Studded snow tires for WRX

"mark strabel" wrote in news:vof5srp9v92d38 @corp.supernews.com:

Nokian Hakkapeliitta 1. Probably the best you can get. Pricey, but good.

-- Jim 97 Legacy Outback 02 Impreza WRX, Stage 2

Hi Mark!

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 21:39:44 -0800, "mark strabel" wrote:

Someone already mentioned the Hakkis; they're very good. Not sure on availability of sizing to fit the WRX, and they will be pretty loud on pavement. Another choice would be the Kumho I-Zen tires; we ran a set (studded) last winter on m'ladys Forester and they are really good on ice and hardpack, and fairly quiet on pavement, but not as good as the Hakkis on fresh or loosely packed snow, or mud. Again, sizing to fit the rex might be an issue, but they are considerably less expensive than the Nokian tire. IMO, an excellent winter tire for the WRX is the Michelin Arctic Alpin. While they are not studdable, when coupled to the awesome Subaru AWD they work extremely well (significantly better then the much more expensive Alpin Pilot), and are modestly priced. I abused a set last year on my WRX; they went thru two off season autocross events where I didn't want to put additional wear on my race rubber (read: too damned lazy to change 'em), and several ice rallycross events, actually bringing home a 1st place finish at the last event! (Altho I remain convinced of a timing error ;-) I will mount them up for another go-round in a month or so. One thing I can guarantee will help the WRX performance on slick surfaces is to disable the ABS. If you don't believe it, after your first klunk-slide/klunk-klunk-slide braking episode on ice, pull the ABS fuse and try again. You could probably just pull the fuse for the duration in Alaska; seems like I remember never seeing pavement at all the winter I spent in Fairbanks. A panel mounted switch is easily installed, however.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Jim a écrit :

You might also want to look at the Hakkapeliita 2.

It's a cross between their ice tire (Hakkapeliitta Q) and their snow tire (Hakkapeliitta 1), with factory studs.

Unfortunately no option on the studs.

Jim a écrit :

You might also want to look at the Hakkapeliita 2.

It's a cross between their ice tire (Hakkapeliitta Q) and their snow tire (Hakkapeliitta 1), with factory studs.

Unfortunately no option on the studs.

[ sorry if this appears twice to some people, I just discovered that my news server won't send my message out if the sender's address field is blank ]

You could also look into Vredestein or Gislaved.

Andy.

Hello Mark

FYI, the Tire Rack compared non-studded to studded tires last year:

That test was for SUV/truck tires, and they used the Wintermaster Plus as the studded tire, not Nokian. They didn't run a studded/non-studded comparison of the same tire, which would have been very interesting.

FWIW, I almost bought studded tires for my previous, RWD, car, but the noise would have killed me...

Nicolas

13000 miles with Artic Alpins. Excellent snow and slush grip, but not so great with ice in my opinion. Actually pretty bad on ice after 10000 miles. For me anyways. Haks were my first choice, but they were 70% more expensive.

Were there any studs left after 10k miles?

jw