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I tested the new tires just now. (`87 900 NA, stock) Unfortunately, most of the roads have been cleared during the day, but there was a
dusting of snow on all the roads.
I'll start by saying: these tires do not do as well in deep snow as the old snow tires (Gislaved NordFrost I) did when
they were new. They are, however, an improvement over the all season tires and the old, worn snow tires.
They handled very well in the light dusting of snow and also in the hard packed snow. Acceleration is good and
braking is very good. Even when the tires skid, there is still a decent amount of braking. Cornering is worse than a
snow tire's, probably because the tires have rounded corners as opposed to the sharp corners of snow tires that bite in
when the wheel is turned.
One test I did was at the Burlington Mall. The parking lot there was partly cleaned of snow. The lanes had been
plowed, but the spaces not. Some of the plowed lanes were in the windy part and icier than the other, slushy lanes. I
drove the car in a wide circle in 2nd or 3rd gear, noticing how the handling changed as I went from slush to deep snow
to icy slush to deep snow, and so on. Very notable was that the transition from one surface to another was smooth
and not too abrupt. This was also noticable when turning from a cleared road onto an unplowed road. The tires did
surprisingly well in the slush, which is usually a conquerer of all tires. After the transition to deep snow, the treads
seemed to fill up with snow, and did not do as well. The icy slush was inbetween these, in terms of friction with the
tires. Moving from the deep snow to the slush, the tires grabbed like they had hit dry pavement.
The rear end was definately hard to spin. I needed to apply almost twice as much throttle and footbrake over the all
seasons or old tires to get the tail to slide, even in the deep snow, the tires' weaker part.
In conclusion, the tires worked well in all conditions, and very well in milder/saltier conditions. On dry pavement they
sound and feel like summer tires. I'll let you know how they do in the "Crazy M_F_er Lane" the next time I come
down from snowboarding in Barrie. [a.k.a.: the unplowed left lane] Also, changing lanes over the snow tracks on the
highway.
AdamD
posted by 69.156.15...
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