Winter STI Drivers - Snow tires

I want a set of bomb-a$$ winter tires for the STI. I've heard Blizzaks come up before and I've also heard Nokians come up before. What is everyone's experience for those who don't store them during the fun season

 

Dunlop Wintersport M3

 

hakkas

 

DO NOT buy Blizzak LM22 (their "performance" snow tire)! I repeat, do not! I would, without a doubt, recommend the Hakkas. From experience, the Hakkas are light years ahead in the snow and only very slightly behind on dry/wet pavement.

My $49.95.....

 

ive been doin some research on snow tires and these are prolly what i am gonna get unless i find a good deal on a used set of somthin else. ive heard only good things about nokians but they are a little pricey.

 

Hakka Q's, trust me, I own one and drove them last in winter. They are expensive but worth it. I going to snow drift with those tire this winter season against to the "gHeY_81"!!!

 

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=449392 (nasioc winter tire review thread)

thats prolly gonna be your best opinions, and what i gathered from that was either dunlop wintersport m3's or nokian hakkas or whatever they are.

 

Sport Compact Car reviewed a few winter tires. They said that the Kumho Ecsta SPT was "an out-of-the-ballpark hit." I dont know much about winter tires but I am just relaying information that I have read.

 

i dont know... i really like my blizzaks...they must not be the lm22's...i cant remember what they are.

 

+4

 

but iirc the m3's require funflat monitoring...
maybe i'm wrong.. i think i have the m2's

yeah, nevermind, they have the m3 and the m3 runflat now... no m2's

 

i made a purchase on these dunlop graspics, and they work wonders for me. i haven't driven anyone else's car with their preference of snow tires, but mine worked for me. i was able to soar 70 mph in a blizzard, past SUVs and everything! hell, i believed i started taht huge 94 pile up a few years back. i was just ahead of the pack, dodging traffic... then no one else was behind me... weird!

 

omg u **** head my dad died in that pileup

 

No place to park a second car unfortunately(townhouses suck sometimes) plus the insurance is obviously a step up already from the RS so I don't know about insuring two cars. I'm going to check with a couple friends to see what they can do for prices on the Dunlops and on the Nokians.

 

no, i didn't start the pile up, i was just saying so... i just happened to be a few cars a head of everyone when the pile up occured, saying i was lucky because i had those wheels. i could've been in the pile up.

 

pete..u got an sti?

 

I bought Jeff's black 04 that was for sale on the board. Cobb cbe and ap on it and an invidia dp on the way...LVT bought the RS. I've had the new one now for a little over a month and I love it so far.

 

Nokian guys - http://www.nokiantires.com/newsite/tires_popup.cfm?id=1&size=225/45R17

Are studded tires street legal? Here are the hakkas people were saying to check out. Furthermore do I want studded tires for everyday commuting?

 

no and no. I think the Q's people are talking about are a different model (non-studded)

 

What he said ^^

As a FYI, the Hakkas are designed for studs, but the vast majority of people in the US still use them without. I used to run the Hakka 1 on the RS without studs and they were still the best winter tire I have ever driven on (I haven't driven a car shod with the Hakka 2, however, but I hear they are even better).

Also, there is more than one model, depending on what you want to use them for... (deep snow, ice, street, etc...)

 

I ran the Blizzak LM-25s last winter on my STi and have no complaints. I did some ice races and pleanty of salt covered highway miles with the lack of snow we had in the cities last year. It's amazing what this car will go thru when there is snow though! I have heard that the 22s are not so great, and the Nokians I have not heard anything bad.

 

I've done alot of research on this myself and I agree with tbone. The Nokian tires are the best. Also right up thee are "green diamond" tires

for instance:

http://greendiamondtire.com/
http://www.audifans.com/archives/1997/10/msg02715.html

They are expensive, but you won't go wrong with Nokians

 

I have had a few sets of nokians and would never buy anything else,I run studded, but the non studded are just as good

 

Rich, how or maybe I should say where are you running with studs? Aren't they illegal here in MN? Not that my exhaust isn't, but... Or are you rallying and AutoX with them?

 

I have been looking at the Nokian RSI's. Who carries them here in town and where can I get a price quote?

 

I'm not sure who has them right in the cities, but check out

http://www.nokiantires.com/newsite/dealer_output.cfm

This should help if you haven't already checked it.

 

I run them everywhere, their illegal but the tires are the last thing the cops look at when they pull me over

 

That's awesome. Do you notice if they chew up your driveway or anthing like studs on snowmobiles?

 

I have a brick driveway and they never chewed it up

 

Do you do any ice racing in the winter? The autocross style, not the type where everyone uses their beater cars and end up banging into eachother sometimes. I'm not sure if there are any around here, but I did one last year on lake Winnebago that the Fox Valley Sports Car Club puts on in their series.

 

I go to one in my area on Big sturgeon in January,, I have a track plowed in front of my house that I play on most of the winter

 

That's so cool. Anyone else here know of ice racing series' around the metro area? Maybe I should start a new post asking about this, or I'll wait till the snow starts flying and then do it.

 

I've been to the same race on Big Sturgeon for the past few years...fun stuff, but I wish I could find something around here as well. I remember seeing your blue STI a few years ago...hope to see it out there again this year.

 

It will be there, couldnt go last year, my car was in da shop

 

Don't they do some Ice Racing up on Forest lake in January? I remember a few years back they had some kind of Ice Dragsters going on up there, very cool.

 

well, not to be the nerd or anything, but here ya go.
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/stats/169/72.html

the low diggity on studdeds.

 

Interesting...I didn't know chains were legal.

 

Its all legal till you get caught

 

haven't read all replies yet, but i swear by Nokians for winter tires. I'm actually curious about their summer tires too, but I wouldn't buy anything else for winter personally.
I'll have my Hakka 2's on again this winter. You're welcome to test 'em out if you want to wait for snow (but you probably don't.)
Last Fall I got the Nokians on sale with free mounting from http://www.andersonmotorsport.com/ - they ran a special, maybe check with them. http://www.andrewsofprinceton.com/home/index.cfm is another Nokian retailer. Good luck!

[edit]
Most retailers you order from in the US will assume you want them studless unless you specify otherwise - that's how they order them as far as I know (i.e. if you want some studded Nokians for Ice Racing or RallyCrossing you'd need to special order them... the rally guys can probably give you more info on that though.)

 

Full Contact Ice Racing: http://www.angelfire.com/mn/icerace/

 

^^^ Thanks for the link. I actulally was at the one on Lake Garvis last year but just to watch. My brother was covering it for the magazine he was working for. It was pretty cool. Also, was the first time I had my STi out on the ice. Kinda scary but fun.

 

I just put on my winter tires - Blizzaks ... they handle like sh*t. I guess I have to get used to them.

 

Isn't it kinda early for your winter tires? Granted I've been out of the country for the past 2 weeks, so I don't know what the weather has been like, but...

Which Blizzaks did you get?