996 Winter Driving

I know we're in the middle of summer, but it's never to early to plan ahead. Anyone driving a C2 in a winter climate ? What kind of tires do you use and how is the handling ? I've got Hankooks on my C2 and with just a thin coating of snow, they were awful, although granted they aren't rated for snow use. Do you get a whole wheel set for the winter or just the tires and unmount the summer tires.

I'll give you my take on it. Few different things to think about. I drive mine in the winter, the 996 is my only car and I love it that way. 1. Performance on snow (and I don't mean snow rally driving) - Tires are going to be the most important factor. That and knowing how to drive a car on snow in general. Get yourself good winter tires and make sure they're in good shape every year. I've had no problems with the handling on snow and ice, I was very very impressed. If you have more than 6 inches of snow you're going to have problems though, possibly clogging radiators etc. But here in Kansas if we have more than 6 inches of snow most people stay indoors and cancel all their events anyways. 2. Risk tolerance - IMO the 996 can handle the winter just fine, but you can't control other drivers. 99% of people here don't use winter tires so they're skidding all over the place in the snow. Again, not any different with any other car - sometimes accidents happen that are outside of your control. Just take your time, be careful, and avoid heavy traffic. I felt pretty comfortable in the fact that I know I can handle my car in the snow and if someone else hits me it's not the end of the world. 3. You will see many posts after mine I'm sure that will talk about how running the engine in the cold causes cylinder scoring. You'll see several posts about this from Jake Raby with Flat 6 Innovations. I personally don't lose sleep over that and I don't claim to know any more than your average Joe. Some good explanations here https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...cylinders.html These cars like to be driven. I've seen some cars that are garage queens that require more maintenance than my 125k miles car. No empirical evidence to support of course but it's good for the engine to run and get warmed up. I really enjoy the fact that I can comfortably drive my sports car in the winter - I have people tell me I'm crazy and that it's horrible for the car, but I just laugh. Also if you live in an area that uses salt on the roads make sure you wash your car fairly often so you minimize any corrosion. Get another set of wheels to put your winter tires on you'll be glad you did. This fall once it's below 45 degrees F for most of my drive time, I'll just swap out the wheels in 10 minutes and be ready for winter.

Thanks, that pretty much echoes my thoughts. I live in Minnesota, so I'm used to the winter driving part. Any tire recommendations and do you switch the wheels as well or just the tires ?

Sorry I edited the post with an answer to your question. I don't remember off the top of my head which tires I use, I'll have to go look. I think they were blizzaks. I have an extra set of wheels (black instead of the silver that matches my arctic silver c2 - makes for a nice change of look for half the year!) that I just swap out. Easy peasy. Also very nice for when you need to swap out the worn tires. I literally packed two new rear tires and their wheels (with old worn tires mounted mind you) in the car with me to go get fresh tires mounted. Haha like I said it's my only car, I make it work! And I love every bit of it. I wish I could take pictures of the looks I got putting groceries in my frunk with 3 inches of snow on the ground.

Good deal, I love Minnesota. And I'm assuming more people are smart and use winter tires up there? I'll ask Jimmy and his new Toyota Corolla if he has winter tires and the response is, huh? They make those? Usually if someone here uses winter tires they moved here from a colder state. Granted we don't have snow all the time but people just don't think about it.

Are all season tires and having PSM sufficient? The dealer put on Yokohama all seasons on my car and they only have 5k on them. I'm in Chicago. Felt like I shouldn't start a new thread while we were on this topic

I D/D mine all year long, as others do here. Get true winter tires, all seasons tires only do so good but winter tires work great. I run Pirelli winter sports in stock size, 18's for my car. Now I only got two seasons out of the rears but I ran them in warmer weather than I should. Never stuck once, even this last winter when they were worn down. Plus the car is fun in the snow.

No to the all season tires. Get snows and rims. Start looking now.

