VETDRMS
15+ Year Contributor
- 340
- 21
- Jun 1, 2006
-
Vancouver,
Washington
I recently moved back to Montana, so I expected snow/ice to be part of life again, unfortunately. I initially planned to drive the old suburban when conditions were poor, but the Evo seemed built for this and I'd rather enjoy it year-round rather than shutter it up over the winter.
Thankfully, the road conditions around here improve quickly after storms and we have plenty of sun and dry days during winter so I wanted a separate set of winter rims to make swapping sets easy (and to protect the BBS wheels from winter driving risks). I picked up a good set of Evo VIII rims that are plastidipped black, which will help protect the factory finish.
I spent some time researching snow tires and settled on the new Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2. Dry pavement performance was supposed to be vastly improved from the original R and the tests I could find looked good.
Notable alternatives are the Blizzaks and Micheline X-Ice 3. The new X-Ice has great reviews and looks like a solid alternative, but I wanted to try the Nokian tire. They are a bit more expensive and a little harder to find. Pricing is uniform among suppliers and they were $260 per tire installed for a 235/45/17 size.
From what I could find the Blizzaks tend to decrease in performance fairly quickly as they wear down where the Nokians last a long time and maintain performance down to their rated wear limit. Bridgestone also offers two different models, I believe LM60/70 where one has better dry pavement manners than the others but sacrifices some ice/snow performance.
The R2s are an "eco" tire with very low rolling resistance and I noticed a slight increase in mileage compared to the BBS/SS595 combo currently on the Evo (about 1mpg). The road noise on dry pavement was much lower with the R2s and ride quality was improved.
First off, the tread pattern is very aggressive and, in my opinion, looks pretty cool on the car (has that rally-car look).
Obviously, dry performance is reduced and the steering is less precise, but there is not a floaty or roll-over feeling with this tire in dry conditions. It performs admirably. Moderate speed quick turn in will induce noticeable understeer, but if you look at the number and size of tread blocks this is an obvious sacrifice to maintain snow/ice traction. Overall I would rate dry performance very good and close to normal all-season feel.
I have been waiting for some winter weather to do some real testing and the artic obliged with a fresh storm over the last day and bitter cold temperatures! The change in conditions was conducive to very poor road conditions with warm weather turning to very cold artic front so the ground is warm when the first snow falls, which melts, then freezes, then is covered with more snow. It seemed like the perfect condition to do some testing.
First impression on fresh snow-packed roads was very positive. The car feels very stable with no float or steering induced slide/delay, even when riding ruts or cutting fresh snow lines in 3-4" powder at 45-50mph.
What really impressed me was the amount of braking traction. On a hard packed/glazed surface I had to literally mash the pedal to activate the ABS. Grip is very similar to normal pavement braking grip. Very impressed with braking performance.
Similarly, acceleration performance is very good, but traction can be overcome with power, but normal driving with moderate/high acceleration is possible without slipping.
Turn in is very responsive on hard packed and glazed snow at speed. I was very impressed with how well they handle surface changes from ice to hard pack to dry. The road just feels uniform and stable.
On hard corners at moderate speed (25-30mph) there is some understeer, but can be controlled with power application (ACD in Winter mode). Oversteer is possible but is predictable and only occurs with snap power application. There is no float oversteer in normal/moderate driving.
Verdict? Fantastic! I am really impressed with the performance of these tires in the current conditions and will obviously be testing them more over the winter. My primary concern is the risk of over-confidence leading to unnecessary risk taking in adverse conditions, but this occurs in other areas of life too!
If you are in the market for an aggressive snow/ice tire I would recommend these. Anyone else have recommendations/experiences to share?
At some point, I will throw them on the Talon and probably end up testing their barrow-pit escape ability!
Thankfully, the road conditions around here improve quickly after storms and we have plenty of sun and dry days during winter so I wanted a separate set of winter rims to make swapping sets easy (and to protect the BBS wheels from winter driving risks). I picked up a good set of Evo VIII rims that are plastidipped black, which will help protect the factory finish.
I spent some time researching snow tires and settled on the new Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2. Dry pavement performance was supposed to be vastly improved from the original R and the tests I could find looked good.
Notable alternatives are the Blizzaks and Micheline X-Ice 3. The new X-Ice has great reviews and looks like a solid alternative, but I wanted to try the Nokian tire. They are a bit more expensive and a little harder to find. Pricing is uniform among suppliers and they were $260 per tire installed for a 235/45/17 size.
From what I could find the Blizzaks tend to decrease in performance fairly quickly as they wear down where the Nokians last a long time and maintain performance down to their rated wear limit. Bridgestone also offers two different models, I believe LM60/70 where one has better dry pavement manners than the others but sacrifices some ice/snow performance.
The R2s are an "eco" tire with very low rolling resistance and I noticed a slight increase in mileage compared to the BBS/SS595 combo currently on the Evo (about 1mpg). The road noise on dry pavement was much lower with the R2s and ride quality was improved.
First off, the tread pattern is very aggressive and, in my opinion, looks pretty cool on the car (has that rally-car look).
Obviously, dry performance is reduced and the steering is less precise, but there is not a floaty or roll-over feeling with this tire in dry conditions. It performs admirably. Moderate speed quick turn in will induce noticeable understeer, but if you look at the number and size of tread blocks this is an obvious sacrifice to maintain snow/ice traction. Overall I would rate dry performance very good and close to normal all-season feel.
I have been waiting for some winter weather to do some real testing and the artic obliged with a fresh storm over the last day and bitter cold temperatures! The change in conditions was conducive to very poor road conditions with warm weather turning to very cold artic front so the ground is warm when the first snow falls, which melts, then freezes, then is covered with more snow. It seemed like the perfect condition to do some testing.
First impression on fresh snow-packed roads was very positive. The car feels very stable with no float or steering induced slide/delay, even when riding ruts or cutting fresh snow lines in 3-4" powder at 45-50mph.
What really impressed me was the amount of braking traction. On a hard packed/glazed surface I had to literally mash the pedal to activate the ABS. Grip is very similar to normal pavement braking grip. Very impressed with braking performance.
Similarly, acceleration performance is very good, but traction can be overcome with power, but normal driving with moderate/high acceleration is possible without slipping.
Turn in is very responsive on hard packed and glazed snow at speed. I was very impressed with how well they handle surface changes from ice to hard pack to dry. The road just feels uniform and stable.
On hard corners at moderate speed (25-30mph) there is some understeer, but can be controlled with power application (ACD in Winter mode). Oversteer is possible but is predictable and only occurs with snap power application. There is no float oversteer in normal/moderate driving.
Verdict? Fantastic! I am really impressed with the performance of these tires in the current conditions and will obviously be testing them more over the winter. My primary concern is the risk of over-confidence leading to unnecessary risk taking in adverse conditions, but this occurs in other areas of life too!
If you are in the market for an aggressive snow/ice tire I would recommend these. Anyone else have recommendations/experiences to share?
At some point, I will throw them on the Talon and probably end up testing their barrow-pit escape ability!
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