In a word: WOW!

The dry handling is well off what the Yokos could do ... in warm weather.

But in the snow ... What snow?

At one point I had to follow a plow that was running down the middle of the road. Over by the curb, where the plow dumped snow, the EVO/WRs just cruised right along like it was dry. Four to six inches in the parking lots, and the car is nailed right to the road.

Must have gotten the pressures right, too, (32/30), as it handbrake oversteers nicely with just a tug. Whenever it gets a bit sideways, a little push on the loud pedal, and it straightens right out.

The only down side is that, on the road, it only takes about two minutes to overtake some schlebb running a Honda with summer tires or a Caravan that has no business being out in cloudy weather, much less snow.

Too bad the SCCA/WRC teams have to stick to the sponsor's tires. If they could run Nokians in the snow rallies: "I pity the foo'" that goes up against this combo.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

 

I was thinking about getting a set of Nokians, how much did you pay and did you mount them on the stock rims?

 

For deep snow, I wanted a smidge narrower: I went with 225/45VR17s on ASA KA3 17x7.5 rims. That was one thing about the Nokians: The extended load 225s have a 94V load rating (versus 93W on the stock Advans), so I'm not giving up any load handling with narrower tires.

I went with the local Direct Tire, as I needed someone that could get me the rims, too (TR was out, and doesn't carry Nokians), so I didn't get rock bottom price. But Nokians aren't cheap -- I wound up paying about $218 a corner for them. (Dang trade sanctions -- I was hoping Jr would get rid of them. Now I know what the Euros are complaining about when I watch the BBC news.)

225s aren't so narrow that you couldn't put them on the stock 17x8 Enkeis. But with both the stockers and the KA3s, you don't get much protecting the rims in case of curbs. The 17x7s recently listed on this forum might be better. But if you're going for upgrade rims for summer, you could use the stock rims for the Nokians.