one of the many anti-ice products used on the roads. Took a long time to remove them all so this year I'm prepping the car as best I can to try and stop the wretched stuff adhering in the first place.

MJ911 said: with winter looming, I wondered if any others use their R throughout the year? I was intending too but also fearful of ruining it with the amount of salt our councils love to chuck about at the first hint of frost... Was wondering whether to get hold of a set of spare rims with winter tyres? Anyone else do that and what are the best options? Maybe a set of 18's off an older boxster/cayman? Don't want it to look cr*p though! You'll find a fair number of 18" wheels at reasonable prices on ebay from time to time. Some from new cars with new (summer) rubber for as little as £1000 (where, presumably a customer has said he wants a particular car but with larger wheels). Personally I think they look fine (but I don't have any desire for the "look" of 20" wheels, and am just as happy with 18s or 19s - you may feel differently). I'll be flogging the Goodyear Eagles off mine and fitting winter rubber in the near future. Any suggestions for the best rubber to use?

anonymous said: [redacted] Doesn't square with webdunk's experience. Given we don't have much snow (where I live) I'd personally want a tyre which performed at least reasonably in milder conditions. Anyone tried Nokians?

I ran winters once, it was not a nice experance, with UK ave warm weather they felt crap. If you do a early or late work run they might work, but ave temps over winter in the midlands have been above 6oC the last 2 years.

bcr5784 said: anonymous said: [redacted] Doesn't square with webdunk's experience. Given we don't have much snow (where I live) I'd personally want a tyre which performed at least reasonably in milder conditions. Anyone tried Nokians? I've used Vredestein Wintrac Extremes to great effect for the last 3-4 winters. They are quite squirmy for the first 500 miles or so, but fine after that albeit not on the same level as good summer tyres.

bcr5784 said: anonymous said: [redacted] Doesn't square with webdunk's experience. Given we don't have much snow (where I live) I'd personally want a tyre which performed at least reasonably in milder conditions. Anyone tried Nokians? I've used Toyo Snoprox, Kleber Quadraxer and the Sottozeros now. The former two on an E36 M3 and E82 123d. My general approach is to wait for a week where the temp drops below 7 for the whole week and then change on to the winters. In the cool temps and especially heavy rain, slush and snow, all the tyres have offered a marked improvement over the summers. A combination of the tyre itself and the different dimensions from the summers. In the CR, the weather caught me out with a day of blazing sunshine and clear skies which saw temps consistently over 10 and nudging up to 15 and the Sottozeros felt uncomfortable when pushing even a little bit (I didn't experience anything similar with the other two brands in terms of being caught out by the temps). They're not designed to deal with that so it's not unreasonable for the performance to be affected. When temps dropped again in the following days, they were back to their usual behaviour. The Vredestein Wintrac Extremes mentioned are a tyre I've also heard good things about - in fact it was a review from a 535d driver that encouraged me to first fit winter tyres. I would agree with cmoose's sentiment that in winter conditions, most big brand winters should offer benefits over summers. In terms of a tyre which should behave better in milder temps but still cope with winter conditions, there are 'all-season' tyres with M&S ratings which could be worth investigating. The Kleber I used was one example of those.

"that in winter conditions" that's is the key bit England get on ave 7 days of snow/sleet a year , last 2 years just about zero days in the midlands. AVe day temps have also been very high the last 4 years. If you live in Scotland or work early or late then winters are great, if you live in the Midlands they seems pointless and you could increase you braking distance bar the 7 days there is sleet on the road, I say sleet as you never see settled snow. you can say the same for rain fall but a good normal tyre can cope with rain no issue. I use my car all year round with PSS on, if it snows I use the Ford, if the gritters are out like wise. the end is, some people will run CUP 2 all year some will run road tyres some will run winters so until it's a law you run winters in winter, if you are following one of these types say a cup 2 car on a sunny day and you are on winters, you will need about 20 meters distance in between cars if the car infront stops. like wise if it pooring with rain and the car in front has winters and the car behind is on cup 2 you will need a big gap. no tyre wins if some one else is on the a summer or winter. you can drive to the temps on any tyre ie slow down, but you cannot stop if the car in front stops, be it on cup 2's on a dry day or winters in a down poor. then I would say 60% of cars on the road are on s t tyres altogether, if you are on winters in the rain and s t car with bold s t tyres on is behind you it will smash your car to bits !!! you may avoid hitting the car in front , but the car behind will write off your car anyway as it will never stop in time ! and as very few cars use winters the latter WILL be the outcome !

PorscheGT4 said: "that in winter conditions" that's is the key bit If you live in Scotland or work early or late then winters are great, if you live in the Midlands they seems pointless and you could increase you braking distance bar the 7 days there is sleet on the road, I say sleet as you never see settled snow. Not sure where in the midlands you live - but we do sometimes (perhaps 1 year in 3) get lying snow where I live (near Silverstone), and overnight temperatures fall to well below zero most years with daytime (mostly morning) temperatures often around or a bit below freezing. Personally I wouldn't normally use the Porker in snow - so I am unconcerned about snow behaviour. Unfortunately tests of winter tyres major on snow behaviour, so their conclusions (I've seen Pirellis come top) tend not to apply to me. But low temps do - as does their behaviour when it gets warmer. And winter tyres do (if tests are to believed) give better braking traction and cornering in cold conditions, so it's not just a case of being better 7 days a year. Yes you can (pretty much) drive around the deficiencies of any tyre which is unsuited to the conditions, but I'm not sure I want to. If you think it's important to choose the "best" summer tyre (which I think we both do), seems sensible to choose the "best" winter tyre - even in the midlands.

anonymous said: [redacted] For God's sake moose, you worry yourself into a state of catatonic indecision about the size of wheels you should have. The choice of tyre brand has AT LEAST as much effect on the feel of a car - and therefore is as much worthy of genuine consideration. Others expend far more time worrying about the colour of stitching on the steering wheel or the importance of leather door cards. If you are interested in DRIVING the choice of tyre is a key decision.

anonymous said: [redacted] It would be great if rather than suggesting the decision about tyre choice is irrelevant (which it isn't) you actually contributed some useful input to the question asked. If you have no experience of various tyre brands - and therefore nothing useful to contribute - it's quite acceptable not to post.

anonymous said: [redacted] Can't be bothered arguing - it disappoints me that your personal abuse (as usual) will probably trash another thread which just might have produced some useful technical info for both the OP and me.

With regard to the OP's suggestion to use his car through the winter, my suggestion would be to consider getting the car waxoyled pre the winter. I had 9Meister steam clean my 997 last year and then waxoyl it. When I collected the car three was a 987CR on the ramp with it's arch liners and under-pans removed and left to dry after a steamclean, and awaiting waxoyl. It was interesting to see what corrosion was already on many of the coolant hose fittings etc and certainly helped me to justify the £180 odd that I'd just spent.

hadn't thought of waxoiling a modern car, but its a good shout. Worth the £180 too as you say, just need to find somewhere down south (Kent) that offers a similar service. Thanks for the winter tyre info too. I have got an old 4x4 for the really grot weather but know how easy it is to get caught out with our constantly changing weather and I bought the CR to use year round really, albeit it makes me cringe to drive such nice cars on heavily gritted rural roads.