I run Blizzaks in the winter on a separate set of 18" rims. The rear size is a bit narrower than what I run in the summer. The manual actually specifies it that way. I know the back is a 265 width in the winter vs 285 in the summer (on my '02 anyway), offhand I forgot the aspect ratio. Those tires with PSM keeps it all going extremely well. I feel very solid. My main concern is other drivers and their vehicles. My avatar is the car doing an autocross on a frozen lake here in the Rockies...

Yup that's what I figured. The all seasons can only do so much. Don't really want to buy another set of rims though. Il look around on eBay. Thanks for the replies. Maybe I can find a 17 inch setup instead

I run 17 vredesteins in the winter. It took 3 months to find a matching set. Two fronts from one shop, 1 rear from another, and the last from another. And I am probably going to get flamed for this, but I had the shop set the wheels up straight during the alignment so I get equal wear on the tires and they last a lot longer. 6000K miles this winter and equal and minimal wear seen. Should be able to get 15-20K miles out of the tires. I know the handling at the limit is not as good but who goes there anyway.

I drove my 02 last winter. I picked up a set of blizzaks very cheap from craigslist. I also have a hardtop (and the illusive roof transport system for the cabriolet). Very cool set up. It actually feels like a different car with the hard top on it.

It should be fine most of the time with winter tires, although if things get really icy and bad it may not be bad to leave it in the garage. Risk of salt and crap is up to you, if it's in good shape I'm not sure if I'd take the risk - on a really high mileage beater have at it. As far as scoring, there are some great articles from Hartech on why they do what they do and to me it seems to be more about the oil not getting up to temp before hitting it hard - a google search should find them. Along with that my friends and I think that what doesn't help is letting the cars idle and then turning them off in the winter, as in the "start it up every month or so". The idle circuit seems to be pretty rich, and that could build up carbon and crap in the cylinder. If it's not burt off by a heat cycle it could help scratch things up when the oil fails. That's just IMO though.

I ran my C2 last winter here in South- East Finland with 17" Hankook iPike RS (studded) with no problems. The car is 1" lowered. Only thing that happened was those air guides in front of front wheels got broken. I also have Defa engine heater for sparing the engine from cold starts.

The biggest mistake people make is thinking their summer tires are adequate simply because there is no snow on the ground. The temperature has just as much to with it as snow. I was forced to drive on summer tires in 20 degrees and the car was like a slip and slide. I'm not a big fan of the winters for Porsches based on past experiences, so I prefer the M&S's. They work very well in the colder temps and keep most of the car's handling. I won't drive on snow. You may want to try and find some winter's and M&S's on the bay or CL and see which you prefer.

I live in Norway, we have fall three quarters of the year with a spot of sunshine, then winter. The 996 is an excellent car all year round. But you have to have two sets of tires. all year tires, the rubber are way to soft for summer, so the stopping length is longer, grip is less and tyre wear is horrible. This is understood by all northern Europeans. For winter I have Vredstein Wintrac extreme tyres, they were the highest speed indexed ones I could find. I live halfway up a steep mountain, we have ice and snow but the car keeps going, have never gotten stuck. With all that weight over the back wheels it behaves very good. Very fun in the snow to spin around in. My only concern is the corrosion from the road salt, so I hose the underside quite often.

Excellent. Thanks for the tire recommendation.

Lots of great information from a very knowledgable group of enthusiacs.. Let me add a couple additional thoughts.. First get some 17 inch OE porsche wheels for dedicated winter rubber.. New snow tires have the mountain and snowflake icon on the sidewall for easier classification. Vredstein, Nokian, and Michelin make excellent winter tires.. Do ever think of four season tires, as they are generally crap in all four seasons. Contact patch and weight of the car on a smaller footprint will yield better results driving on snow.. Therefore think narrower than wider which is the reverse thinking of summer tires.. Drivers who master winter driving are generally much better all around drivers, understanding car control, better than our southern friends. Good luck.. PS. You should be able to pick up some OEM 17 inch wheels pretty cheap here on Rennlist

Get winter tires and you will be fine. Physics are on your side, RR layout ensures that you will have ample traction. Tip equipped cars start in 2nd by default, so they are nearly perfect winter machines. DSC00445_zpsfe5c37be.jpg