I have a G35S 2008 with 18" set

I live "up north" and need a winter set. I was thinking to go with 18's performance winter between Dunlop M3 Winter Sport, Yokohama w.drive or Hankook Ice Bear which are all pretty close in price. I was thinking to stay away from WS60 and X Ice as they do not have the speed and handling requirements.

Please let me know your thoughts - Thanks Rob

 

I have owned both and the force is strong in you Luke! Your instincts are correct. The WS60's will give you the ultimate in grip on frozen water of all kinds but the price you pay is dry handling akin to driving on gummy bears. They are very soft and when the tread is new and deep, they are very squirmy in turns and stops. You will notice it.

The Dunlops are much better all around tires but you will lose some grip in ice and snow.

Neither one is all that noisy.

I personally go with Blizzaks for ultimate grip on my daily driver and wait for good weather to play on "real tires".

 

^+1 Blizzaks would be your best bet.

Also if you go with 17 would be a better choice.

tg

 

check out our winters discussion in the Canadian section

 

Ditto on both counts. If you live in Toronto, you will need all the grip you can get (even though the city does a good job plowing).

 

I have a set of 17" Blizzaks (WS-50's) on dedicated wheels.
The car is a tank on those tires.

 

i have the Hankook W300 Icebears, awesome tire, noise is low on HWY, amazing grip, as Virus put it, with the correct tires, this car is a tank in the snow.

245/45 on all 4 of the sport rims.

I will buy the same time again when these wear out.

 

If price is a factor, I saw a site someone posted where BFG KDWS tires were $77/each. (235/50/18's I think)

 

I recently bought a set of Blizzak's on 17's rims from Tirerack.com for just over $1,000...(however, after the rebate, I think it ended up under $1k). As this is my first set of snows I can't give you first hand experience on how they drive yet (as it hasn't snowed in Chicago yet, but give it a few hours...you never know).

Good to hear that it will drive 'like a tank' in the snow. I had an 05 Coupe on stock 19's and almost got stuck in a drive thru in less than 1" of snow, but that was the least harrowing of my experiences in that car in bad weather. Could barely get in my garage a few times for what it's worth.

 

I did the same thing. Blizzaks on 5-spoke aluminum wheels from tirerack.
You'll be very happy with your car's ability to handle the white stuff. Just be careful avoiding all the idiots out there on bald all-seasons!

 

the car is like a tank, but it still is a RWD car, and u WILL use VDC to save you some times.

 

Eh... I'm in an X.
It's safe to say that the X is going to have better ability to get going than the RWD models, even with snows. By this, I mean that if you are sitting at a red light on a hill and in a foot of snow, the RWD may still suffer a bit to get going while the X just bites in and goes.
Once you're moving, capabilities will be similar.

 

no donuts for u Mr. Virus

 

actually i bet u can get an X to whip around nicely if there is enough snow and you know what you are doing

 

Ok maybe this is a stupid question but if I have stock rims on my S (because I tear them up so aftermarket would be a waste of money) if there ANY other tires I can put on my car for longer life/ better traction in bad weather.