Winter wheels and tires - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hey all! I live in Colorado and out here we get plenty of snow. In fact, today I slapped my winter set onto my daily because we are in the process of getting almost a foot of snow over the course of this weekend. When I bought my Boxster I wanted to be able to drive it year round. In my mind a lighter, lower car is going to be much easier to maneuver in a low traction environment than a larger, heavier one. I'm a firm believer that winter tires make the difference between safe winter driving and sketchy winter driving so I'm trying to find a good solution to fit my baby with some Blizzaks as soon as possible. The issue I'm encountering is that the rear wheels are very wide, and finding winter tires to fit is proving to be a challenge. Besides that my understanding is that you want a skinnier tire in winter so it can cut through snow instead of riding on top of it. My thoughts are to try to find four OEM front wheels to create my winter set, and maybe throw on spacers on the back to fix the fitment if it starts to bother me. The issue I'm coming across there is I'm struggling to find many people selling just the fronts and I'd rather not have a completely mismatched set if I can help it. Any thoughts on other routes I could take or other options I should explore? Leaving the Boxster in the garage all winter is not an option. I bought it to drive it and you best believe that given the opportunity I'll be putting my skis on the roof rack and driving it to the slopes this winter.

I bought a second set of 18” carrera wheels for my Boxster S -04 and mounted Michelin Alpin PA4 on them to be able to lawfully use the car in winter conditions and lower temperatures during autumn and spring. I have been driving the Boxster in harsh conditions and it performs great with the right setup if you are aware of the cars limitations. It performs more or less as any other car. The modern performance winter tires are much better than they use to be in real winter conditions. But they will never be the same as a narrow nordic winter tire with high sidewall. But that’s not the kind of tire you would want to use on a performance car anyway. On the Boxster S it’s possible to use 17” wheels. Slightly narrower tires and higher sidewalls. It should be possible to buy a secondhand set. But I don’t think that will make a big difference. I would buy a size of wheels that are easy to obtain tires for in the future.

I use 265/35/18 Blizzaks on the rear of my winter beater (my Cayman). They've done me well for so many yrs most repair shops won't work on them if I have a nail. Of course the snow has to be < 4" or my car becomes a snow plow.

17's definitely fit a 986 S Also 17" tires are less $ then 18's

Why only Porsche wheels? VW/Audi wheels fit just fine. Make sure correct offset and width are there and you are good to go. Steel wheels would look crazy on it

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I didn't know VW/Audi wheels were the correct stud pattern. 5x130 has been hard to track down near me.

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I was wrong... Porsche is indeed 130 while most VW/Audi are 112. Only q7 and Touareg are 130. I thought Q5 and Macan would share wheels, but apparently Porsche Tax must be applied even to bolt pattern. https://www.wheel-size.com/pcd/5x130/

Check your owners manual.... For 17 inch wheels, a narrower rear tire is specified for winter tires ... 225/45-17 Use same Porsche wheels in Boxster sizes summer and winter. You'll note that 18 inch wheels are not listed under snow tires and there would be no size change for 16s. I have the narrower tires by Vredestein--Wintrac-- to mount on mine soon. Although not N-marked, these were on Porsche's list of approved tires. They are normally priced. A really reasonable ebay seller for wheels: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_blrs=recall_filtering&_ssn=evifenocvt&store_cat=0&store_name=evifenocvt&_oac=1&_nkw=wheels%20rims