2012 WW Evolution X MR
current mods: tint, 3m clear bra


I just bought, in the past few days:

-Yakima Whispbar
-Yakima K170 Whispbar Fitting Kit
-Yakima Fat Cat 6 Ski Rack with Locks
-Yakima 44" Roof Rack Fairing
From Amazon, shipped, came to $675.81

-18x9 Motegi Racing MR116 (set of 4)
-245/40R-18 Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II (set of 4) (-$50 rebate)
Mounted, balanced, and shipped to my office from tirerack.com for $1,632.90 (rebate factored in). Took them home in my honda civic beater and they are sitting my garage now

Now I just have to put it all together (considering buy a floor jack and stands as well, just to have). I live in San Francisco and plan on using this car to commute to Lake Tahoe for snowboarding as many weekends as I can this season. I went last year with my friend in his WRX on all seasons and it got a little hairy during some heavy snow drops, so i figured id get at least a set of wheels and performance winter tires for extra safety. No way I'm going up on the stock advans. Expensive, but cheaper than wrecking the car.

One question, would I be better off switching back to the advans every time I come back from a trip? I do light driving during the week but don't want to mess up the snow tires since i'm in a much warmer climate. If anyone else runs a set up like this, comments and criticisms are appreciated.

I can also post more pics if people are interested in seeing the full setup when it's complete.

 

I am intrested in seeing the roof rack installed I have the Thule off of my VW that fits my Evo I am considering installing.

 

add 1 voltex lip and become a snowplow! with the right snow tires, our cars are amazing in the snow

 

Snow tires will wear out pretty quick if you don't drive them in snow and the temps are too high.

I seem to recall someone posted that they don't consider putting those on until the temps drop and stay under 40F.

Also as counter intuitive as it may sound you want to minimize the amount of snow getting stuck in front of the Intercooler. That's not good for airflow.

 

Looks like your intercooler is getting a lot of air! Can't wait to drive my X in the snow this year (if we even get any).

 

That's my problem...no matter what I'm going to have to drive a couple hundred miles to even get to the snow. But once I get there, I will absolutely need them. Supposedly the "high performance" winter tires are better at this sort of thing. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

 

How about something like this?

http://www.flextrax.com/

or this

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/low-...FSWoPAodqSQAfA

 

I thought about just getting something like that, I really did, but I didn't want to deal with having to get out in the cold and put those on (horrible, I know). I want to have the option to stay up in the snow for a few days and summer tires are bad even just driving around town. I also really don't want to put ugly crap on my car....I love it too much for that (also horrible).
But really just comes down to the fact that I have the money and wanted to do this.

 

Car looks great, I like the new rims & tires! It's funny, bc I was just thinking how my 08 GG MR would look with a snowboard rack for the winter trips to the Poconos & Killington. Definitely post pics.

 

I just got a set of Conti DWS ultra high performance all season and I just use them all year along and happy with them so far.

 

I'm itchin' for snow. LOL

 

Is all season good in the snow? I hear its only good when there is light snow, plus the sticker on our cars says to use winter lol

 

Wonder if any one uses this. Im kinda interested in this for my DD

 

with this weird weather im sure we would get some sooner then later

 

Apparently there is a trend right of tire manufacturers to make ultra high preformance all season tires. Yokohama has an Advan model like this that's supposed to work in LIGHT SNOW which is leaps and bounds ahead of the stock rubber in terms of winter traction but doesn't lose out terribly on the dry. I think it's called Advan S.4. They also have a new one called AVID ENVigor which has that orange oil extract compound mixed in.

I always look at Tirerack and check out the charts for traction, handling, and durability before I commit to buy anything.

EDIT: ran a quick check on TR and apparently the Bridgestone RE970AS Pole Position gets excellent reviews in the dry with decent snow, while the Continentals DWS that were mentioned early get really good snow reviews. Options options options.