Lesson learned on Winter Driving

[ihasnostang]

lol last year traffic came to a dead stop while on a steep part of 494, and i got stuck on glare ice in a fwd and only 1 wheel would spin in the center lane while cars were passing me on both sides. had to roll back a few feet to get traction

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[69mach1-395]

I've driven at or below freezing with summer tires, but only on dry days where the temp will rise as the day progresses. Just did it yesterday, no issues as long as I don't 'horse' around.

 

[Brodirt]

Summer only tires on my 2018 Ecoboost pp here in New York City's northern 'burbs.
We had a little mid-day 6" snow/sleet storm that caught everyone by surprise a couple of weeks ago; I knew about it and took the winter beater to work, left the Mustang on the street in front of my house.
My wife called at 5:30 cursing me out telling me she spent 20 minutes trying to get the car off the street and into the driveway.
My neighbors eventually pushed her in.

 

[Dwlow09]

general g-max as 05 is what I use. had a set on my 14 gt and 15 gt. when I need tires for my 18 i'll buy another set. great in snow and rain, and dry road.

 

[Hack]

lol last year traffic came to a dead stop while on a steep part of 494, and i got stuck on glare ice in a fwd and only 1 wheel would spin in the center lane while cars were passing me on both sides. had to roll back a few feet to get traction

Snow tires are not just for Mustangs! A few people at my work have purchased snow tires for their FWD commuters and they rave about them.

I remember one year driving on the Lafayette bridge when it was really icy and my Mustang was doing better than most of the other cars on the road. Non-car people hate spending money on good tires, but IMO they are the single most important performance component.

 

[17Magnetic5.0]

Honestly the summer tires are bad at anything below 60 I would say. I’m in Florida and we’ve had a couple 50 days and it’s not as bad as in snow but there’s definetly a huge loss in traction.

 

[Draklia]

Lol, who else has been behind their mustang pushing it while it’s spinning in gear? I had to do that with my old fox body when I was young and lived where my long driveway was on the shady side of a fence. Made my Adrenalin pump pretty good on cold mornings before work. Its my goal to never have to do that with my S550. Im rolling on BFG comp-2 summer tires this winter. So far my winter plan of only driving it when it’s dry out isn’t working, had to drive home in snow flurries twice so far, luckily timed it when nothing was sticking yet.

 

[NoVaGT]

Honestly the summer tires are bad at anything below 60 I would say. I’m in Florida and we’ve had a couple 50 days and it’s not as bad as in snow but there’s definetly a huge loss in traction.

FYI, the Pirelli OEM tires are truly crap. Look at the MP4Ss, or Firestone's Indy 500s. I've got the 500s now, and they work pretty darn good when it gets colder. And there's no popping/banging when the tires first roll on a cold morning.

 

[geep81]

Did you all know that driving your summer tires in the cold at all can crack the rubber / ruin the integrity of your tires, without you even knowing (until they blow apart)?

Summer tire rubber is not made to the same strengths as A/S rubber. It can fail at much higher cold temps than you would expect!

 

[Draklia]

Did you all know that driving your summer tires in the cold at all can crack the rubber / ruin the integrity of your tires, without you even knowing (until they blow apart)?

Summer tire rubber is not made to the same strengths as A/S rubber. It can fail at much higher cold temps than you would expect!

I like to think this is one of those cases where the internet is a way scarier place than real life.

 

[frank s]

I spent one of Little Rock, Arkansas' rare snow episodes driving an MGTD. The unusually difficult driving conditions were enough to stop cars from going over the bridge between Little Rock and the bedroom communities of North Little Rock, Conway, and others. Civic groups of both sides of the river made parking available, and the railroad ran commuter shuttles all day long.

I had very little trouble getting around in my MG. Could have been the tires—Kelly Springfield— or just better control potential in the little car, but as I drove back and forth from town to Air Force Base over some pretty significant hills, at the bottom of each hill I'd encounter clumps of cars and pickups in disarray, some with people standing around, shaking their fists as I buzzed up the hill.

 

[BmacIL]

Did you all know that driving your summer tires in the cold at all can crack the rubber / ruin the integrity of your tires, without you even knowing (until they blow apart)?

Summer tire rubber is not made to the same strengths as A/S rubber. It can fail at much higher cold temps than you would expect!

Stengths isn't really accurate. They have different material properties because of the different material compounds. They are much more durable at high temperatures on the track, for instance.

The cracking is a bit overblown, despite being a real potential problem. With extreme performance summer tires, whose temperature ranges are even higher, that is something to seriously consider. For most performance summers, no.

 

[thehunterooo]

Holy wall of text batman... are there cliff notes?

Don't live where it snows.

 

[17Magnetic5.0]

FYI, the Pirelli OEM tires are truly crap. Look at the MP4Ss, or Firestone's Indy 500s. I've got the 500s now, and they work pretty darn good when it gets colder. And there's no popping/banging when the tires first roll on a cold morning.

Hmm never gotten the popping yet. But yup I do have the pirellis summer tires. Which actually handle great in the summer no spin at all just the normal wheel hop. But yeah definetly going to the MP4S or something of the sort when I gotta change.

On that note though, for the people with Michelin performance tires how are they in terms of durability, i went completely away from Michelin on two vehicles because they started sort of getting small cracking around the tread and sidewalls until eventually the whole sidewall was covered in small cracks. I also saw it a lot in other passenger cars and trucks so not sure how big of an issue it still is.

 

[Zelek]

I've driven my Mustang plenty when it was less than 40 degrees. Does just fine.... Loves the cold air. The Indy 500's do quite well in many conditions.

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