Studded snow tires for WRX

[mark strabel]

What would a good Studded snow tire be for a 02 WRX?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Tony Hwang]

Hi,
Where do you live? Stud is illegal here in Alberta.
Tony

 

[Jim]

What would a good Studded snow tire be for a 02 WRX?

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

 

[mark strabel]

I live up here in Alaska
They are still legal up here

 

[S]

Hi Mark!

What would a good Studded snow tire be for a 02 WRX?

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

 

[Paul Pedersen]

Jim a écrit :

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

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.

 

[Paul Pedersen]

Jim a écrit :

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

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 ]

 

[Andy Mason]

You could also look into Vredestein or Gislaved.

http://www.vredestein.com/english/index.html
http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/com/en/gislaved/automobile/themes/
pc_tyres/winter/winter_highlight_en.html

Andy.

 

[Nicolas Dore]

What would a good Studded snow tire be for a 02 WRX?

Thanks,
Mark

Hello Mark

FYI, the Tire Rack compared non-studded to studded tires last year:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/winter_perftest_02.jsp

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

 

[blazing lazers]

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.

 

[J999w]

Actually pretty bad on ice after

10000 miles.

Were there any studs left after 10k miles?

jw

 

[blazing lazers]

They're studless winter tires.

Were there any studs left after 10k miles?

jw